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October 11th, 2007 by Just Glass Oline Staff

M.I. Hummel products are the result of a meeting of the minds which created a long standing partnership between W. Goebel Porzellanfabrik and a German artist who was also a nun; Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel.

Berta Hummel was born in Bavaria in 1909 and had a remarkable talent for creating still life versions of children. In 1927, Berta enrolled in Munich’s famed Academy of Applied Arts.

“Religion had always been important to Berta. She befriended two Franciscan Sisters from a teaching order that emphasized the arts. Berta decided to enter the Convent of Siessen upon graduation in 1931, and three years later, took the name Maria Innocentia.” (From the M I Hummel biography of Berta Hummel)

The convent encouraged her arts and helped her to develop her talents so that soon thereafter some publishers of German art began producing her drawings as art cards, or post cards, which drew the attention of a porcelain company head, named Franz Goebel.

He proposed an idea to Sister Hummel, that they create her drawings in three dimensional figurines for sale to the public.

The first figurines were introduced in 1935 and were immediately snapped up by a public who could not seem to get enough of the innocence of the children Sister Hummel’s drawings created.

Sister Hummel died at the very youthful age of just 37, but Franz Goebel continued to produce her art with a team from the convent who approved the figurines, and continue to do so today.

Fortunately while she was alive Berta Hummel was such a prolific artist that the art used to create her Hummel figurines is still what she left to the convent.

M.I. Hummel figurines continue to charm the world. To view Hummel Official web site and the collectible available for your purchase pay a visit to the M.I. Hummel Collectibles Store.