Touched a thousand times, something happened a thousand times – and the next long-stemmed red wine glass broke. At the latest when you switch to robust mugs with walls as thick as window glass, you ask yourself: There must be nicer wine glasses that can withstand a little more?
One of the best places to look for a Grail of this kind is certainly East Bavaria. Because the region is not only known for its beautiful nature, but also for its centuries-old tradition of glassmaking.
If you leave the autobahn in Schwandorf in Upper Palatinate and switch to federal and state roads, you are already on the 250-kilometre-long Glasstraße, which is celebrating its silver anniversary this year. It begins in the Upper Palatinate and connects Waldsassen in the north with Passau in Lower Bavaria in the south.
Glass has been manufactured here in the Upper Palatinate and Bavarian Forest for 700 years. The Glass Street, opened in 1997 by the then Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl, is intended to keep the tradition alive. Numerous glassworks and artists show their works and artistry here, inviting you to watch and try them out.
Many sights are concentrated between Bodenmais and Zwiesel, where the Zwiesel Glass Days, an international art exhibition, take place every year on August 14th. Picking out the south as a travel destination is therefore recommended. The glass town of Zwiesel is also home to the renowned glass trade school, where many a professional is trained.
This also applies to glass melter Daniel Höcker and glassmaker Nico Ballnberger from the Theresienthal factory. Follow the signs for “Glasstraße” to the two glass connoisseurs in Zwiesel. On the babbling Regen river, which turns into the Schwarzer Regen behind Blaibach, the car rolls through wildly romantic nature with lots of forest and over hills that become mountains.
The two Bavarian glass professionals are waiting in the factory outlet of the Theresienthal crystal glass manufactory. They look very different than expected: young, in tight jeans and tattooed down to their fingertips. Nico Ballnberger handles the delicate material as carefully as with a precious treasure and creates a handmade goblet within four minutes.
In the original workshop hall, visitors can watch him at work. “Glass as a mass is liquid like honey that you scoop out of the container with a spoon,” says Ballnberger, while he repeatedly holds the long, hollow glassmaker’s pipe into the oven, pierces the white glass flask, takes it out, and turns it skillfully. With a lot of force, he pre-blown the first form, then the final form in the appropriate wooden model.
“Glass can be processed at 600 degrees,” explains Daniel Höcker next to him. “Then you have to let the dumpling cool down for a long time, otherwise it will burst.” He explains that a lot of wood is needed for glass production in order to continuously fire the melting furnaces and to produce the raw material potash. Quartz sand, soda and lime are the other ingredients.
The Royal Bavarian Privileged Crystal Glass Factory Theresienthal was founded in 1836 by Franz Steigerwald as a further development of the “flying huts” that had emerged in the forests from the 12th century. “In addition to the Bavarian royal court, the manufactory also supplied the French court and the Russian tsar,” says Fred Baierl later in the museum palace next door. Every Friday he leads through the small, fine exhibition of glass art.
The unique huts are expensive to this day: you pay between 70 and 85 euros for a hand-made wine cup from the Bacchus collection with colored rosettes, Theresienthal’s flagship product. Company founder’s daughter Henriette Steigerwald designed the series. Classy and for special occasions. So rather nothing for domestic everyday use.
The search continues. But before that, the retiree, who has worked in the manufactory all his life, shows ornate glasses from King Ludwig I and II and leads to a display case with a huge glass goblet. “The tsar had one like that too. It was carried to Saint Petersburg by hand. It would have broken in a horse-drawn carriage.”
The Theresienthal hut is now the oldest still existing in the Bavarian Forest, after the furnace in the Freiherr von Poschinger glass factory in Frauenau went out last autumn after around 500 years. Theresienthal, with around 30 employees, has also gone through difficult times, says Baierl.
Between 1980 and 2000, the number of glass manufacturers decreased rapidly, machine-made glass was the big competition, as you can find out in the Frauenau Glass Museum. The glass road sign points the way from Zwiesel. The air smells spicy of wood through the open window into the car.
The scent lingers in the museum, which shows the beginnings of glass through to the present day and, in 2005, allows glassmakers to create forecasts on screens. Some say that their profession will die out because handicrafts are too expensive, others hope for a future in handicrafts.
Alfons Eisch, located a stone’s throw from the Glass Museum, is one of those who made it. The Eisch family business has developed from one of the smallest smelters, which initially did not always find it easy for the other aristocratic factory owners, to become a market leader. “My father Valentin founded the manufactory in 1946 and after the war he was successful with fine decorations,” says the 92-year-old son.
After performing a sound test on a kind of glass xylophone during the interactive factory tour, he elicits deep tones from a glass trumpet. Today, handmade products with gold, such as the award-winning Cosmo espresso cups, are the distinguishing feature of Eisch: “And our Sensisplus series.” More aromas, more taste nuances when drinking wine, the glasses would tease out.
