Nativity scenes from all over the world in Güstrow

The nativity scenes were collected by Mechthild Ringguth, a teacher's daughter from Hamburg. To do so, she traveled around the world for half a century. She described her travels as exhausting and adventurous, but nevertheless with many moments of happiness. „I slept in a tent for five weeks“, she reported on her journey through the desert state of Oman in one of her last interviews. Mechthild Ringguth's enthusiasm for nativity scenes began with a souvenir from Provence. In the mid-1960s, the former director of a film archive brought back small Santons figurines from her vacation in southern France. Mechthild Ringguth was immediately fascinated by the colorfully painted terracotta figures of saints, which were only a few centimetres tall, and never let go. She initially visited museums and manufactories in France and soon extended her search for nativity figures to the whole world. When the passionate church leader was visited one Advent day in 1983 by the former head of the Hamburg Michel, Helge Adolphsen, he could hardly believe his eyes. He organized an exhibition for the collection of several hundred nativity scenes in the crypt of the Michel. Triggered by the success of this exhibition, the nativity scene collection then traveled throughout Europe for 25 years and was shown in Berlin Cathedral, Timisoara Cathedral in Romania and even in St. Peter's Church in St. Petersburg. At some point, Mechthild Ringguth wanted a permanent exhibition and found the perfect place for it in the Heilig-Geist-Kirche in Güstrow.