German Smokers, German Incense Smoker, Smoking Men

We stock a hand-selected variety of German Smokers, or German Smoking Men, on our site. We travel directly to the source deep in the heart Germany's Erzgebirge region in Saxony to choose which smokersto stock. We have a representative in Saxony that to make sure we receive the highest quality from the Erzgebirge workshops.

About Our German Smokers, Smoking Men or Erzgebirge Smokers:

German Smokers, or smoking men, and the smell of incense cones belong to the Erzgebirgian Christmas just like the German nutcracker. An important component in the development for the German Smokers was the use of Frankincense (Weihrauch) in the Christmas tradition/ Frankincense was next to gold and Myrrh one of the three presents the three holy kings brought to the Baby Jesus.

It is estimated that the production of smoking cones, now used in German Smokers, started around 1750 in the village of Crottendorf in the Erzgebirge. The Heilig-Ohmd-Lied accounts of the usage of smoking cones around 1830, although the cones were not yet placed inside of a figurine but burned on a small tray.

Throughout the Nineteenth, public smoking was a widespread habit that made the sight of a man with a pipe in his mouth a common one. This is believed to have been the inspiration for the creation of the first German smoker.The origins of German Smokers believed to date back to 1856/57 in Heidelberg - which today is a part of the town of Seiffen. The German Smokers, or smoking men, were made the same way as the nutcrackers, although German Smokers consists of two parts that are put on top of each other. On the lower part the smoking cone is placed on a little tin circle, the upper part works as the smoking kettle.

Unlike the nutcrackers, that traditionally represent officers and other officials, the German craftsmen chose everyday people as models for their German smokers. Favorites themes for German Smokers are miners, shepherds, chimney sweepers and other traditional German occupations.