Over several decades, the children’s author from Ludwigsburg assembled dolls from across Germany and received others from overseas. Among them were examples from distant regions such as Oceania, North America, and West Africa. Schumacher drew creative inspiration from these objects, which feature prominently in many of her children’s books.
Today, this collection reveals how traces of colonial history are also present in Ludwigsburg. Whether in the carved wooden figures dressed in leather parkas from Labrador or in the ancestral figure of the Iatmul from Papua New Guinea, the dolls reflect a European perspective shaped by the desire to explore, classify—and dominate—the world.
