By order of the distributor of woodcarving goods, Guido
Lang (1865 - 1921), the Oberammergau museum was built by
the architect Franz Zell from Munich in the years 1904 to
1906.
The furnishings were largely taken from the extensive stock
his company had to offer. It is therefore not surprising
that the collections, having been in the possession of the
community since 1954, offer the art of carving a large forum.
Crucifixes, reliquary crosses, saint figures, finely carved
needle cases and paperweights made out of maple or fruit-tree
wood dating from the mid-18th century to the end of the
19th century, demonstrate the riches by the Oberammergau
woodcarvers. Using mainly spruce and sometimes also limewood,
the production of toys also mark an important characteristic
of this area.
The first floor is colourfully furnished with dolls and
doll's heads, soldiers and movable fortresses, waggons and
carts, stables and arcs with all sorts of animals, mail
coach drivers and travellers, coachmen an riders, horizontal
bar artists and jumping jacks. Executed by the so-called
"Fassmaler", the specific attraction of these
articles lies precisely in this colouring.
The former nativity of the Oberammergau parish church marks
the highlight of the nativity collection situated on the
ground floor.
The 120 carved and cloth-jointed dolls and 80 animals made
between the mid 18th century and the end of the 19th century,
depict different Christmas scenarios and the Kanaa wedding.
In 1955 the local authorities acquired a large part of
the important collection of verre églomisé
(glass engraved on the back covered by unfired painting)
belonging to the Murnau master brewer Johann Krötz
as an addition to the numerous examples of this form of
art that the museum already possessed. By the end of the
19th century Johann Krötz had already collected over
a thousand examples of verre églomisé, most
of which had been painted in the area of Lake Staffel and
Oberammergau.
The significance of his collection is based, on the one
hand, on the fact that it already comprised a cohesive holding
of this important field of verre églomisé,
and, on the other hand, that Wassily Kandinsky and Franz
Marc were familiar with and appreciated his collection and
in 1912 published nine of his pictures in the almanach "Der
Blaue Reiter" (The Blue Rider). In 1987 the husband
and wife Harold (1912-1983) and Evi Stobitzer (1912-1988)
donated to the museum pictures mainly from the Bavarian
and Bohemian Forests but also from other regions.
