Story By: Georgina Jadikovska, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash

A German nurse has rented a three-storey home just for her huge collection of 2,000 dolls while living in a nearby flat and popping over to visit them every day.

Eleonore Goedert, 63, who lives in the city of Koblenz in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, rented a 10-room house that she uses for her dolls while living in a nearby apartment herself.

Eleonore, who pops over the dolls’ rented home every day, bought her first doll in 1971 when she was 13 years old and since then dolls have become her main passion in life.

She said: “I bought my first doll with my first ever pay cheque!”

Eleonore spent approximately 800 D-Marks (GPB 350) on her first doll and immediately knew she wanted to collect as many as possible.

Since 1971, she has collected about 2,000 dolls, 400 of which she made herself.

She said many of them needed a lot of work to bring them back to their former standard, some had eyes missing that need to be replaced, others have missing legs or holes in the head that needed to be filled.

She denied however that she loved her dolls, saying that it was more true to say she loved the work that she did in repairing them. She said: “You can only really love people”.

Eleonore, who is a mother herself, said she had children who she loved, but the dolls were something else. She said: “I value them.”

She insisted however that they are not “not a replacement for living people or children”.

The 63-year-old nurse said she never gave her dolls’ names and uses numbers instead.

Eleonore even started her own business as a doll expert about 30 years ago when she held seminars and workshops and even made a decent income from it. This experience enabled her to save enough money to spoil her huge collection.

She said she has spent over GBP 85,000 on her doll collection.

Eleonore disapproves of current doll trends: “In the past, girls felt like mothers with their dolls. Today, all girls want to look like their Barbies, have their lips injected and their breasts enlarged.”

Before the ongoing pandemic, Eleonore held tours inside her dollhouse. An entry ticket cost GBP 3 for adults.

She explained: “You can’t get rich with it, but I will never sell my dolls. I live for them!”

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