German puppet museum founded in Bad Kreuznach. PuK Museum für PuppentheaterKultur opened in 2005 and is supported by the Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate) Province. Markus Dorner is the current Museum Director. It includes the Collection of Karl-Heinz Rother (1928-2010) and his wife, Greta – one of the largest German private collections of the puppetry arts, which the couple sold to the Province of Rhineland-Palatinate to establish this innovative puppet museum.

In addition to exhibiting historical figures, PuK is dedicated to presenting contemporary and innovative manifestations. On display are approximately 1,000 figures from all over the world. It includes puppets from popular theatre, art theatre, and television. Displays, for example, include the original Hohnsteiner Kasper of Max Jacob, examples of the Hänneschen-Theater of Cologne, stagings of Carl Schröder, and examples from television including the production Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt, built and played by Albrecht Roser, Friedrich Arndt, Rudolf Fischer, and others.

Special exhibits often focus on the contemporary puppetry, like that of Fritz Herbert Bross, and the museum has become an important repository for archives and objects of major artists including the puppets of Albrecht Roser, shadow theatre figures of Otto Kraemer, training figures/models from the workshop of Hansjürgen Fettig, and material that documents the careers of German sculptors Theo Eggink and the aforementioned Herbert Bross. Puppet masters like Bross and Roser inspired the direction of “Marionettissimo”, a biennial festival for the art of string puppetry, including marionettes from Germany and abroad.

(See Germany.)