As of: February 2, 2024 1:37 p.m
Oliver Schaffer from Hamburg has what is probably the largest Playmobil collection in Germany and calls himself a “diorama artist”. He recreates historical scenes with Playmobil figures for museums all over Germany.
When Oliver Schaffer rummages through his countless Playmobil parts, he is in his element. With a “click” he swaps a figure’s construction worker’s helmet for a royal crown. Oliver Schaffer can only estimate exactly how much Playmobil he owns. “I assume there are over 3 million individual parts and over 400,000 figures.” They are mostly used throughout Germany and that’s a good thing, emphasizes Schaffer. “If everything were here at the same time, I wouldn’t be able to move at all.”
Playmobil stacked meters high in boxes
The boxes are stacked meters high in his warehouse north of Hamburg. On the high shelf and on the floor there are XXL figures one and a half meters high – lined up like in a parade. “This is a clown, and here is a fine gentleman, and somewhere behind there are such special figures as, for example, the palace guards at Buckingham Palace in London.”
The collector Oliver Schaffer keeps what is not shown in an exhibition in his warehouse north of Hamburg.
Oliver Schaffer is a Playmobil collector on a large scale. But he is not primarily concerned with possessions. He wants to show his characters. Two of his exhibitions are currently running in Speyer and the Rheingau. Last year he showed a journey through the city’s history at the Hamburg Archaeological Museum. “My personal highlight was the Hammaburg, an early medieval settlement. Many children and adults always think: castle = stone, but the Hammaburg was a large wooden castle with a large wall and I then recreated this wall. That’s a total nice way to deal with our history.”
From hobby to full-time career
Oliver Schaffer is actually a musical actor. He used to play in “Mamma Mia” in Hamburg, among others. But his enthusiasm for Playmobil worlds gripped him as a child. “I was three years old and a big circus fan and then I founded my own circus, the ‘Circus Oliver’.” Years later, on what was then Playmobil’s 30th anniversary, he showed his circus collection in the museum for the first time. Little by little it becomes a full-time job.
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Oliver Schaffer’s collection shows how Playmobil figures have developed over the decades. “For example, it starts here in 1974 with knights, construction workers and Indians. It wasn’t until two years later that the first female figures appeared. The children’s figures have been around since 1981 and for the first time they have rotating hands.”
Always looking for Playmobil parts
The big world in miniature: from the queen to the sewer worker, there’s pretty much everything in the Playmobil universe.
Historical scenes interest Oliver Schaffer the most. Whether Stone Age or Middle Ages – he is always looking for suitable components. “Then I think: ‘Ah, the broom suddenly appeared a brown color!’ And then I buy it 100 or 200 times so that I always have it ready for historical topics in the future.” Everything is pre-sorted in the warehouse and later set up in the museum. To this day, he is fascinated by how everything can be combined again and again. “With a different hairstyle and two accessories you can see: This is no longer Mozart, this is suddenly Theodor Fontane.”
Exhibitions in the Louvre in Paris and the Gemäldegalerie in Kassel
Oliver Schaffer was even able to show his Playmobil figures in the west wing of the Louvre. The next project he is currently preparing for also sounds exciting. It is in the Old Masters Picture Gallery in Wilhelmshöhe Palace in Kassel. “I’m recreating 20 paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer and so on with Playmobil. The last place families with children actually go are picture galleries, so this opens up a whole new circle of visitors.”
Ideal world with an eternally smiling Playmobil figure
50 years of Playmobil – for Oliver Schaffer this is also a piece of German cultural heritage. He turned his passion into a career. “You could put it so casually: I make the world the way I like it. And I find that so charming, that it really is an ideal world. There is no war, there are no tanks, it is always an eternally smiling one Figure.”
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NDR Culture | Journal | 02.02.2024 | 4:30 p.m