Historical Christmas Tree Ornament Collection 

A particular highlight is the “Historical Christmas Tree Ornament Collection.” It illustrates the evolution of glassmaking technology within the Christmas tree ornament industry in Lauscha, which continues to this day; the industry’s designs, colors, and motifs have always reflected the fashions and preferences of the prevailing social norms as well as the wishes of its clients. The refinement of individual work processes, the high level of craftsmanship, and the implementation of new manufacturing methods by Thuringian glassblowers laid the foundation for the emergence of the glass-processing laboratory glass industry and industrial glass fiber production in Thuringia, which established itself in Wertheim beginning in 1948. 

“Lauscha Christmas Tree Ornaments” were added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021.

Glass Christmas tree ornaments from Thuringia have been available since the Biedermeier period. In the first half of the 19th century, Christmas trees were no longer displayed only in town squares but were brought into the “parlor” of middle-class homes. Three developments enabled a rapid increase in the production of glass Christmas tree ornaments in Thuringia: the establishment of the gasworks in Lauscha in 1867 and the production of aniline dyes at the first tar factory, founded a year earlier near London by the English chemist William Henry Perkin. Added to this was the non-toxic interior silvering developed by the chemist Justus von Liebig, which contributed to a vast variety of shapes and colors. Figures such as Pinocchio, whose nose grows long when he lies, or Wilhelm Busch’s Max and Moritz have enjoyed growing popularity in recent years. During the annual Christmas exhibition at the Wertheim Glass Museum from the first Sunday of Advent through January 6, they adorn the four-meter-tall “Thuringian Figure Tree.”

“Scientific Glass Cabinet”

Another HEART piece is the "Scientific Glass" cabinet. Using the example of individual scientists and their inventions, it shows how glass was first used for science and what groundbreaking scientific successes were achieved with it: Galileo Galilei developed binoculars and used them to prove that the earth revolves around the sun, Isaack Newton discovered with the glass prism that light consists of the 7 colors of the rainbow, and much more.

Glass Bead Cabinet

Another highlight of the GLASMUSEUM WERTHEIM is the Glass Bead Cabinet. Arranged along an imaginary string of beads, colorful “glass beads” tell the story of their cultural and historical significance: as grave goods, symbols of luxury and power, commodities, currency, means of communication and documentation, and even as extraordinary fashion jewelry.

The Glass Bead Cabinet features a partial display of the glass bead collection (ca. 1500 BCE to 700 CE) of Mainz-based scholar Thea Elisabeth Haevernick (1899–1982), supplemented by glass beads from the Glass Museum’s collection that illustrate the long history of the glass bead.

Paperweight cabinet

Collector and author Peter von Brackel has curated a selection of 600 glass paperweights for the GLASMUSEUM WERTHEIM—organized and displayed by production period, glassworks, techniques, motifs, and unusual shapes.