6 – Sonneberg

A town in Thuringia (Frankenspaß is true to its name). It forms a geographically and economically coherent urban unit with the neighboring Upper Franconian twin town of Neustadt bei Coburg. Sonneberg became known as the “world toy city” or the "workshop of santa clause" - which the German Toy Museum reminds us of today. It is also the headquarters of train model company PIKO. It was created in 1949 because all the train model companies of Germany, because after the introduction of the western Deutsche Mark the people living in the Soviet Zone (and later DDR) were not able to purchase any train model with their relatively worthless currency. Well, priorities.