00:00The process starts in the forest.
00:16It's not just a job that you practice. It's something else.
00:46One of the most extraordinary craftsmen in Seifen is Markus Füchtner.
01:01Markus Füchtner is the eighth generation leading the workshop,
01:05in which his great-great-great-grandfather made the very first nutcracker from the Ohr mountains.
01:10Today, he makes about 800 a year and exports them in over 20 countries.
01:40The feeling of making something out of wood is simply indescribable.
01:54Those who make it themselves know it best.
02:00The smell of fresh wood or lacquer, for example.
02:04The mixture of wood and lacquer just smells delicious.
02:08Even those who pass by, who come to the door and say, it smells so good.
02:16Even amongst the craftsmen and women in the Ohr mountains, Christian Wörner is truly one of a kind.
02:22He has mastered the ring-turning, a craft that originated here about 200 years ago and that still only exists here.
02:38Out of a wooden ring, Wörner can carve about 300 different kinds of animals,
02:46and he makes more than 25,000 copies a year.
03:08I am the ring-turner in Seifen.
03:18The process of ring-turning begins in the forest,
03:20then the wood lies in basements, then I take it out and put it in the lathe.
03:24I think I am a blessed man that my son works with me.
03:28I stand next to the lathe as a master, like I did as a boy with the old masters,
03:34and I watch how the young ones do it.
03:39The technical realization of making a split tire,
03:44requires a high level of imagination.
03:49I say, the tire maker has to see the positive through the negative.
03:55There are only a handful of people who still practice ring-turning,
03:59and we are now the last manufacturer worldwide.
04:05Woodworking
04:11Woodworking is probably the most beautiful material or raw material that exists,
04:16from which you can shape something with your hands.
04:19When you feel that you can inspire people with what you do,
04:23who then enjoy the figure that has taken up so much time,
04:27that is a great effect that you feel.
04:34Woodworking
04:42It seems that time has stopped here.
04:46You can only hear from the outside that people are so overwhelmed,
04:51that time is running so fast and you are still hectic and stressed,
04:55and that is different here.
04:57Here I go to my workshop and here I am with my family.
05:01It's not just a job that you practice, it's something else.
05:08My great-great-great-grandfather, Wilhelm,
05:11must have had the idea to build a nutcracker.
05:14Many people ask me how he got the idea.
05:16It was mainly room people who were at the construction site in the summer
05:20and were unemployed in the winter and had to earn something.
05:23And so wood remains from the construction site were not only burned,
05:28but also made something out of it to earn something.
05:31And then he must have come up with the idea of the nutcracker
05:34to resist the nobility at the same time.
05:38Symbolically, the nobility should also be given a nut to crack.
05:42And nobility is always represented in the nutcrackers,
05:45like soldiers, policemen, kings.
05:47That's why it used to be so strict nobility.
05:51A typical red king, for example, has 130 work steps
05:55and we make up to 800 pieces a year,
05:58which have already been sent to 20 countries in the world.
06:09This village in Seife had invented this wonderfully,
06:12incredibly clever technology from Brexen.
06:16And then in 1920, the flowering season of this craft took place.
06:21There were 28 tire turners.
06:24But in the meantime, it has declined more and more
06:27because the ability of the tire turner is not unremarkable.
06:31But it is of course incredibly cool to practice it,
06:34to be creative and to do it.
06:37And surprisingly, this craft has not spread.
06:41It was created here in Seife and stayed here in this village.
06:45It does not exist anywhere else in the Erzgebirge or the world.
06:50So what's so special about the Ohr Mountains in the end?
06:54Well, what they teach me is what it really means to care for
06:57and to love your craft.
06:59To do the same things every day, the same process,
07:02you can really find that supremely boring.
07:05But you can also say that's super fascinating.
07:08Because to dedicate yourself to a craft, to perfect it,
07:11that's something deeply human and really wonderful.
07:14Only a handful of people will probably be able to tell
07:17the technical differences between the pieces.
07:20But the love and the time that have been invested in them,
07:23you can really feel that.
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