Opening Summer of 2026
The Alte Schule Puppen Museum will be a center for workshops and artists' residencies, performances and film screenings, with over 200 puppets on display
Steven Ritz-Barr | museum director
The Alte Schule Puppet Museum is a project by Steven Ritz-Barr, a Master puppeteer/filmmaker with more than 45 years of experience in Los Angeles and Paris. Steven has performed puppetry around the world, worked with the likes of Jim Henson and Tim Burton in TV and movies, and directed his own series of marionette films under his production company, Classics in Miniature, Inc. (click here for website)
Eva Vinke was born in Bielefeld, Germany. She studied Theater and German in Leipzig, then Contemporary Puppetry at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. Her solo show Of Girls and Stockings was invited to several festivals and awarded the Freisprung Theater Young Talent Prize 2019. "It is important to me to bring puppet theater to places where there are few cultural offerings-like Datterode"
Eva Vinke | museum coordinator
Eugene Seregin | puppetmaker
Eugene Seregin has lived in the Los Angeles area since 1997 after fleeing from his native Moscow, Russia. He performed his live marionette shows to audiences throughout Europe and many times in the USA. In Moscow, he worked for Obrasov’s Moscow State Puppet Theatre for 20 years. Around 60% of all puppets in the museum were designed and built by Eugene.
This Alte Schule, built in 1901, was the elementary school of Ritz-Barr's wife, Dr. Beate Ritz, who grew up in Datterode. The building was used as a community office since 1985 until 2022.
Click "Directions'' on the map below to plan your route to Alte Schule Puppet Museum in Datterode, Ringgau, Germany
