Sonneberg in Thuringia, Germany, is the seat of the Sonneberg district. It is in the Franconian south of Thuringia, neighboring its Upper Franconian twin town Neustadt bei Coburg. Sonneberg became known as the "world toy city", and is home to the and the Sonneberg observatory, founded in 1925. The Thuringian Slate Mountains border the city, with the Franconian Forest to the east. History "The Sonneberg Castle was also called Sonneberg Castle or the Haus zu Sonneberg in old documents. In 480 Süne or Süno, Duke of Franconia, built this castle because of the Thuringian incursions ..." so it says on page 64 in the topography of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen's share in the Duchy of Coburg from the year 1781. This not uncritical representation is based on the history of the Franks by Abbot Johannes Trithemius from 1514. The name Sonneberg was first mentioned in documents in 1207. It goes back to the noble family of the Lords of Sonneberg, which is documented in the 12th and 13th centuries and founded a settlement below the Sonneberg Castle, which originally consisted of the estate and two hamlets, the village of "Alt-Rötin, presumed to be in Herrnau "And the" Stätlein zu Rötin under the Sonneberg Castle ". The Lords of Sonneberg were ministerials in the service of the Dukes of Andechs-Meranien, who, as a Bavarian noble family, established a lordly administration in the region around Sonneberg and Coburg. The quarrying of whetstones and slate for slates has been documented since 1500. From the long-established wooden goods manufacture, the production of the Sonneberg toys known as Nuremberg trinkets developed from the 16th century onwards. Around 1700, the Dressel company, and from 1873 Cuno & Otto Dressel, the largest manufacturer and exporter of toys was founded in Sonneberg. From 1805, with the introduction of paper mache, Sonneberg developed into a toy production center with international status, especially in the manufacture of dolls (see also: F. M. Schilling). In 1840 a city fire destroyed the old city center around the market square in what is now the Upper City. In 1883 the industrial school was opened in Mühlgasse 4, where artistic porcelain, glass and toy design was taught. The term “world toy city” was coined around 1913 due to the share of Sonneberg's production on the world market. Before the First World War, around 20% of the toys traded on the world market in the