Elegant Wendt and Kühn Ornaments for Your Christmas Tree

Posted on December 12, 2014 | 0 Comments

Next year Wendt and Kühn of Grünhainichen (a Toymakers Village in the Erzgebirge - the center of Germany's Christmas traditions) will celebrate their 100th anniversary. We treasure their Angel Orchestra Musicians and Flower Children and could not do without their elegance for our Christmas table and mantle displays celebrating Christmas and the coming of Spring.

But, we admit to especially enjoying Wendt and Kühn's Angel Christmas ornaments. Tucking them into and on the tips of the branches of our tree allows us to enjoy these delicate and charming figures throughout the holiday season.

For years, we collected the Musician Clip-on Angels, adding one or two each year as we found them.

Then, in 1987 we discovered our first Suspended Angels and Angels in a Ring in Germany.

In 1987, the Berlin Wall had yet to come down - we had assumed that once in Germany we would find Wendt and Kühn's folk art in a shop here and there, but only found one such shop in Berlin. Those tiny Angels remind us each year of that one time we visited Berlin, including East Berlin (travelling through Check Point Charlie). The Wendt and Kühn Angel Ornaments from that trip are now an important part of our Christmas traditions. They are even more memorable by our having simply experienced East Berlin before the Berlin Wall came down. Wendt and Kühn's production continued during the communism period, handled through cooperatives who exported their art. We can only smile when we think of how they have flourished since the end of communism.

With that perspective, now we look forward to seeing what Wendt and Kühn introduces each new year.

And for 2014 they have indeed brought us new Suspended Angels - the Small Suspended Angel with a French Horn at 1" and the Suspended Angel with Songbook and Small Trumpet at 2" - both are delightful in their simplicity.