WeiglaDocumented
Weigla is one of the youngest workshops in this collection, founded in 2002 by Günter Gläser in Deutschkatharinenberg, right against the Czech border. The company specializes in illuminated wood craft — Schwibbögen and Lichterbögen, the electric candle arches that light up windows across the Erzgebirge every winter — and since 2012 has worked with designer Rene Weinhold on wood-and-Plexiglas "Motivleuchten," a more contemporary take on the traditional form.
The full story: a 21st-century entry into a centuries-old craft
Weigla — registered as WEIGLA e.K. under owner Günter Gläser — is a genuinely modern addition to Erzgebirge craft, founded in 2002, more than a decade after reunification, with no DDR-era history to account for at all. Based in Deutschkatharinenberg, a district of Deutschneudorf sitting directly on the border with the Czech Republic, the workshop makes illuminated Schwibbögen and Lichterbögen — electric candle arches, the ones that show up in windows across the region every December.
In 2012, the company began working with designer Rene Weinhold on "Motivleuchten" — wood-and-Plexiglas illuminated pieces that update the traditional candle-arch form for a more contemporary look. It's a useful reminder that Erzgebirge craft isn't frozen in the 19th century: new workshops are still opening, and new designers are still finding new material combinations for very old forms.
Historical details above reflect publicly available sources as of 2026 and are presented in good faith; company-specific dates for small family workshops are sometimes thinly documented, and we've noted where regional context (rather than firm-specific record) is being described.