Contents page 1 — The Christmas village-page 2 — the Only light was Erika page 3 — The diversity fades On a page to read

Wolfgang Glöckner finds no rest. It’s his first Christmas without work. It is a bit boring. He is watching TV now common and doodles puzzle in crossword. Don’t do strenuous stuff, what are you doing, if 87 the energy subsides. The hunchback is still a strong man with a booming voice. On his hands he is proud, calloused paws, right to the tip of a finger, craft, fate is missing. “But everything fit as ever,” he says and wiggles his fingers. Only his legs don’t make a right, especially if the Frost pinches.

your workshop is not yet set up, but Wolfgang and Erika hunchback seldom sit here. Your business has logged off. “The work is very lacking.” © ONLINE

In the Erzgebirge, it has become overnight the Winter. Seiffen now looks like in the advertising campaigns that bring each December, thousands of tourists in the place: a Christmas landscape like in a fairy tale book. Also the home of the Glöckners is there like a bezuckertes gingerbread house. In front of the entrance of snow piling up in labor. Nevertheless, Wolfgang Glöckner out of his chair pulls himself together. “Come on Eri, let’s have a look”, he calls.

Also his wife, Erika, 84, the walking is difficult. Hold on tight now even more to each other. Carefully, the Pair of los tippelt, only a few meters to the next door in the workshop. Here, you have spent the most time of your life. A 58-year-division of labor as a toy maker. She is the Quiet, it of the Turkey! “I made the ground floor is the Work, my wife on the first floor of the Assembly. Goes to the top, as the Boss, I sitting said,’ I always to the customer.”

The workshop is cold. But still, everything looks as the same would be the start of the Shift. On the work table, tools and figurines, tiny toy wooden people. In the shelves of meticulously labeled boxes: legs made of maple, arms made of black locust, carved poodle hats for carriage drivers. Residues that remain forever items, because the toys operation bell ringer has set up a year ago, the production. After four generations in the end. There is a heritage, but no successor.

the toy village of Seiffen. So it is on one of the many advertising signs. Busloads of tourists roll in Advent, from the Sauerland region, from the North sea coast. There are only 2.300 Seiffen, the number of inhabitants decreases, as almost everywhere here in the province. In the summer the village is forgotten in the mountains. Only in the Advent of up to 6,000 tourists crowd daily.

There are streets full of Christmas shops, the shop window is crammed with Nut crackers are required. The tourists want to see primal craft and buy. The town of Seiffen, this has always been a place of longing for the good old days. The core of the land of the hand work, the whole village is a huge manufactory. Only the time has changed many things here.

Young people are leaving the place

The Glöckners open for tourists to shop, “as a service for the place”. The craft belongs to the identity of the ore mountains, one of the poorest regions in the country. For centuries they lived in the last part of Saxony by the mining industry. As the soil dried out treasures, fell to the Locals, what else is there in Abundance: the wood in the forests. There were times when almost every family was operating in the area for a family. “Männel-maker”, as they are called here. Everywhere was turned, sawn, glued. The art of wood carving is today a vital branch of the economy.

The good news: in addition to the craft has established a network of flexible medium-sized company in the construction and engineering industries. The unemployment rate is for the first time, with only 4.7 per cent. The image belongs to, but In the erzgebirgskreis district, the income in Germany is the lowest in the EU – an average of 2,191 thousand Euro gross per month. Many villages are shrinking and aging rapidly. Some people will have a whole Generation that moved away after the fall of the wall and never returned, is missing. Until today, young people leave because of better Jobs and salaries. How much you are missing, also note the Seiffen. A family business, is today a picture of what you want, is not easy to implement.