One of the best toy museums in the world in one of the best Christmas cities in the world – here’s our guide to visiting Nuremberg Toy Museum
As well as being one of the best Christmas cities in Europe, Nuremberg is also the nearest thing to the toy capital of Europe too. This is why visiting Nuremberg Toy Museum is such an essential part of a trip there, delving into over 600 years of toymaking history and discovering how magical these toys made countless childhoods.
Toys have been made in Nuremberg since the 14th century, possibly even earlier, when clay dolls were produced there. Centuries later it was a centre for the production of tin toys, and nowadays it hosts the largest international toy fair in the world for a week every January.
Nuremberg’s Toy Museum shows toys from the city down the centuries, but goes into much more than this. It tells the history of toys, and looks at what different toys mean to different people, and how toys reflect the societies which made them. Part of the exhibition also looks at how they reflect the worst in us, including racial prejudices.
As well as showing you the highlights of the Museum’s collection, I’ll alsoadvise you the practicalities of getting to the Museum, opening hours, ticket prices. And I’ll suggest other things to do in Nuremberg, and places to stay there. I hope you’ll find the information helpful.
How To Visit Nuremberg Toy Museum – The Entrance Foyer
Close to the ticket desks at the Museum, there is a small display of toys for kids to play with, including various animals, cars and planes. My son headed straight for it, and I accompanied him, noticing a small message in German and English.
The English inscription reads, ”Toys are a feeling. Toys are love and memory. Toys are confidants, friends who lend comfort, protectors, members of the family. Grown-ups love toys too, for the memories they preserve. We go to the Toy Museum seeking the remembrance of feelings past.”
I wasn’t hugely into toys as a child. I still have my teddy bear from when I was born. I once saved up for 11 weeks for a James Bond car I hardly ever played with. I also had three Star Wars figures and a Space 1999 spaceship. I was always for more interested in books and then music. But I loved the few toys I had. And of course I still have my old bear.
My wife and son both noticed a few tears rolling down my cheeks. They’re about to start flowing again as I write this. Childhood is incredibly precious, and the toys we were about to see brought happiness to countless children over hundreds of years.
Visiting Nuremberg Toy Museum – What To See
Dolls – 14th to 20th centuries
There are records of toymakers working in Nuremberg as far back as the year 1400, but there is one older toy exhibit in the Nuremberg Toy Museum – the clay Kruseler Doll (pictured), made in Nuremberg around 1350. The Kruseler was a medieval headdress popular in Germany in the 14th and 15th centuries, and could take many different forms.
We were very impressed with the dolls’ houses and rooms from the 19th century. Many of them are incredibly intricate, exquisitely made domestic scenes, many centred around the family table. One of the images above shows a family sitting around the table ready for a serving of tea. Others show young girls with baby dolls in cribs, and the dolls are minuscule, some smaller than an inch (2.5 cm) tall.
Iron and Tin Toys – From Cars To Trains To Airships And Beyond
As the world grew more and more mechanized, so did toys. With the advent of metal toys – most notably iron and tin – in the late 19th century, children were introduced to this at a very early age, no doubt starting many off on engineering careers in the following years. By the early 20th century over 100 toy manufacturing companies had factories in Nuremberg, including Bing (the largest in the world at the time), Issmayer, Fleischmann and Bub.
These toys included everything from early steam engines to the latest locomotives, trans-European express trains and their luxury first-class carriages. The motor car – in its many forms – is also well represented, as are some contemporary curiosities including airships, including the one pictured below produced by EP Lehmann in the 1930s.
Many of the trains were produced by the famous companies Märklin and E P Lehmann. In the 1950s, the latter (their toys were usually marked with the initials ‘EPL’) moved their main factory to Nuremberg.
These toys can be found on the second floor of the Museum.
Pop-up and Stereoscopic Toys
As toys became more advanced in the 19th century, so toymakers began to play with the idea of perspective, changing the way children saw and perceived things.
This included toys like the 3D cardboard (or some form of card) theatre pictured above, with rows of card dancers that you could bring into the scene and take back out again, constantly changing it and bringing it to life. The interactive aspect makes it far more interesting to children than a simple picture. Now they could make up and tell their own stories.
