SCHAEFER Foundation

The SCHAEFER Foundation is represented in the museum with the exhibition of snuff jars. In 40 years of passionate collecting, the married couple Marianne and Heiner Schaefer have amassed a collection of over 3,500 snuff glasses from Bavaria, Bohemia and Austria from 1800 to the present day. Of these, around 1,200 of the most beautiful and historically important glasses went to the Frauenau Glass Museum, where they can be admired in the completely redesigned area of the study collection in 2018. The presentation includes an extensive display of historical tobacco glass from Bavaria and Bohemia. The elaborately designed snuff jars from the Schachtenbach glassworks, to name just one example, are remarkable. Another focus is on modern glass from 1960 onwards, with glass from all the glassmakers and glass refiners in the region who have dedicated themselves to the production of tobacco glass. Studio glass artists are also represented with outstanding works. Selected snuff glasses from the collection of Margarete Schaufelberger from Switzerland, who has amassed an exquisite collection of tobacco glasses over the years, will also be on display. There is also an insight into the exhibition and book project "Searching for Traces", which traces the former owners of old tobacco jars. The Schaefer Foundation has devoted a large number of exhibitions and accompanying catalogues to a wide variety of topics relating to snuff jars.

The SCHAEFER Foundation not only enriches the Frauenau Glass Museum with its outstanding tobacco glass collection, but also plays a key role in supporting the museum in a wide variety of areas. Thanks to the generous and ongoing support of the SCHAEFER Foundation, significant purchases have been made for the collection and projects such as the digitisation of the Bayerische Wald-Zeitung have been implemented.