Carts, Carriages & Sleighs @museum.de

A sleigh in a tobacco museum? At first glance, that seems rather surprising.

It isn’t, though. Quite the contrary. In the 19th century, every tobacco manufactory had its own, well equipped vehicle fleet. The factory owner would use the vehicles to visit his remote branches. In all weathers!

Today, we’re used to employees commuting to their workplaces, in some cases over many miles. In the past, it was the other way around. The workers weren’t very mobile, so in addition to the main plants, the major cigar firms set up a great many subsidiary manufactories in the surrounding communities, from Upper Baden all the way to the Alsace. Naturally, these branches had to be visited and monitored at regular intervals.

Here, in Wilhelm Weinacker’s main plant, the carts and carriages were housed in the coach house, which is on the other side of the yard. Of course, Weinacker usually travelled by carriage. But if there was snow or conditions were icy, he’d take this sleigh.

Later, Weinacker took these trips by car. Unfortunately, both the car and his chauffeur were conscripted in the First World War … and vanished, never to be seen again.

Before you move on into the next room, you may want to take a look at the sales counter, to the left of the entrance. We have some historical cigar moulds on display there, along with some original cigar industry advertising media.