Tiemi, le Monchhichi de la RDA
In France, it seems quite easy and normal for us to have had a Kiki during our childhood, with Kiki being omnipresent in our universe, both in Christmas catalogs and in TV commercials. It was not the same for East German children at the time when the country was still divided. Indeed, for the younger ones or those who no longer remember, from the end of World War II until 1990 (marked by the fall of the Berlin Wall), the country was divided into two Germanys governed by drastically different policies: the GDR and the FRG.
What is the connection with Monchhichi? You will discover it by learning in detail the history of Tiemi. Far from being a simple counterfeit as there were many, the Tiemi plush has a very interesting history that I will present to you below. Although they are very similar, Monchhichi and Tiemi were introduced into worlds that, in the 1970s, had almost nothing in common: Monchhichi reigned in the cluttered children's rooms of West Germany, while Tiemi found its way into the mostly modestly furnished rooms of East German children. In fact, the two plush toys were often separated by only a few kilometers, but because of the wall between East and West, their histories are actually unrelated – except for the fact that they were the most popular toys for many German boys and girls for years.
FRG and GDR:
As briefly explained above, after World War II, Germany was divided into two distinct states: the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG/BRD) in the west, influenced by Western powers, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR/DDR) in the east, under Soviet control, with a much more authoritarian regime. This division, symbol of the Cold War, lasted from 1949 until reunification in 1990.
Monchhichi banned in the GDR:
When Monchhichi enthusiasts talk about the arrival of the beloved Japanese plush monkey in Germany, they imply its arrival in the FRG, the western side. However, Monchhichi, which quickly won the hearts of Western children, was not welcome beyond the wall. Indeed, a small plush monkey with a pacifier that you could dress up as a race car driver, aviator, or soldier "for a lot of money", and which also came from Japan, was a symbol of the hated capitalist system. Its commercialization on GDR soil was banned by the highest officials. Thus, if Monchhichi did indeed achieve colossal success in Germany, it was actually only in the western zone.
Since Sekiguchi introduced Monchhichi to the market in the mid-1970s, Western children have been electrified by it. It was sold millions of times in West Germany. As a boy, girl, baby, then grandmother and grandfather, Monchhichi found their way into children's rooms in FRG. And children in the GDR? They also heard about this plush toy, and saw it on forbidden Western television or at relatives' houses from over there. They talked and dreamed about Monchhichi, and would have given a lot to have it in their room.
In fact, as you can see, East and West German toys have always had many similarities. In the GDR, they also had Lego-like blocks with which children could build all sorts of things – the only difference being that the houses resembled the gray prefabricated buildings that were popular here under socialism. Of course, the little pacifier-sucking monkeys, being considered 'fantastical' creatures, stood out from toys that were inspired by reality. This toy therefore has nothing to do with the real-world replicas that the GDR state and parents liked to promote to their children.
Tiemi, a made-in-GDR alternative:
When Monchhichi conquered West Germany, it didn't take long for the GDR to decide to jump on the bandwagon. Thus, similar plush toys soon appeared there. Tiemi is the name of the most famous one, manufactured from 1979 in a state-owned toy factory in the GDR in Sonneberg, VEB Sonni.
The small town of Sonneberg, with a population of nearly 23,000 inhabitants, proudly bore the name "World Toy City" at the beginning of the 20th century. Because the region offered few employment opportunities but was located on an important trade route, the inhabitants early on had the idea of selling homemade toys and dolls to passing merchants. Over time, the many tinkerers became a real toy industry that, at its peak, supplied nearly half of the world's toy trade.
But after 1945, the world changed radically: while West German entrepreneurs could freely conduct their business, family businesses in the east of the country were expropriated, transferred to so-called state-owned enterprises (VEB), and then grouped together. And since Western toys were not only undesirable in the GDR but also in most other Eastern Bloc countries, the Sonneberg toy group soon had customers beyond East Germany's borders: 37,000 people made up to 15,000 dolls a day in factory halls. At some point, they also produced Tiemi.
A hundred kilometers from Sonneberg, at VEB Biggi Spielwaren, also part of the group, there was a toy designer by the name of Mrs. Susanne Thieme. Now, you can easily guess where the name comes from. It is obvious that Tiemi was modeled after Monchhichi – even though, of course, no one would have officially admitted it. The factory premises resembled a giant U.
In fact, toys made in East Germany were also highly sought after in the West because they were much cheaper than anything produced in the West. Indeed, a GDR worker earned much less than a Western worker. Since a Westmark was worth much more than an Ostmark, it was incredibly cheap for the West to buy toys in the GDR. For the West, the GDR of the 70s and 80s resembled today's China a bit.
A Tiemi for the GDR, but much more:
Parents needed luck or good connections to obtain one of the nearly one million Tiemi plush toys produced with very different outfits, sizes, and even colors. Sixty percent were exported to the West and ended up, among other places, in the luxury department stores of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris. One-fifth of the production went to socialist countries, and only the rest made East German children happy.
Of course, if Tiemi came to be in the world of the GDR in 1979, it was not necessarily because the officials were particularly interested in the toy dreams of East German children, but rather because the GDR economy did not produce much money, the state was in debt, and desperately sought new sources of money. Tiemi was one of them.
A happy ending?
The 80s arrived, and with them the end of Tiemi (in 1989 precisely). When the wall fell, the GDR economy collapsed, and with it many industries, the Sonneberg group was quickly dissolved, and production ceased, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs that could have been preserved.
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Today, Tiemi has finally reunited with Monchhichi on the shelves of collectors worldwide, and we couldn't find a better ending! Both reunited, a symbol of the disappearance of past tensions and conflicts. Even if it is not a Monchhichi, the story of this plush toy is closely linked to it and testifies to a historical chapter in European history.
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More than a simple imitation, this Monchhichi substitute is part of Monchhichi's history, but above all, it helped brighten the harsh lives of children under an authoritarian state.
I hope you enjoyed discovering its history. Feel free to let us know in the comments.
See you soon!
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Propriété de KikiPlanet.blogspot.com
Article L-1224 du Code de la Propriété Intellectuelle
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© Kiki Planet-2017. Tous droits réservés
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