MADAME TUSSAUDS
A bit of Hiistory

The Madame Tussauds wax museum has a long history and tradition. This goes back to one woman: Marie Tussaud, née Grosholtz (1761 – 1850). She originally came from Strasbourg, but after the death of her father, she moved to Bern with her mother, who became a housemaid for Philippe Curtius. And that changed Marie’s world and her future. Curtius was a doctor and created human organs out of wax for his visualisation classes (a bit like Body Worlds). He also ran a small business making erotic figures for sale ;).

He then started modelling famous people – and that was the reason why he was invited to Paris by a cousin of Louis XV. Here he began to set up a small wax museum. He sent for Marie, who called him uncle, and her mother.

He taught Marie everything he knew, and by the age of 17 she had already created a life-size likeness of the French philosopher Voltaire. The Enlightenment philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin were also her clients. These great minds came to the “simple” girl to have their portraits painted!

With the outbreak of the French Revolution, however, business came to a standstill. Marie was forced to make death masks of celebrities who had died on the guillotine, including Marie-Antoinette, Louis XV and Robespierre.

After the death of her master Curtius in 1794, Marie inherited the waxworks and all the figures. She married the engineer François Tussaud and thus acquired the surname that is so famous today. She divorced him again in 1809 – but kept the name. Not only that, but she moved to London. As there were few commissions in France due to the colonial wars, she accepted an invitation to present her works in the British capital in 1802.

Due to the Continental Blockade, which then came into force, she was unable to return for many years. However, her sons followed and also learnt Marie’s craft. They travelled through England and Ireland as a “travelling exhibition” until they were able to open their cabinet in London in 1835.

As one of her last figures, Marie created her own likeness at the age of 81. She died at the age of 88 on 16 April 1850.

Her sons and grandsons continued to run the cabinet successfully and enlarged it. Unfortunately, a short circuit and a resulting fire destroyed important works from the revolutionary period and from Marie’s hand. But the successors did not let this get them down. They founded Madame Tussauds Ltd. in 1926 and the destroyed museum was reopened in 1928.

Another blow came during the Second World War, when the warehouse was hit during an air raid on London and 5000 head moulds were irretrievably damaged. After the Second World War, the company set up further branches in Europe, the USA and Asia: 23 in total! The first branch opened in Amsterdam in 1970. (The 11th branch opened in the Vienna Prater in 2011)