Introduction

Abstract

This double issue is a sequel to the Kid Size issue vol. III from the year 2020 and expands the spectrum of playgrounds, kindergartens, children's homes and schools as well as the 'cities of childhood' co include further perspectives from the world of children and play. In the 'Puer Ludens. No Being without Play', Franziska Bollerey lets Friedrich Schiller and Johan Huizinga speak on the cultural relevance of play. This extensive subject matter prompted Walter Benjamin, a passionate collector of children's books, to speak of play as a 'gym device of the soul'. 'Play goes hand in hand with a sense of excitement and joy and an awareness of being different from “ordinary life”, Huizinga wrote. How many games François Rabelais catalogued and invented as early as the 14th century, and Piecer Bruegel the Elder depicted in his painting 'Children's Games' may be taken as an indication of the comparable reduction of varieties of games in our day and age. Games without objects need to be addressed as well as games involving toys. This article examines wooden toys in particular and describes the design activities of some Bauhaus members including Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger and Alma Siedhoff-Buscher. It also looks at the efforts towards reform toys, stimulated by the Werkbund branches in Austria and the Czech Republic, where, alongside prominent female designers, the Czech Ladislav Sumar assumed a pivotal role. In his work, as in chat of the largely unknown Joaquin Torres-Garcia, we find early attempts at the serial production of… […]