André Bindler, Musée de la Doller / The Doller Museum

the musée de la Doller in 1981

this picture and the next two courtesy of Marc Grodwohl

Life and works

André Bindler (1922-2011) at age fourteen went to work in the textile industry in the Alsace area of north-western France. He had to leave this job in 1979, because of the effects of a physical injury he received during WW II.

He did not like to be inactive and began making sculptures of animals, which he displayed in the garden around his house in Sickert a small community in the Alsace area in France.

animals in the "jardin de paradis", 

as shown in the Ecomusee

Around 1983 Bindler began making replicas of famous Parisian buildings.

The story is that he had seen an article in a newspaper about someone who had constructed the Eiffel Tower by gluing matches together. So André Bindler also made an Eiffel Tower, not from matches, but from wood and iron. He continued with a replica of the Notre Dame basilica, just using a postcard as an example. And he also copied the Arc de Triomphe.

In later years he made sculptures of famous persons and replicas of chapels in the area of the Doller river. All creations were exposed in and around his place of living.

famous persons (grands hommes) 

on show in the Ecomusée

Passers-bye were invited to visit the site by means of a sign that directed them to his Musée de la Doller.

Around 1989, after so many years of making creations, Bindler no longer had the energy to continue this activity.

Works moved to the Alsace Eco-museum

The future of the environment would have become uncertain, if not in 1991 the sign Musée had been noted by Marc Grodwohl, at that time director of the Eco-musée d'Alsace (opened 1984). Around 1990 this museum focused upon saving socio-cultural and industrial ethnographics from the area, that were threatened with decay, by adding them to the museum´s collection.

"le Bartholdi de pauvre", (statue of liberty?)

picture courtesy of pierrepaul43 (Flickr, april 2010)

Volunteers of the museum, advised by Bindler, have spent years in installing and if necessary restoring the collection.

Bindler passed away in 2011. His creations currently are still present at the museum.

Documentation

* Website Habitants-Paysagistes with a series of photos of the site in the original setting (1989) by Francis David
* Marc Grodwohl described on his website the transferal of Bindler's art environment to the Écomusée
* More pictures on the elf2manie weblog, the dansmabonjotte weblog and the weblog of Sophie Lepetit

Video
* A video (3'36") by regional TV with Bindler being interviewed, published February 2014, but obviously shot many years earlier

Andre Bindler
Musée de la Doller
Sickert, dept Haut-Rhin, region Grand Est, France
the original site doesn't exist anymore, 

most creations currently in:
Ecomusée d´Alsace
Ungersheim dept Haut-Rhin, region Grand Est, France
visitors welcome