Ruth Holzer Weber, granddaughter of toy baron Franz Carl Weber, opens the Zurich Toy Museum at the new location on Saturday. She remembers: “Every Saturday after Franz Carl Weber had closed, we were allowed to play downstairs in the shop.”
The Zurich Toy Museum, here a photo from Altstetten, goes back to the initiative of Ruth Holzer Weber’s mother: “My mommy always collected something.”
After a very eventful time, the toy archive of the Franz Carl Weber family, which is filled with treasures, will open its doors to the interested public again on Saturday, just in time for the Long Night of Zurich Museums. The Zurich Toy Museum existed for 35 years as a public fund on Fortunagasse in District 1.
But the museum was not always so easily accessible. When it was located at the former headquarters of the legendary FCW toy store at Bahnhofstrasse 62, interested parties had to register at the cash register. If enough people got together for a tour, they were escorted up to the nostalgic plush toy, doll and car paradise. It was organized like this for almost 30 years.
“To put it negatively, it’s a basement”
The toy museum, which has existed for 66 years, almost had to close forever due to the Covid pandemic and donors who had suddenly fled the dust. However, when the Franz Carl Weber company moved its headquarters to Zurich Altstetten, the CEO of the toy shop, Roger Bühler, offered asylum to the traditional museum.
A Franz Carl Weber branch has recently opened in the administration building right next to the Neumarkt Altstetten shopping centre. It is the shop where Philippe Gaydoul used to sell his Navyboot shoes. And right there in the basement, children’s treasures from past centuries are now on display.
Because the walls were damp, they had to be insulated and painted. “To put it negatively, it’s a basement,” says Fredy Heymann, President of the Franz Carl Weber Toy Museum Foundation. The expansion devoured a total of around 80,000 francs. They had budgeted for 30,000. Nevertheless, the board of trustees is overjoyed to be able to show the various antiques to the public again.
Directly to the children’s paradise
Ruth Holzer Weber has looked after the museum from the very beginning. She is the granddaughter of company founder Franz Carl Weber. As a child, she spent almost every Saturday with her grandfather, who at the time lived above his toy shop. “First there was always a snack,” says the woman, who was born in Zurich’s Enge district in 1937. When the shop closed in the evening, she was allowed to go play in the shop with her cousins.
Imagine that. While we had to limit ourselves to one or very few wishes at Christmas with the help of the legendary Franz Carl Weber catalogue, the grandchild of the toy baron could let off steam right in the middle of the stuffed animals and «Bäbi» dolls. Children’s paradise!
But anyone who now thinks that Ruth Holzer Weber also lived in half a toy shop in district 2 during her childhood is mistaken. “No, I wasn’t that spoiled.” But as an only child, she used to wait longingly for the catalog every Christmas, flipped through it and then wrote down wishes. As a child, she already had a few “Bäbi” and a “Bäbiwage”. “Today, however, children have more toys.”
Her grandfather, who was born in Bavaria in 1855, was always happy when the family stopped by the toy store. The man with the catchy name, whom every child knew for a long time, died in 1948 when Ruth Holzer Weber was just 10 years old. As a result, she no longer has many memories of her grandpa. “He was always very lovable.”
After his death, Franz Carl’s three sons took over the company. Paul, Ruth Holzer Weber’s father, was responsible for purchasing. She herself also worked in the shop for a while, says the granddaughter.
The Zurich Toy Museum actually goes back to the initiative of Ruth Holzer Weber’s mother. “My mom always collected something.” She was often at flea markets and antique fairs. In the 1950s, for example, the family commissioned “the collecting man” to set up a museum. Between 1954 and her death in 1984, her mother bought various toys from the past.
The ups and downs of the toy business
After Franz Carl Weber’s 100th anniversary in 1982, things became increasingly difficult for the toy shop. They had “overlapped” with FAO Schwarz, the largest toy store in the USA at the time, and another toy chain in Germany, as Ewald Schuler, Vice President of the Franz Carl Weber Toy Museum Foundation, explains. Then came the hour of Denner manager Karl Schweri, who bought all branches and the associated FCW properties in a prime location in Switzerland.
However, the toy business had been increasingly neglected. When Migros and Manor also started selling toys, Franz Carl Weber was very hurt. The number fell from 54 branches all over the country to 8 specialist shops in 2006. Schweri sold the company with the “Gampiross” logo to the French group Ludendo. “They ran the store down even further,” says Fredy Heymann.
Since the takeover by a group led by Digitec founder Marcel Dobler in 2018, the toy seller now has an impressive 23 branches again. “My motivation was to save Franz Carl Weber,” said FCW Board President Marcel Dobler to the NZZ. Because of the long history, he was of the opinion that this childhood dream had to be preserved.
The Zurich Toy Museum, which started in Altstetten with a special exhibition on “Women’s Power”, has also been preserved. Toy “Bäbi” by Sasha Morgenthaler from Zurich, bears by Margarethe Steiff (the one with the button in her ear) and various Barbie dolls are on display in showcases. “These three ladies have moved the toy world,” enthuses Heymann, President of the Foundation. Adults can admire all these treasures at Altstetterstrasse 127 in the afternoon for CHF 5 and children for CHF 3.
By the way, you can also see all the covers of the legendary FCW catalogues. From the first work that appeared in 1891 to the present day. When looking through the front pages designed by well-known artists, Franz Carl Weber’s granddaughter noticed that there hadn’t been such a beautiful front page in the last ten years. “It used to be works of art, today it looks more like advertising,” is Ruth Holzer Weber’s honest conclusion.
No more artists for the catalogues
It’s all a question of money, replies Marcel Dobler, who has been co-owner of the toy business for three years and is also a member of the FDP National Council. “At the moment we simply cannot afford artists to design the catalogue.” It used to be different. As a child, he too cut out the toys he wanted from the FCW catalog and stuck them on the “Chrischtchindli” wish list, Dobler recalls. Today, Franz Carl Weber’s business is back on solid ground, but it is “not yet” possible to go back to the good old days.
The Board of Trustees of the Zurich Toy Museum is also hoping for better times. The demand for antiques is declining, there are fewer and fewer collectors. That’s why you want to present the Zurich population with the help of the toy exhibition now even more beautiful, curious and long-forgotten. “When you walk through the museum, you practically relive your childhood and youth,” promises Ruth Holzer Weber. She hopes for many visitors.
