Ulbricht Painted Snowman Nutcracker

The story of Ulbricht

Wood-turning on lathes, the Ulbricht grand tradition, can be traced back to the small German mining town of Seiffen, in the mountains of the Erzgebirge. Records document the Ulbricht family as wood turners from the 1700s.

Otto Ulbricht, a professional wood turner who started his own business in 1928, built a new factory in 1934. After World War II, when the area became the East German Zone and private industry was taken out of the hands of individuals, Otto took his family across the border where they resettled in the Bavarian town of Lauingen, near Augsburg. Once settled, with his Erzgebirge wood-turning traditions transplanted to Bavaria, Otto began again.

When Otto died in 1968, his son Christian Ulbright, now in charge of the family enterprise, continued those time-honored traditions. In 1978 Christian expanded his thinking, and developed a new company which he named Holzkunst Christian Ulbricht.

In the early 1990s, when East and West re-unified and Germany once again became one nation, Christian brought back to the family the factory in Seiffen begun by his father so many years ago. Today, the company operates out of both locations.

Now in its third generation, the Ulbricht family continues to produce wood-turned products of the finest quality. In addition to an extensive line nutcrackers, there are incense burners, music boxes, figurines, pyramids and ornaments geared for Christmas and Easter.

Traditions are very important to Ulbricht. Not only those that strengthen ties to the land and to family, but also those that continue the traditions of excellence in production that date back 300 years.