bavarikon4UDescription
The "Wurfpuppe", a bendy string doll with wooden head, by the designer Alma Buscher (1899-1944) is the only Bauhaus product that was ever registered with the German Patent Office and also received the German Reich Patent. The 1926 entry states: "The invention focuses on the special manufacture and design of plait-like braiding [...]. The new doll stands out in particular due to its flexibility and indestructibility." The novel use of throwing the doll required the materials to be particularly robust: the long-limbed body and hair are made of raffia; the head, hands and feet are made of turned and painted wooden balls. The clothes were crocheted out of cotton chenille around the raffia figure. Unlike common toys of the time, this doll is not stiff and fragile, but soft and flexible. It can be placed anywhere or thrown on the floor as a random figure. This frees playing with dolls from any predetermined patterns of play and boosts the child’s creative development. Throwing the doll back and forth with someone else should also train the children’s motor skills. Die Neue Sammlung was able to acquire two models of these dolls as early as 1926. They differ in the colour of their clothes and their facial expressions. In addition to this version with blue and pink stripes, there is another with predominantly green outer garments and yellow stripes (inv. no. 529/26) in the collection.