Through the continuous process of remodeling homes and modernizing workshops, many historically valuable examples of traditional folk culture are lost. In order to preserve these buildings with their original furnishings, many are placed under historic
otection or moved to outdoor museums such as the Erzgebirge Open-air Museum. These buildings should not be viewed through nostalgic eyes, but seen as a documentation of the real world of the inhabitants and their ongoing history. Intense collecting has
en an essential part of the authentic furnishing of all the buildings and workshops. With painstaking attention to detail, the museum has sought for years the correct objects in order to conscientiously document the work and life styles of the area. The equired materials have been collected with the help of a large group of museum friends and through the museum's own initiative.

Central to the landscape of this Erzgebirge village are the homes, workshops, and communal buildings  of a "Streusiedlung" (a "scattered settlement") dominated by the toymaker and other craftspeople  associated with woodworking. The starting point for t
 founding of the museum was a water powered wood turning  workshop, the last of the village's eighteen water powered workshops still in its original form. The workshop, under historic protection since 1951, was established as a museum in 1971 after extensive research and scholarly preparation.

MINER'S HOME 
The Erzgebirge has been greatly influenced by the region's mining. Because mining and the miner played such an important role in the founding of Seiffen, the home of the miner and his family has been placed at the start of the museum tour. This half-timbered house, the first building brought to the museum grounds in 1972, once stood in Seiffen at the site of an old tin mine. The homes of the miners were typically found near the mines, where they were free from taxes. In the middle of the village of Seiffen are two mine sites, "Binge" and "Geyerin," both of which are under historic protection. 
The house has the large Große Stube (great room) on the left of the central hall and the Hauskammer (pantry) on the right with a stall for goats behind it. The goats, called "miner's cows," supplied milk and meat, improving the simple and monotonous fare of the miner's family. The Große Stube, the center of the daily life of the family, was the only heated room. Here the visitor sees the great tiled oven with two stove pipes and a built-in pot. The stove was an important part of the Erzgebirge house, performing many different functions at the same time. It served as a source of warmth, a cooking place, and a dryer for wet clothing. Clothes drying took place on the encircling wooden bar. The stove had to be fired throughout the year because the miner, underway in inclement weather or at work in the pits, usually returned home in damp clothes. 

RAFTSMAN'S (Log-driver's) HOME 
The very small house of a raftsman's family once stood in Rechenberg-Bienenmühle on the Freiberg River, convenient to this water route.For many years timber from the Erzgebirge forests was floated down the streams and rivers of the region to be used as 
ating fuel for the cities and in the area's mines and smelting huts. Wood that was made into charcoal in the kilns in Blumenau and Görsdorf, both on the Flöha river, was also transported this way. Paths, ponds, and ditches for the rafts of logs were artificially created to assist in the transport of the wood. The floating took place twice a year during the high water seasons of spring and fall. If there was insufficient water during this normally high water period, water could be diverted from the ponds to maintain the water level. The length of the floating logs averaged one to two meters.

3. WATER POWERED TURNING WORKSHOP
The house with its turner's workshop, stall, pen, barn, waterhouse, water system and pond stands on the original site where it was erected from 1758-1760. This arrangement, with an area of about 2.5 hektare, was typical for the toy village Seiffen and is a valuable reminder of the history of the productive craft that formed the economic base of the village.
The water power plant of the turning workshop with its powerful waterwheel and spurwheel powered three ring turning lathes and four regular lathes, a circular saw, agricultural machines (threashing machine, chaffing machine, and a grain mill), and household machines such as a butterchurn. Different transmissions were installed for these various purposes.
Today's visitor can watch the ring turner practicing this unique craft in workshop with equipment that was typical of the period. The large room on the ground floor of the building served not only as a work area, but was also the living area for a seven person family. Here the family of the ring turner finished the pieces produced by the ring method by carving, sanding, gluing, and painting. Food for the family and for their livestock was cooked on the stove. Two cows and their calves resided nearby in the stall.

TRANSFORMER STATION 
This building, fitting harmoniously into the village picture,  is a technical monument to the production of energy. The introduction of electricity in many villages of the Erzgebirge around 1912-1913 brought light as well as electrical energy to the homes. The introduction of electricity also resulted in a division of space in the houses of the toymakers. 

TOYMAKER'S HOME 
This steep-roofed house was originally built in 1827 in the section of Heidelberg. It is especially appropriate for the reconstruction because it had not been changed for agricultural purposes in the last decades. As was mentioned in connection with the transformer station, the introduction of electricity into the village brought significant changes, changes that can be clearly seen in this house. The toymaker was released from his dependence on muscle or water power and workshops could be set up everywhere. This was also the time when the technical equipping of the workshops began to change dramatically. It is obvious from the lighting of the house that the changes did not come all at once, but hestitantly. For a longer time the petroleum lamps and lightbulbs were used next to each other in the house. 
The machines could now be run with electrical motors and the footpowered lathe disappeared. The craftsman could set up a separate workshop at home equipped with a lathe, circular saw, and other machines. In spite of the technical changes, the old name for the work area, Drehstube (turning room), was kept.