The stereoscope also became popular around the mid-19th century. In some ways this is the forerunner of the modern virtual reality headset. You would look through a lens with each eye, each focused on a picture – and the two would converge together into a single image. It’s fascinating to see how these toys developed over the centuries.
Meccano 1920s and 1930s
The Museum also has a great set of Meccano toys and magazines from the 1930s. Meccano was invented by Liverpudlian Frank Hornby in the early 1900s, and was marketed to boys. Especially those with some sort of mechanical aptitude (unlike me). The Märklin brand produced similar toys in Germany.
Meccano toys are wonderful, recreations of great engineering feats and also the vehicles – such as cranes – used to build them. Occasionally they also give unintended history lessons. I showed my son the magazine (pictured above) with Sydney Harbour Bridge on it, only a year or so after it was opened in the 1930s. ‘Where’s the Opera House?’ he shot back. And this is how he learned that the Harbour Bridge was completed 40 years earlier than its iconic neighbour.
Later 20th-Century Toys
The Museum also has a large exhibit on Lego, one of the most popular toys of the 20th and indeed 21st century. It’s so versatile, so kids would have the choice of following precise instructions to make something – or use their imagination to follow through on their own ideas.
There are also sizeable Playmobil exhibits. My son became interested in these toys a few months before we visited Nuremberg, and we also took him to the Playmobil Fun Park, an easy day trip from Nuremberg.
As the 20th century moved into its latter stages, so children’s interests gravitated to new technologies and frontiers, including outer space. This includes spaceships and other similar toys to the ones I (and many of you) grew up with in the 1970s and 1980s.
Toys With Racist Connotations
When we recently visited, a temporary exhibition in the Nuremberg Toy Museum was devoted to toys which portray racial stereotypes. The ones on show were awful, with the likes of the ostrich pulling the Cameroon postal cart. I explained it to my son, and he wisely said, ’At least some of the world has improved from that.’ I thought carefully about including the image above in the article, and decided to use it as it illustrates the horrendous attitudes that were so widespread at the time.
I decided against including an image of the most distasteful exhibit, which simply propagates racial hatred. It’s the box of a game produced at the turn of the 20th century, around the time of the Boxer Rebellion in China. It shows a Chinese man being tossed in the air in punishment for the rebellion, and the message is similar in five languages. The English text refers to the man as ‘heathen’, and this is mild compared to the violence implied. Shocking.
That said, I think the curator(s) of the exhibition handled the subject very well, tackling it head-on. The toys are called out for what they are – reflecting the racial prejudices of the period in which they were made – and the explanations help you understand the context of this.
Post-War Rubble Toys
Nuremberg was heavily bombed during World War Two. The Allies targeted the city for its associations with the Nazis, particularly the Nuremberg Rallies of the 1930s. They would also inflict severe blows to the morale of Germans seeing their former Imperial City reduced to rubble. The message: this is all that’s left of your ‘Thousand Year Reich.’
The aftermath of the War was traumatic for the citizens of Nuremberg, but at least they were spared the horrors many suffered at the hands of the Soviet Red Army to the east, and the decades of totalitarianism that followed in the former German ‘Democratic’ Republic.
A generation of children grew up in a ruined city, where there were shortages of food and many everyday household items. This included toys. We were particularly intrigued by the exhibition of ‘rubble toys’, made from whatever material was to hand. These include the improvised wooden toy horse with wheels in the image above. It’s inspiring to see their imagination shining through, and grasping the joy of play that should be part of every childhood.
Play Areas In The Museum
After all these toys, a kid is going to want to play. Our Little Man certainly did.
There’s an excellent play area on the top floor of the Museum, with a whole range of things to play with. Our little fellow started by building a castle, before putting his mind to some puzzles.
He stayed the best part of an hour, but could have stopped by for much longer. As he said himself, better to play there than in the rain in the playground outside!
Where is Nuremberg Toy Museum
The Museum’s address is Karlstrasse 13-15 Nürnberg 90403.
It’s on the west side of Nuremberg Old Town (Altstadt), very close to the Sebalduskirche, Weissgerbergasse street and the famous Hangman’s Bridge.
I have supplied directions in the following section.
How To Get To Nuremberg Toy Museum
Nuremberg Toy Museum is easy to reach by public transport.
