Tabarz has been making toys for the children of the world since 1934. It's a long history with its ups, downs and changes. My grandfather, Georg Kellner, came to the climatic health resort of Tabarz as a "refugee" from the bad industrial air of Leipzig in the early 1930s. He brought his wife Hildegard and his son Wolfgang with him, as well as all his experience in the manufacture of model airplanes and ships from Berlin and Leipzig. The idea of plug-in figures was also in his luggage.

The family first found accommodation in Lauchagrundstraße. Then came the move to the vacant building of the Barchet family's "Sonnenwinkel" children's home in Böttchergasse. There, the small production began tentatively and grew bit by bit in the hands of many Tabarz home workers. The purchase of what was then known as "Sumpfwiese" at Langenhainer Straße 26 made it possible to build the first wooden production facility.

Then came the war and "makeshift homes" were built for bombed-out war victims. One of these houses in Böttchergasse served as a home for my great-grandfather Georg Kellner. Two other little houses stood next to the Hotel zur Post in "Kramer's bathing establishment". After the war, the house was extended and rebuilt and the toy manufacturing family grew to 80 employees in the best of times. There were numerous outposts in the village. These included the empty workshop of the organ builder Knauf at the Albrecht family, the rooms of the master carpenter Merbach and many other locations. Then came VEB Plastspielwaren, a major fire, the fall of communism and a new start.