Inside the Tiny German Village Home to the World’s Finest Toymakers

The process starts in the forest.

It's not just a job that you do.

It's something else.

Markus, it looks like there's

a lot of work going on here.

– So this is the woodturning room.

And we are still in

the original rooms,

in the birthplace

of the Ore Mountain nutcracker.

The feeling of making something from wood

is simply ...

You can't explain it.

Those who do it themselves know best.

The smells obviously,

fresh wood or varnish.

The mix of wood and varnish

just smells delicious.

And that's what the people say

when they walk through the door.

They say: “It smells so good in here!”

Hi. Glück auf!

I grew up in this village, Seiffen,

in a family of toymakers.

My father was a well-known toymaker

and at a certain point I caught the bug

and never stopped.

I am the ringturner of Seiffen.

The process of ringturning

begins in the forest.

The wood is then stored in the basement,

then I get it and

put it on the workbench.

I'm a blessed man because

my son works with me.

I stand next to the lathe as a master craftsman,

just like when I was a young man

with the old masters,

and watch how the youngsters do it.

The technical realization of producing

a wooden ring requires

a high degree of imagination.

I like to say that the ringturner

has to see the positive through the negative.

There are only a handful of people

who still turn these wooden rings.

And we now run the

last factory in the world.

Wood is probably

the most beautiful material

or resource there is.

To be able to shape something

with your hands.

And then, to feel that you can

inspire people with what you do

and that they enjoy the figure,

that has taken you so much time to create,

that is such a great feeling.

It’s a bit like time stood still here.

And all you ever hear

from the outside world is

that people are so overwhelmed,

that time is just running so fast

and people are always hectic

and stressed out.

And that's just different here.

Here I go to my workshop

and I'm with my family.

And it's not just a job that you do.

It's something different.

My great-great-great-grandfather, Wilhelm,

must have somehow come up with the idea

of making nutcrackers.

A lot of people ask me

how he came up with the idea.

They were full-time carpenters

who worked on building sites in summer

and were unemployed in winter

and had to earn some extra money.

And so leftover wood from the building site

was not simply burned,

but also used to earn something on the side.

And that must have given him

the idea of the nutcracker

and at the same time it was

his way of mocking the authorities.

The idea was to symbolically

give the authorities a nut to crack.

And the nutcrackers

always depict authorities

such as soldiers, policemen and kings.

That's the reason why

they're shown as these strict officials.

A typical red king, for example,

has 130 work steps

and we make up to 800 of them per year,

which are shipped to

20 countries around the world.

So this village Seiffen

invented this wonderful and incredibly clever

technique based on woodturning.

And then around 1920 this craft

had its golden age.

There were around 28 ringturners.

In the meantime, however,

it has declined more and more

because the skill of turning these wooden rings

is not insignificant.

But of course it's incredibly cool

to practice it, to be creative,

to be able to do it.

And surprisingly, this craft has not spread.

It originated here in Seiffen

and has since remained in this village.

It doesn't exist in any other place

in the Ore Mountains or the world.