Käthe Kruse (1883–1968) transformed the doll-making industry in the early twentieth century by rejecting the rigid porcelain figures then in vogue and making soft, cloth dolls with handpainted faces that were meant to feel like real children when held. Her first doll, made in 1905 from a potato-stuffed pillowcase for her own daughter, became the prototype for a line that would sell across Europe and America. Donauwörth was her home and the base of her workshop, and the museum in a former monastery building holds several hundred original Kruse dolls spanning her entire career.
The collection is more interesting than it sounds. The dolls trace the evolution of her technique and aesthetics over six decades, from the earliest simple figures to the more refined postwar models, and the accompanying material covers her remarkable biography — she was an unmarried mother, an actress, and a self-taught entrepreneur who built her business entirely outside the conventional trade networks of the time. Her relationship with the town, and the town's pride in her legacy, is a recurring theme.
The museum is small enough to cover in an hour and pitched accessibly enough that it works for visitors of most ages. Children who encounter the older dolls — realistic but slightly uncanny — tend to have strong opinions about them.