BASKETMAKER'S HOME AND WORKSHOP 
The basketmaker's home comes from Dörnthal, where basketmaking, as in other villages of the Erzgebirge such as Seiffen and Voigtsdorf, was commonly practiced. The small center hall style home is built on a slope and has a cellar with barrel vaulting that reaches deep into the earth to provide a storage area for potatoes and preserved foods. The Stube  of the house is furnished to reflect the life-style of a small craftsman around 1920. Upstairs are two sleeping rooms and a storage area. The small garden plot provided flowers and kitchen herbs and the little building on the front corner of the house was the outhouse.
The few tools of the basketmaker are displayed in the workshop. A bench with a draw shave and the iron stove with a long pipe, the ax, and the carving knife complete the sparse selection of equipment. The long stove pipe was used to heat the damp materials before bending. The baskets needed in agriculture were made from splints of ash, willow, hazelnut, and red oak.

WOODCUTTER'S HOME 
The home of the woodcutter comes from Deutscheinsiedel, section Brüderwiese, where it stood with other similar homes. The parcel of land for these homes was made available at the edge of the forest free to the woodcutters by the ruling family of the nearby Purschenstein castle. The Stube is the only heated room in the house. Warm water was always available from the bublous stove pot (visible through the side window) and the tin pipe of the stove helped hold the warmth and was used in the preparation of food. Because the area between the stove and hall was dark and warm, it was called "the cave." Here one could sit on the stove bench while relaxing or curing colds and other similar illnesses. Everyday items of the woodcutter's children include the notebooks, slateboard, and school satchel found on the eating table. The mother's sewing table is covered with fabrics, scraps, darning stone, and sewing machine, all items that helped the wife earn additional income. A storage room with a hatch to the cellar is entered from the Stube

WHEELWRIGHT'S HOME AND WORKSHOP 
The house and workshop of the wheelwright stood earlier at the edge of the village of Seiffen. A 1910 photograph showed the original steep, shingled roof of the house. The old colors and stenciling in the kitchen were revealed when the house was dismantled to be moved to the Open-air Museum. Following these clues, the house was reconstructed and furnished as it might have looked around 1910.
The large seven-windowed Stube is divided into a working and a living area, a functional division achieved through the placement of the furniture. The front part of the room with its tiled stove served as the kitchen-work area. The back corner of the room served as the parlor, used only on Sunday and holidays. A large bread cupboard stands in the hall of the house - the coolest area and the easiest to reach. At the end of the hall are the door to the shed and the steps leading up to the bed room, the toilet, and the storage area. 
The wheelwright's workshop across the hall from the Stube is filled with the craftsman's tools. The double joiner's bench standing in front of the window, used as a clamping and holding device, was one of the most important. The lathe and drill, both hand-driven at this time, are the only machines in the room. The different tools and gauges that make the work easier hang on the walls. The stove, fueled with shavings and scrap lumber, heated the room and the petroleum lamp could be swung into position and pulled down to light the workplace.

FIRE HOUSE
A very unremarkable but important building in the picture of village life is the firehouse, required by fire regulations since 1775. The building was also used for the short-term detention of beggars and tramps. It stood orginally in Oberseiffenbach in an area of small farms and has been reconstructed after the example in Oberlochmühle. The 1913 horsedrawn fire engine comes from Großrückerswalde. Hooks and ladders on the walls and the hoses on the ceiling are equipment typical of every village firehouse in first decades of the twentieth century.

FARMER'S HOME WITH STALL ANS BARN
The farm house comes from Oberseiffenbach and was built in 1752. This reconstruction will make clear the relationship between agricultural production and toymaking. The practicing of two professions was very common in this area. The farmers could not exist from agriculture alone; the plots of land were too small and the yield too minimal. The farmers were also burdened with the Naturalversorgung  (the taking care) of the previous owner or his relatives, a duty carried in contracts of sale or inheritance
With such economic and social burdens the small farmer's family led a difficult life.

WATER POWERED SAWMILL
In addition to the grain mills, water powered saw mills were established very early on the streams and rivers of the Erzgebirge for the purpose of making tree trunks into thick and thin boards. The reconstructed sawmill at the Open-air Museum comes from Pfaffenhain in the district of Stollberg and some of its equipment from Olbernhau-Kleinneuschönberg. The lower floor has stone walls and the upper floors are a half-timbered construction covered with boards. The two work areas, the sawing area and the cellar, are typical of sawmills. The powerful water wheel with a diameter of four meters stands in a small addition on the side of the building.
The mechanism for running the saws is in the cellar. The necessary power was produced by the water wheel and carried by a large wooden V-belt pulley over the spur wheel of the main transmission. The further transmission of the power was made possible by the use of flat leather pulleys. Through connecting rods the turning movements were translated into the vertical motion of the saw. Also in the cellar are the slides for the shavings, so that they do not fall on the quipment. The shavings were gathered therre to be used in agriculture or for heating. 

A special day of historic crafts takes place in May and September.
Special requests: For safety reasons smoking is not permitted throughout the entire Open-air Museum. Please be aware that the doors of the houses can be low, the steps, steep, and the paths, stoney. Please be careful!