A Bavarian Christmas - Inge-Glas and the Historical Christmas Museum

We are so excited to share with you today, dear readers, a wonderful luxury European Christmas vacation idea for your whole family to enjoy next year - a trip to the city of Coburg, near Neustadt, in Northern Bavaria, Germany to visit Inge-glas and The Historical German Christmas Museum!

Treat yourself to the beauty of a Bavarian Christmas and take your children and yourselves to visit the one of a kind *Historical German Christmas Museum* founded by the couple who own Inge-glas, makers of the world’s most luxurious handblown German glass Christmas ornaments.
Coburg is a magical town at Christmas time, and justly famous, as many Bavarian towns are, for its Christmas Market on its Old Market Square, as shown below.
Nearby, in the city of Neustadt, is the Historical German Christmas Museum.
The seeds of the museum were planted when Birgit and Klaus Mueller-Brecht first met in the USA at a Christmas ornament collector’s show in 1986.

The story of their meeting, their marriage, and the subsequent combining of two historic glassblowing families’ businesses was beautifully told by Victoria Magazine this month, and we’ve included a link to that article for you at the bottom of this post.

Klaus Mueller -Brecht is the 14th generation of his family in this business!
After meeting and marrying, the Mueller -Brechts proceeded, over the next 20 years, to amass one of the world’s most spectacular Christmas ornament collections, spanning a history of over 200 years. They then built the Historical German Christmas Museum and since 2001, their collection has been housed there.

After touring the museum, visitors usually wander into their retail store , The Old Christmas Factory, where every Inge-glas Christmas ornament can be found, as well as many other types of unique gifts for their friends back home.

Below is an edited description of the Museum, taken from the tourism site of Neustadt, here.

“The Historical German Christmas Museum provides its visitors with the history of Advent and of Christmas - with all its historical manifestations. Located in the old Duchy of Coburg, it is, with its over 20,000 exhibits, the center of the Old Christmas Factory.

Beginning with Christian roots, the visitor learns about the history of the crib and can understand the development of regionally different bringers of gifts. On display are historic types of tree decorations - among others- exhibits of wadding, luxury paper and Leonean wires, which were, next to the glass, very popular. The development of the Christmas tree stand is also presented with a large variety.

The highlight of the collection is undoubtedly the glass tree ornaments from the past two centuries. This exhibition theme gives the visitor a unique insight into the history of glass Christmas tree decorations - with all their fanciful colors and shapes. The authentic pieces reflect the spirit of their respective origin and awaken many visitors nostalgic memories.

Numerous exhibits from Jablonec in the Czech Republic and Czech glass production and their historical development are also recognized and presented in detail. Another exhibition area invites visitors on a journey into the vintage ornaments of the 20’s, in the 19th century. Also documented is the way a glass ornament is blown in a glassblowing workshop in Germany, as well as how it reaches the wholesaler and exporter to its final destination to an American Christmas.

Another area shows the development of glass jewelry crafts after the Second World War, when New Town, the traditional site of toy production, became a refuge for many glass blowers from the Thuringian Forest. In audio samples, eyewitnesses report from their childhood and tell episodes from their lives. The difficult period between 1930 and 1945, during World War II, is made tangible and understandable - up to the immediate postwar period - especially for young and very young visitors.

The conclusion of the exhibition are current considerations of the relationship between Christmas and Advertising, an illustration of the influence of pop culture on the creation and ornament production of the 1970s and an outlook on the major trends of the present.”
We can just imagine you coming back from such a trip and creating a wreath, like the one below from this month’s Victoria Magazine, for your own homes, full of the Inge-glas ornaments each of your family members’ chose to buy, to remember this very special family vacation.
As we close today’s post, we want to say
Thank you, as always, for reading and sharing what we post on Hadley Court.