Toy Museum Munich, Toy museum in Altstadt-Lehel, Munich, Germany.
The Toy Museum houses a collection of historical playthings displayed across several floors in an old tower at Marienplatz. The exhibits contain dolls, model trains, mechanical toys, and other objects that document toy-making and childhood across many decades.
The museum was founded in 1983 by Ivan Steiger, a filmmaker and author from Prague, who set out to preserve historical toys. Its opening created a place that documents how toys and childhood play evolved over time.
The collection displays toys from different periods and places, arranged to show how children played in earlier times. You see handmade dolls and vehicles that reveal what values and interests mattered to the societies that made them.
Access is straightforward since the museum sits right at Marienplatz, a central location with subway stations nearby. The exhibits spread across several floors in the tower, so visitors should be prepared to climb stairs to explore all the levels.
The collection includes a mechanical doll from 1855 made in Paris that shows how technologically advanced toy-making already was. The doll can walk, move its arms and head, and even say the word 'mama', demonstrating the inventiveness of that era.
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