Prinzess-Keramik is the name of a company that produced ceramics in Vienna during the post-war period. In addition to utility ceramics, such as mirror frames, lamps and candlesticks, the company mainly manufactured figurines based on both secular and religious motifs. Being exported to many countries around the world, these ceramic figures used to shape the image of Austria at home and abroad. In 2005, the Volkskundemuseum purchased a group of Prinzess-Keramik objects by a private collector couple. These objects were added to the ceramics collection and given the inventory numbers ÖMV/83123 to 83193. At the time, there was no literature on this type of ceramics and no objects were known to exist in other museums. The company was founded by ceramist Hertha Reisinger (born 20 September 1911 in Linz, died 2 January 1999 in Vienna) and Linz-based entrepreneur Otto Maria Weinzinger. The production facility was located in the basement of a residential building at Roßauer Lände 45, Stroheckgasse 14–16 in the 9th district of Alsergrund in Vienna. It was here that ceramic objects were manufactured between 1947 and 1953, with sales focussing on exports. Hertha Reisinger designed utility ceramics and figurines with secular and religious motifs for Prinzess-Keramik. She frequently created figurines wearing traditional costumes in a style that was strongly committed to the Nazi image of man and the Nazi ideal of beauty. The range of objects also included fairytale motifs, mirrors, jewellery boxes, confectionery containers, lamps and candlesticks, cast in hollow moulds. Trader Otto Maria Weinzinger then exported Prinzess-Keramik works all over the world, which contributed greatly to the image of Austrian culture held abroad. The married couple Elfriede and Paul Tamme from Vienna collected ceramics in the Austrian Heimatstil from manufactories in Liezen, Mürztal, Scheibbs, St. Peter in Freistadt, as well as Bosse ceramics and Prinzess-Keramik items. Via a dealer, the couple had acquired a group of the latter a few years prior from the estate of the Otto Maria Weinzinger company, together with brochures and various documents. Due to a lack of space, they had to part with some of their collection. Paul Tamme offered his Prinzess-Keramik collection to the Volkskundemuseum Wien (Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art) and its Director at the time Franz Grieshofer. The museum attempted to raise part of the purchase price through a fundraising campaign aimed at museum visitors. To this end, 37 ceramics pieces were exhibited for several years (2006 to 2010) in the central display case in Room 3 of the museum's permanent exhibition. While the ceramics objects were digitised in the M-Box museum database in 2008, data on the ceramics exhibited during the fundraising campaign was only recorded in 2010. A small exhibition in the entrance hall of the museum on the 'rapid standstill during Covid-19' entitled Rasanter Stillstand. Impressionen unter Covid-19, which ran from 9 February to 21 March 2021, showed photographic documentation of the first lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this show, a small elephant sculpture (ÖMV/83169), designed by Hertha Reisinger for Prinzess-Keramik, represented the widely known 'baby elephant', which had been invented by an advertising agency as a symbol for the minimum distance required by the Austrian government for social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021 and 2022, art historian Katja Brunn conducted research on Hertha Reisinger and the Prinzess-Keramik workshop, which the entrepreneur had founded and operated in Vienna between 1947 and 1953. She presented her findings at the 54th International Ceramics Symposium of Arbeitskreis für Keramikforschung in Landshut in September 2022. Her research entitled Von Linz nach Wien und in die große weite Welt. Hertha Reisinger und die Prinzess-Keramik. Eine Objektrecherche (From Linz to Vienna and into the big wide world. Hertha Reisinger and the Prinzess-Keramik workshop. An object research) was published in issue 2/2024 of the Austrian Journal of Folklore Studies (Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde). Katja Brunn has also written biographies of Hertha Reisinger and Otto Maria Weinzinger. Claudia Peschel-Wacha Curator of the Ceramics, Glass and Stone Collection 4 November 2024 Prinzess-Keramik
73 Digitized Items in Albums → Prinzess-Keramik
73 Digitized Items in Albums → Prinzess-Keramik
Deckeldose
Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Deckeldose
Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)
Deckeldose
Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Deckeldose in Form eines Ostereies
Ei, Deckeldose [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Deckeldose in Form eines Ostereies
Ei, Deckeldose [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Arzt, schreitend, mit Halskrause, Spitzhut und Buch
Medicus mit Buch [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Bäuerin mit Korb am Arm
Klatschbasen I [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49; die zweite Figur fehlt]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Elefant
Elephant [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Engelskopf mit Flügeln
Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Eule
Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau in Tracht
Ausseerin [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau in Tracht mit Blumenkorb und Blumenstrauß
Tirolerin m. Blumenkorb und Strauss [sic] [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau in Tracht mit Schirm
Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau mit Apfelkorb
Linz (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau mit Eimer
Magd mit Eimer [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau mit Goldhaube
Linzerin mit Goldhaube [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau mit Kanne
Magd mit Krug [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9.Figur: Frau mit Kanne
Magd mit Krug [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau mit Kind auf dem Schoß
Mutter mit Kind, sitzend [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau mit Kopftuch und Obstkorb
Bäuerin mit Korb [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau mit Korb am Arm
Klatschbasen [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49; die zweite Figur fehlt]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau mit Schirm unter dem Arm
Oberösterreicherin mit Flügelhaube & Schirm [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau, sitzend, mit Kanne
Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frau, sitzend, mit Kanne
Ruhende mit Krug [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Frosch
Frosch [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Hausierer mit Bauchladen
Hausierer [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Hirte, sitzend, mit Lamm
Hirte, sitzend, m. Lamm [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Mädchen beim Lesen
Kleines Mädchen mit Buch [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Mädchen mit Herz in den Händen
Kleines Mädchen mit Pelzmütze, Vorarlbergerin [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)Figur: Mädchen mit Wickelkind
Puppenmutter, KInd mit Puppe [laut Modellnummernkatalog von Otto Maria Weinzinger, vermutlich 1948/49]Wien 9. (Herstellungsort)