Bus 36 stops 50 metres from the Toy Museum at Weintraubengasse. It’s just around the corner from there on Karlstrasse.
You can also get there by trams 4 and 10, alighting at Hallertor. From the tram stop, walk into the Old Town, continuing along Maxplatz for 200 metres, then turn left onto Karlstrasse.
Where To Stay In Nuremberg
There are hundreds of Nuremberg hotels to choose from, and the best areas to stay are in the Altstadt (Old Town) or to the south of the town walls, which are close to the subway (U-Bahn) and tram routes which take you very close to most of the main sights. Here is my pick of the best, including one we stayed in twice.
**** – Hotel Central – great option in the Old Town, within a few steps of the Lorenzkirche
**** – Hotel Victoria Nürnberg – superb family-run 4-star in great location between main station and Old Town
*** – Sorat Hotel Saxx Nürnberg – possibly the best location in Nuremberg, on the Hauptmarkt (main square) where the Christmas Market is held – and within a 5-minute walk of the Toy Museum
*** – Premier Inn Nürnberg City Opernhaus – one of the best chain hotel groups in Europe, in great location near U-Bahn station and with views of the city walls across the street – and an Aldi supermarket a three-minute walk away
** – ibis Nürnberg City am Plärrer – one of the best budget options in town, a 10-minute walk or short tram ride from the heart of the Old Town
Other Things To Do In Nuremberg
There are enough things to do in Nuremberg to stay a week, including a day trip or two, perhaps to the gorgeous medieval town of Bamberg an hour to the north.
The Toy Museum is around the corner from one of the most picturesque bridges in Europe, the Henkersteg (Hangman’s Bridge) over the Pegnitz river.
It’s also on the edge of Nuremberg’s Altstadt (Old Town), with one of its most beautiful streets, Weissgerbergasse, a couple of minutes’ walk away.
The Museum is only a two-minute walk from two of the finest churches in Nuremberg, the Gothic Sebalduskirche and Frauenkirche. The main Nuremberg Christmas Market is held in the square outside the latter.
The Kaiserburg – also referred to as the Imperial Castle or Nuremberg Castle – is on the hill at the top of the Old Town, and is very much worth a visit. It sits above one of the loveliest squares in the city, Beim Tiergartnertor, which is surrounded by restored half-timbered houses, one of which was the home of Nuremberg artist Albrecht Dürer.
Many also visit the city to explore the Nuremberg Nazi Sites, including the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, a 20-minute tram ride from the city centre.
And if you’re visiting Nuremberg with kids, there’s a fair chance you’ll be persuaded to visit the Playmobil Fun Park, a short train and bus ride from the centre of Nuremberg.
Visiting Nuremberg Toy Museum – Final Thoughts
I hope this article has inspired you to visit the Toy Museum in Nuremberg one day. It’s the best toy museum I’ve ever visited, and fascinating whether you’re interested in the toys themselves, or the social history of Germany and Europe.
If you’re visiting the city, I suggest taking a look at my articles on spending One Day In Nuremberg and 2 Days In Nuremberg. Ideally you’d have up to three days available to explore the city and surrounding area, but the pressures of time weigh on all of us when planning our travels!
If you’re planning on spending more time in Germany, take a look through some of these articles for further inspiration. It’s an outstanding country to visit, one I’ve been privileged to explore for over 40 years:
27 Best Places To Visit in Germany – from Hamburg to Heidelberg, Cologne to Quedlinburg and many more
Best Places To Visit In Eastern Germany – from Berlin to the border to the Baltic and more
One Day In Dresden – a day in the rebuilt Florence on the Elbe
One Day In Leipzig – 24 hours in the city of Bach and the Wende
20 Best Rhine River Castles – the best castles in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Site
26 Best Things to Do In Trier – a detailed guide to the oldest city in Germany, including another great Toy Museum
One Day In Hamburg – 24 hours in Germany’s great port city
Things To Do In Quedlinburg – the stunning World Heritage town with over 2,000 medieval half-timbered houses
Bacharach Germany – one of the most enchanting villages in the Rhine Valley
21 Best Berlin Landmarks – the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall and many more
15 Best Berlin Cold War Sites To Visit – where to find remnants of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War