TravelWorld International Magazine Winter 2022

Veit Hartleb, a
self-employed
glassblower, making
Christmas tree
decorations in his
Lauscha workshop
s a Design Tourist, I learn about a culture
through its legacy of art and craft and how
people express their souls by creating
things of beauty. I wanted to experience
the passion and skill of Thuringia’s
Christmas artisans, so I sought out
local guides Roger Müller, owner of Krebs
Glas Lauscha, and Lauscha Ambassador
Rita Worm, to tour several glassblowing
workshops. Müller says today, glass forms
the basis of income for at least every second
family in the community of around 4,000
inhabitants.
They introduced me to a fourth-generation
glassblower who says it took him 20 years
to perfect the craft he learned from his
grandfather. He works by feeling the
glass interact with the flame’s fluctuating
temperature, turning and coaxing the glass
tube over an open flame while blowing into
the tube to shape it. Once the ornament
cools and hardens, his wife hand-paints each
glass-blown ornament in her “next door”
workshop.
Glassblowing is delicate, an intuitive craft
that demands perfect timing. It’s a dance
between the glassblower, the flame, and the
molten glass, as the artisan sculpts glass
tubes into various shapes and designs.
Mastering the skill takes years of training
and practice demanding precision with little
margin of error.
ext, I visit the glassblowing workshop of
Krebs Glas Lauscha to learn how artisans
create silvered glass ornaments using a
technique developed in the 1860s. To mirror
a glass ornament from the inside, the artisan
dips it in a silver nitrate solution, then coats
each ornament in lacquer to prime it for hand-painting
motifs and designs. The Krebs Glas factory outlet, a few
blocks away, is open to the public and offers more than
5,000 glass-blown ornament designs, many originating
from the local workshop.
Lauscha glass Christmas ornaments became popular
collectibles in the United States after Mr. F.W. Woolworth
discovered the mouth-blown, hand-painted glass
ornaments on a visit to Lauscha. In the late 1880s, he
began importing the ornaments for sale in his chain of
stores across the United States.
In 1923, Lauscha established the first arts and crafts
technical school for glass teaching techniques that let
the beauty of the material speak for itself. The Christmas
craft industry thrived in the Thuringian Forest until
World War Two broke out. With the division of Germany
after the war, Thuringia became part of the East German
Communist rule, which nationalized many of the region’s
craft and glassmaking workshops. With the reunification
of Germany in the 1990s, families sought to regain
ownership of their factories and workshops, reestablishing
Lauscha’s glassblowing industry.
To learn more about the history of glassmaking, I suggest
visiting The Museum for Glass Art in Lauscha, which
holds an important collection of locally made glass
products and a historical overview of the craft.
Krebs Glass Lauscha glassblower demonstrates how to
silver a glass ornament from the inside
Artisans at Krebs
Glass Lauscha factory
handpainting mouthblown
glass ornaments
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Krebs Glass Lauscha Glassblower
making Santa ornaments from glass
tubes mouthblown into molds
Wife of Veit Hartleb, who handpaints each
of his mouth-blown ornaments in their
Lauscha glass workshop
Wife of Veit Hartleb, who handpaints each
of his mouth-blown ornaments in their
Lauscha glass workshop
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