Cigar Boxes @museum.de

Selli Knopfschachtl – beloved cigar box. The poet Simone Schneider writes in the local Baden dialect, and among her verses is one addressing the second life of a used cigar box lovingly dedicated to the little box holding a mix of little odds and ends. If you’d like to listen to the verses in the German original, you can find them as stop number 11.1. Even now, such a handsomely decorated cigar box can be found in many a household.

In the Oberschopfheim borough of Friesenheim, the Geiger firm produced cigars. The entrepreneur Franz Geiger founded his first factory in 1889 and rapidly expanded the business. 25 years later, he had 14 subsidiary plants. On the chair in this glass case, you can see probably the most famous of his firm’s products: the Schwarzer Geiger cigar. Geiger also produced a premium cigar make called Marie Luise – that box is now home to a button collection.

On the floor of the glass case, on the left, there’s a small cigar box that needs no sophisticated packaging. Its good name is enough. The Monte Christo cigar from Havana is without a doubt one of the most famous of all. If you look at the excise duty band you can still see the price. This box of 25 cigars cost 600 marks at the time.