Hallersches Haus The toy museum's building, located in Karlstraße 13–15, can be dated back to 1517 as being the property of Wilhelm Haller, senior, member of a patrician family. Jeweler, Paul Kandler bought the house in 1611 and had the front rebuilt for the first time (probably by Jakob Wolff senior). The
oriel (this type of oriel is called a chörlein) was constructed roughly around 1720. A distinctive feature of the Hallersches Haus, but also of many other houses in Nuremberg, is the
Dockengalerie, which is a wooden gallery built around an inner
courtyard, connecting the adjacent buildings. 'Docken' refers to turned wooden
balusters used for construction galleries and limbless wooden dolls. The estate was badly damaged during the Second World War, but it was rebuilt in the following years. Furthermore, the building is one of the stops of the “Historical Mile Nuremberg”.
Lydia and Paul Bayer The core of the museum's collection is approximately 12,000 toys, which have been collected over decades by Lydia (1897–1961) and Paul Bayer (1896–1982). The Bayers had begun to put together a comprehensive collection of toys by the early 1920s, although toys were not seen as having cultural or historical value at the time. The private Lydia Bayer Museum, located in Neubaustraße in
Würzburg, was open to the public.
Museum The city of Nuremberg took over the Bayers' stocks in 1966. Thanks to the support of the aid association, the Hallersches Haus in Karlstraße was ready to open in 1971. The toy museum has turned into an extraordinarily successful museum with international recognition. The exhibits area was expanded to in 1989 and to in 1998 due to roof constructions. The Toy Museum and the German Games Archive in Nuremberg are part of the network Nuremberg Municipal Museums founded in 1994. Other places that are part of the network are the
Dürer-Haus, the City Museum Fembohaus, the Tucher Mansion, the Museum for Industrial Culture, the Documentation Centre
Nazi Party Rally Grounds and the Memorium
Nuremberg Trials.
Gockelreiterbrunnen (Rooster Rider Fountain) On the occasion of the
inauguration of the museum in 1971, which incidentally marked the 500-year anniversary of
Dürer’s birth, the
Gockelreiterbrunnen (Rooster Rider Fountain), designed by Nuremberg artist,
Michael Mathias Prechtl, was erected in front of the toy museum. The figure depicting a rooster rider is on top of a pipe rising up out of the fountain's washed-concrete basin. The colorfully painted
ceramic figure, which is surrounded by iron bars, fits well into the location in two respects: not only is its shape reminiscent of a wooden toy referring to the function of the museum, but it also recalls Nuremberg as the city of toys. == Exhibitions ==