17 March 2018

Lübeck Weekend: TheaterFigurenMuseum Lübeck

One of the most memorable places we checked out while we were in Lübeck was the Lübeck Museum of Theatre Puppets. It is a museum housing the immense collection of Fritz Fey, who has been collecting numerous items involved in puppetry from Germany and around the world. This museum was not only educational, but also entertaining, and it kept us busy for several hours I must say.

The collection is housed in several medieval houses in a narrow street inside the Old Town of Lübeck. When we visited, we learned that the museum will close for several years due to renovation, so it was a great opportunity to visit it while it was still open. The collection spans several floors, and is extensively curated.



There are plenty of different styles represented here, spread across various media. It was fascinating to see how a simple vegetable wrapper for example could be so entertaining. There were also videos which we watched, demonstrating these theatre puppets in action. Even stop-motion animation was included, so we watched those videos as well.



The collection is very international, and therefore we also saw puppets from Africa, from various countries in the continent.



And of course, Asia is represented too, including Indonesia's famous shadow puppetry. It goes without saying that if you have an interest in puppets, then this is the place to go to. We didn't have a special interest in it, but it was nevertheless a very educational and learning moment to spend a few hours in this amazing museum. I definitely would say that the money I paid for the entrance ticket was very much worth it.

They are renovating for a few years starting this year, but I definitely recommend going there once they reopen.