Für kleine Träumer und Entdecker – For little dreamers and explorers
Illustrierte Kinderbücher (1900-1930) aus der Sammlung Hartmann/Kubis – Illustrated children’s books (1900-1930) from the Hartmann/Kubis collection
From November 29, 2025, to March 1, 2026, the Cultural History Museum (Kulturhistorisches Museum Schloss Merseburg) at Merseburg Castle / Germany will show historical children’s books from the collection of Maria Hartmann and Alexander Kubis, who spent their childhoods in Halle and Merseburg, respectively.
With the exception of a few individual items, the selection of exhibits is limited to the first third of the 20th century, a heyday for illustrated children’s books. Special attention is given to illustrations that reflect the various art movements of this era of upheaval.
The focus is on both the illustrators and designers and the themes covered in the books: the everyday lives of children in the city and countryside, forest animals, technology and inventions, discoveries and journeys into the big wide world, not to mention a multitude of fairy tales.
One room of the exhibition focuses on children’s books with Christmas scenes and toys, accompanied by special objects from private toy collections. Before the books became precious collector’s items, they belonged to boys and girls who looked at them, read them, and loved them. Around one hundred-year-old children’s photographs therefore complement the book exhibition, as do historical wooden toys, mainly from the Erzgebirge in Thuringia (Ore Mountains) in Germany.
A short flyer can be found here.
(c) 2025 Illustration and parts of the original in German by Kulturhistorisches Museum Schloss Merseburg