Märklin Modernism

Germans are surprisingly modern when it comes to their basement workshops — in the model railway sets of the “Miracle on the Rhine” era, architecture was more than merely a backdrop. New and old, high-rise and timber-frame structures peacefully co-existed in such cases. The exhibition will be the first to show just how enthusiastic about architecture the supposedly philistine model railway builders really were. Everyone could afford a “Villa in the Ticino” back then — for 4.75 Deutschmarks, you could get a 1:87 scale model. This was modeled on an actual residential house on the St Gotthard Pass, which doubly inspired the Faller brothers in 1961. They had a similar villa built at the company headquarters in Gütenbach and in para-llel developed an injection molded kit of the building. Curious stories also surround the glass tower restaurant, an embattled town church and a postmodern high-rise.

An exhibition by online magazine moderneREGIONAL and DAM, supported by Wüstenrot Stiftung.