German traditional Gifts - handmade wooden art from the Erzgebirge in Germany

Product Information - German Christmas Nutcracker Octoberfest Bavarian

Nutcracker by Müller Kleinkunst designed in 2007.

Generell Inforamtion on nutcrackers:
King Nutcracker and his Court enjoy a high rank in Erzgebirge folklore. Even in  our days, nuts serve to decorate the Christmas tree, alongside with apples, gingerbread and sweets. However, nuts need to be cracked to taste their tempting inside. Before the nutracker was born, peoples used a particular kind of tongs to open the shells. These tongs were soon shaped as folklore figurines that were both functional and decorative. As early as the middle of the 18th century, nutbitters were known in the Erzgebirge town of Schneeberg. Such a sturdy wooden  fellow showed a thick head and a lever at its bach by which one could operate its  lower jaw so as to crack a nut in its mouth. E.T.A. Hoffmann made this folklore  figurine immortal in his charming fairy tale of the Nutcracker and the King of  Mice. Today, Seiffen nutcrackers are famous all over the world. The prototype of  about 1870 goes back to Wilhelm Fuechtner. No change worth mentioning has been  made neither to its design nor to the way it works. A nutcracker's beauty derives from its individual design, from the materials used go together, and from the  details of how it is made up.

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