Anchor Stones Building Blocks

Anchor Stones were inspired by the wooden blocks that a German educator named Friedrich Froebel developed. He was the founder of kindergarten and creator of educational games.

Inspired by these wooden blocks of Froebel, two brothers, Otto and Gustav Lilienthal develop a formula to manufacture mineral building bricks . Searching for an authentic construction feeling, they find an alternative for the unstable wooden bricks. The first Anker Stone Building Set wins people over with its natural feel.

The Lilienthal brothers sell their unique brick formula to the versatile entrepreneur Richter. In 1880 the factory owner sets up a new building for the production of "Richter's Anker Stone Building Set" in Rudolstadt Germany. At the same time he establishes an art institute where artists, illustrators and architects develop the building plans for the Anker Stone Building sets. The first worldwide building set system is born.

The mixture for the blocks consists of sand, linseed oil, coloring and chalk. This mixture has been the same for over 125 years. The use of 100% natural ingredients meets the highest ecological standards.

Compressing the mixture requires special molds, which are made according to original drawings and old existing forms. The mixture is compressed into the brick mold under very high pressure. This process is either performed pressing four stones at a time with modern hydraulic presses or, alternatively, forming each stone separately with a manually operated press.

Then the Anker Stones are dried in large ovens at 110 degrees Celsius. In order to ensure the highest quality, each stone is tested individually and measured by hand. There is a mere tolerance limit of only a few 1/10ths of a mm.

Due to great precision in manufacturing, the weight of the stones and their composition, large buildings can be constructed without using glue.

The Anker Stone survived two World Wars without severe damage, but in 1963 the Communist German Government stops the stone production. The company is closed and manufacturing plants are given away.

According to estimates about 5 billion Anker Stones were sold in four hundred different sets from 1880 to 1963.

It was Anker Stone lover Georg Plenge, a professor of acoustics at the Technical University in Berlin, who started the Anker Stone renaissance project. With the support of EU aid money and Thuringia, In 1995 manufacturing is taken up again with the original existing manuals. The Anker Stone is re-introduced to the market with the basic box no. 6 and shortly thereafter with the extension boxes no. 6A and 8A. Today the Anker Stone Building Set corporation has the true charm of a handicraft enterprise.

Anker Stones have won numerous awards including the "Parents' Choice Award" and the "National Parents Publisher Award".