Papier-mache nativity scenes are company's specialty

	INTERACTIVE GALLERY

In this story: War hurts company's fortunes Recipe rediscovered RELATED STORIES, SITES

STEINACH, Germany (Reuters) -- For many, the nativity scene is an integral element of the Christmas season: the newborn Jesus lying in the manger, with Mary, Joseph, and the three kings looking on.

For Evelyn Forkel, manufacturing the tableaus is big business.

After the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989, she re-established the company her great-grandfather, Richard Mahr, founded a century ago -- and resumed production of intricately hand-pressed and painted papier-mache nativity figures.

Forkel's company, Marolin, holds a near-monopoly on the papier-mache figurines, and exports them around the world.

Mahr began producing the figurines in his kitchen in 1900. Today's versions of Mary, Joseph, the baby Jesus closely resemble the original statues, Forkel says.

The figurine company thrived until the start of World War II, when production was no longer possible. Between 1945 and 1949, the art was reborn, contacts were re-established, and nativity figurines from the city of Steinach once again were exported across Europe and to the United States.

But that renewed glory could not last. After Germany was divided into East and West in 1949, the business' fortunes faded. Steinach, just a few miles from the Bavarian border, fell into the Russian sector, condemning the company to a slow death.

During Communist rule, the quality of the products declined, until the costly manufacture of papier-mache figures and toys could no longer be financed.

In 1972, the company was expropriated and nationalized. As a part of a huge conglomerate, Marolin mass-produced plastic toys for the Eastern European market. After monetary unification in the summer of 1990, these customers could not pay in hard currency.

Customers in the West were rare, partly because the toys the company produced did not meet Western safety standards.

Forkel, an architect by trade, decided to reactivate the company, and to see if the original papier mache nativity scenes would sell. Among her first customers were collectors who owned old pieces and wanted to add new ones.

The recipe for the papier mache, which was thought to have been destroyed after the last figurines were made in 1978, was found stuck to a cellar door.

There were very few craftspeople who could still make the figurines, and the mold-maker -- whose unmistakable forms dominated the Marolin collection -- had died.

"We started up after a former customer from Munich visited us and told us that the Christmas nativity market in Munich was poorer since Marolin no longer produced figurines,"

"That was the reason we decided to take the opportunity to start producing the figurines, with the old material and the old molds."

In the beginning, business was slow. In Germany and abroad, it was thought that the quality of products from Eastern Germany was inferior to those from the West.

"We would have had enough reasons to quit and give up in the past few years, said Forkel. "We had to establish ourselves on the market, to make a name for ourselves, and to convince customers our products were of the highest quality."

Today, Marolin exports its unique figurines across Europe, especially to Catholic regions such as southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy; about 25 percent of the production is exported to the United States. Forkel says she knows of no other German company that produces similar products.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Destination: Christmas markets in Germany
In Depth: New Germany

Diana, Mother Teresa, Versace join modern Nativity
November 29, 1997
On the Net: Yule traditions find a home on the Internet
December 23, 1996

Marolin

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.