A few hilltops further, in Oberfrauenau, you can try that with regional gourmet cuisine in the modern interpretation of the “Re(h)serviert” inn – and it’s true. However, you have to shell out around 90 euros for a set of four no-frills Eisch Bordeaux glasses.
During the evening walk through the glass gardens between the Eisch hut and the glass museum, this will be calculated. The open-air works of art made of glass on the site attract attention, including the heavenly bowl by artist Ronald Fischer and the sculpture Das Urkraut. The group of three glass rods, which look like fantasy plants, are by the Bayerwald glass artist Magdalena Paukner.
It is home and nature that inspire Magdalena Paukner for her extraordinary glass variations. She is known for her colorful vases, bowls and mugs (a feast for the eyes, but unfortunately no wine glasses) and her filigree jewelry. The artist creates strawberry necklaces, rowanberry earrings or necklaces of hollyhocks and mallow from glass threads, which she processes on a burner.
“My father was a glass grinder, as were my grandfather and my great-grandfather.” She herself learned glass sculpture at the technical school in Zwiesel, went to a workshop in Nuremberg, returned as a master craftsman and thought about her future: “I have the decline of the glassworks experienced and wanted to create something for me in the region that would endure.” In 2013 she started as a freelance artist. “If you do beautiful things, you will be successful,” she says.
The Glass Street was created in 1997 so that as many people as possible can see all the beautiful things this area has to offer, explains Ulrike Eberl-Walter from the East Bavaria Tourism Association.
The holiday route was triggered in 1988 by the successful theme year “The Transparent Forest”, in which glass production was advertised as a flagship of the densely wooded region. Tourism has been thriving ever since. “In Lower Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate, he generated gross sales of 4.78 billion euros in 2019 compared to 2014 with 4.38 billion euros,” says Eberl-Walter.
By the way, there is actually a forest made of glass under the open sky. It opens up next to the Weißenstein castle ruins, which tower over the town of Regen. Sparkling spruce, fir, beech and other trees rise up in the 2000 square meter forest. The daylight creates fascinating light effects.
Gradually the sun sinks behind the mountain tops for this day. Floor washlights now illuminate the tree sculptures made of colored flat glass, which are up to eight meters high. Glass artist Rudolf Schmid let them grow into the sky.
He has already performed many a miracle, including his glass barn in small Rauhbühl near Viechtach, around 30 kilometers away. From 1977, the 84-year-old built his life’s work on a former farm. He used silicate paints to paint myths and legends from the Bavarian Forest on glass walls that were several meters high.
“There is the Räuber-Heigl glass wall or the Mühlhiasl story,” says son-in-law Franz Thöner, who now runs the glass barn with Schmid’s daughter Barbara. One likes to take a seat in front of the legend of the forest prophet, listen to the story, follow the illuminated scenes with one’s eyes and wonder who from the family was the model for the great artist.
Everyone had a turn, admits Barbara Thöner with a smile. She herself makes unique pieces of jewelry from sea glass – shards that have been polished by sand and salt water over the years. Chains, bracelets, earrings, in which she also works gold leaf. Simple earrings from her must be taken as a souvenir, but wine glasses have still not been found.
The search is finally crowned with success in the Zwieseler “Glashotel”, which is stuck up in the village on the hillside and has dedicated itself to the regional theme. The red wine comes to the table in a large, angular goblet from the Zwiesel-Glas company. That’s them! The ideal wine glasses have finally been found.
The company with 500 employees, which supplies top hotels and restaurants, cannot be missed the next day in the glass city. In front of the factory outlet, the world’s highest crystal glass pyramid rises from 93,000 piled up glasses. What if you pull one out? “Nothing would happen,” assures Marketing Manager Michael Eichinger.
Inside the sales room you can take a look into the show oven and then experience a guided tour through the mechanical production. “We’ve been manufacturing glasses industrially since 1961,” says Eichinger as we walk through the noisy and warm workshop. There is also a factory in Hungary.
Before the eyes of the visitors, a wine goblet is created from a drop in the blow molding machine, which is connected to the stem in the pressing process and then moves into the annealing kiln for several hours. Vivid Senses is the name of the line of the wine glass discovered the night before in the “Glashotel”, explains Eichinger, it costs 11.95 euros per piece, less in the factory outlet. It is made of hard Tritan crystal glass that is shatterproof. Perfect! The right glass for the domestic household has been found, which will hopefully survive for a long time.
Participation in the trip was supported by Arberland Regio Society. You can find our standards of transparency and journalistic independence at axelspringer.com/de/Werte/downloads.
Even if many public holidays fall on a weekend again in 2022, you can still arrange your vacation days in such a way that you have as many days off as possible in a row. With these tips you can use the bridge days as efficiently as possible.
Source: WELT/ Viktoria Schulte