Animals in the museum. Crafts made from raffia by Else Stadler-Jacobs

In the mid-1920s, the young craftswoman Else Stadler-Jacobs from Pasing near Munich began experimenting with textile materials. She was particularly fascinated by raffia – a material that was hardly used in arts and crafts at the time. With great skill and an extraordinary flair for shapes and colors, she designed decorative animal figurines that soon found international acclaim. By 1930, her models were already supplying renowned department stores in Chicago, San Francisco, London and Budapest.

In order to meet the growing demand, Stadler-Jacobs employed numerous women to make her artistic animals at home. In the years of the economic miracle, her manufactory experienced a real boom and provided work for up to 50 women. Over the decades, she created more than 100 animal species – from native forest dwellers to exotic creatures.

Her impressive life’s work was almost forgotten. But 50 years after the end of her production, it was rediscovered in an attic in Munich. The German Hat Museum is now showing a large number of the animals in the exhibition that has now been created, telling the remarkable story of the entrepreneur Else Stadler-Jacobs.

Deutsches Hutmuseum
Museumsplatz 1
88161 Lindenberg

More information about the exhibition.

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