Lego exhibition

From Lummerland to the Black Forest

Not on the Lido, but in Lego, famous buildings from Venice, Italy's most beautiful city, are presented in an exhibition at Neuenbürg Castle. The Rialto Bridge, the Doge's Palace, the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, cafés, town villas, gondolas, and many smaller scenes are on display in a spacious display case in the castle. Across the street, visitors can set a suburban train in motion, which then begins its journey through a harbor, past a football stadium, and through a new housing development. The fire department has extended a large ladder at one house, but a firefighter isn't putting out a fire; instead, he's rescuing a cat from the roof. If you look closely, you can discover many details in the large scenes.

The LEGO exhibition at Neuenbürg Castle provides an overview of the history of this popular toy from the 1960s to the very latest models. For the duration of the exhibition, the two Alsatian collectors Thierry Meyer and Marc Schickele have parted with many of their models, some of which they designed and built themselves, to display them here. In addition to the large scenes, there are display cases that illustrate the development of Lego bricks through specific themes. When looking at the medieval castles, one quickly notices that today's children clearly have less time: The latest models consist of significantly fewer individual parts, and these are so precisely prefabricated that a castle can be put together more quickly than before, but also with less individuality. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why children enjoy the opportunity to be creative themselves at a large table with 9 kg of building bricks. Numerous small buildings and vehicles now populate the windowsills. They are always photographed by museum staff before being returned to the creative cycle. The photos will then be featured in an exhibition booklet.

The exhibition is complemented by a look back at the history of construction sets. A collection of wooden, stone, metal, and plastic construction sets from 1900 to around 1960 illustrates the ideas upon which LEGO was able to build. The Melanchthon House in Bretten, constructed from IDEMA bricks, demonstrates that the idea of ​​making plastic building blocks for children was, so to speak, in the air in the 1950s. Josef Dehm from Bretten-Rinklingen had the same idea at the same time as Ole Christiansen in Billund, Denmark, the headquarters of today's LEGO empire. However, Josef Dehm's health prevented him from further developing his inventions.

Today, the LEGO brick is considered "one of the most successful design ideas of our century," writes Margret Uhle, chronicler of the Danish toy manufacturer. "Since 1958, when the idea of ​​​​covering a five cubic centimeter plastic brick with eight buttons on the surface and using these to connect to another brick was patented, the small Danish company has grown into a global corporation. Today the company produces in 33 countries and employs around 10.000 people. "The cradle of this intelligent interconnection system is in the tiny Danish village of Billund in Jutland," Uhle continues. There, from 1916, the carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen made a living more or less from carpentry and joinery. In the harsh 1947s, during the great economic crisis, he came up with the idea of ​​making stepladders, ironing boards, and milking stools for farmers. Later, he expanded his range to include wooden toys and manufactured, among other things, funny nodding ducks and fire engines. In 1949, Ole Christiansen acquired the first plastic injection molding machine in Denmark for his small company, which he had founded in the meantime. It was intended to produce plastic toys, a frowned-upon material at the time. The Waldorf school principle, according to which only warm wood belonged in children's hands, still applied everywhere. A rather inconspicuously colored, but already studded building brick, called the Automatic Binding Brick, cast in the tiny factory in Billund in XNUMX, is the grandfather of the later studded brick.

After LEGO first entered the German market with its building blocks in 1956, it soon "invented" the wheel. Houses and streets became increasingly lively, especially after the introduction of small figures in 1974. By then, there was practically no area that children couldn't recreate with LEGO. The trains, launched in 1966, were a huge success. Remote-controlled cars from 1977, the development of the DUPLO building blocks for toddlers, and new inventions every year created an entire LEGO world. In contrast to PLAYMOBIL, which primarily focuses on the communicative element of toys with its small figures, LEGO focuses on the design and construction of models. Nevertheless, the two complement each other, and each has its own value for children's play and development, which is also appreciated by experts.

Visitors of all ages can explore the exhibition with a rally sheet. Seven questions must be answered; if the answer is correct, the visitor enters a competition and can win, among other things, tickets to Legoland in Günzburg.

Buildings of the city of Venice constructed from LEGO bricks*. Designed and built by Holger Matthes, Fellbach

• Santa Maria della Salute (built according to plans by the architect Baldassare Longhena, construction period from 1631 to 1687)
• Bridge of Sighs and Prison
• Doge's Palace
• Townhouses
• Small square with fountain
• Rialto Bridge
• St. Mark's Square with column statues
• The bell tower
• Gondolas, barges, tourists and café

Construction period: May 2003 to May 2005

approx. 225.000 commercially available stones

*The structure does not correspond to the actual city plan!