Mother Holle in a Snow Globe

And so it happened that for more than 100 years, people from all over the world have delighted in the magic of the snow globe. Japan and the USA are especially enthusiastic. Two regions which Erwin Perzy II. explored in the years following World War II. In the 1940s, the snow globe even made it to Hollywood fame. In Orson Welles’s movie “Citizen Kane,“ a glass orb enclosed the snow-covered house of the main character’s youth and with it his longings.

The museum which is adjacent to the manufacture features hundreds of motifs: Buildings, foods, snowmen and, of course, angels, Santas and Christmas trees. The swirling snow suggests a bright, optimistic world. Snow is synonymous with calmness and peace and for many represents childhood memories, sometimes even melancholic feelings.

At the family-run business in Wien-Hernals, the snow globes are still made by hand. The artificial snow, however, is no longer made of semolina. For a while, a mix of wax and magnesium powder was substituted, but that turned out not to be heat-proof. However, Erwin Perzy III. does not reveal how exactly Mother Holle’s helpers make the artificial snow today: "That remains our secret! Not even my daughter, who runs the business today, knows the exact formula for the snow.” 

This much we do know: The water in the glass orbs is ordinary Viennese tap water. And nowadays, the figures are made with a 3D printer. Sabine Perzy, the inventor’s great-granddaughter, has adapted the motifs to today’s tastes. Reacting to the current pandemic, she created a model which literally flew off the shelves: a toilet paper roll surrounded by swirling snow - an allusion to the scarcity of the product during the first big lockdown.