Frankfurt Christmas Market
The Frankfurt Christmas Market (formerly also known as Christkindchesmarkt ) takes place annually in Advent in the old town of Frankfurt am Main . With around three million visitors, it is one of the largest Christmas markets in Germany and a highlight in the city's annual calendar of events. It begins at the earliest on the Monday before the First Advent and always ends on December 22nd.
history
( oil painting on canvas by Alfred Rethel, 1840)
A Christmas market in Frankfurt was first mentioned in a document in 1393. In the Middle Ages , Christmas did not have the same folkloric significance as it does today. The Christmas market was intended to give citizens the opportunity to stock up on essentials before the coldest part of winter began.
In contrast to the trade fairs , no foreign merchants were allowed to sell their goods at the Christmas market. Only Frankfurt citizens could set up a stand.
In the Middle Ages , mystery games were also performed at the Christmas market , which may have their origins in 941. At that time, King Otto I stayed in the Königspfalz Frankfurt for Christmas and celebrated the Christmas mass in the Salvatorkirche . As he was leaving the church, his renegade brother Heinrich fell on his knees before him and asked for forgiveness. Otto made up with him. The painter Alfred Rethel depicted this scene in 1840. The picture is now in the Historical Museum .
In the 19th century, the Christmas market gradually approached today's. It became a custom to set up and decorate Christmas trees , and the Sachsenhäuser had the privilege of selling Christmas trees in the Roman halls . Magistrate decision were allowed to continue as only real Christmas market products as: Kinderspielwaaren, Christmas trees and Christmas gardens, Lebküchler- and Conditorwaaren offered for sale ... and sold to.
Illustrations from this time already show a similar picture as today: Small sales stands crowded close together on the Römerberg . In 1851 Heinrich Hoffmann , the author of Struwwelpeter , published his Christmas fairy tale "King Nutcracker and Poor Reinhold" . The first edition was illustrated with a handwritten drawing by the author showing the Frankfurt Christmas market. The main character is a sick boy who is led into a toy kingdom in a dream by the Nutcracker King . The next morning, when the boy wakes up, he finds all the toys from his dream under the Christmas tree. He'll get well again.
It is the first Christmas story in which a nutcracker plays a special role. Around 1870, based on the model of the King Nutcracker from the picture book, the first turned nutcrackers were created in Seiffen in the Ore Mountains , which today in turn form an essential element in the handicrafts offered at the Christmas market.
During the Second World War , the historic backdrop of the Christmas market was destroyed during the Allied air raids on Frankfurt . During the post-war period, the Christmas market took place at different locations in the city, as the Römerberg was under construction during the construction of the underground in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Only since the 1970s has the Christmas market been able to take place again in its traditional location. At least since the reconstruction of the historic Ostzeile of the Saturday Mountain in 1983, it has developed into a tourist attraction.
Today's Christmas market
The Frankfurt Christmas Market consists of over 200 stalls that extend from the Hauptwache via the Zeil , Liebfrauenberg , Neue Kräme , Paulsplatz , Römerberg and Fahrtor to Mainkai . The stands offer a colorful mix of 56 food stands and heated dining rooms, 29 confectionery stands and 6 children's carousels. The focus is still on the 98 stalls for Christmas items: from the Ore Mountains handicrafts to candles, marionettes, tin toys and modern or traditional Christmas tree decorations, a wide range is offered.
The exhibition of Frankfurt artists in the Paulskirche and in the Römerhallen has a permanent place in the program of the Christmas market. A stage will be set up on the Römerberg for scenic performances.
Since 2012 there has been the queer “Pink Christmas” on Friedrich-Stoltze-Platz on the edge of the Christmas market .
Since 1995 a ceramic cup in changing colors has been produced every year for the Christmas market for serving mulled wine or hot apple wine . The cups show changing Frankfurt motifs: From 1996 to 2000 the Römer , the Alte Oper , the Paulskirche, the cathedral and a profile picture of Johann Wolfgang Goethe (for the Goethe year 1999). From 2001 to 2003 a series with Christmas motifs (Christmas tree, Santa Claus and snowman) was produced in front of a stylized image of the Frankfurt skyline and the Roman. In 2004 the Roman was once again the image on the now two-tone cups, in 2005 the Old Opera and in 2006 the Paulskirche, framed by Christmas motifs. In 2007, in addition to the traditional cup, there was also a small Bembel , both of which are decorated with the silhouette of the historic Römerberg-Ostzeile and the cathedral.
regional customs
The classic Frankfurt Christmas items include the Quetschemännsche , small figures made from nuts , prunes and raisins , the Frankfurter Brenten (cookies made from marzipan dough) and, above all, the Bethmännchen .
The evening tower blowing is a concert by a wind choir that plays Christmas carols and chorales from the roof gallery of the Alte Nikolaikirche .
The large nativity scene at the Christmas market with life-size figures is a foundation of the exhibitors.
On the Saturday before the First Advent at 4:30 p.m., on the eve of the first Sunday of the church year , there is traditionally a half-hour big city bell for all inner-city churches .
Political controversy about the shopping Sunday in Advent
( etching by Bertha Bagge , 1892)
In 2005 the first Advent fell in November. As a result, the Frankfurt magistrate permitted the opening of shops in the city center for the first time on an Advent Sunday, because the legal situation that had been in effect until then only forbade shops to open on Sundays in December. On November 18, 2005, the Evangelical and Catholic Churches in Frankfurt announced in a joint press conference that the bells of the inner-city churches should be silent on Saturday, November 26, 2005 as a “sign of silent protest” against the first Sunday in Advent, which was open for sale. The churches saw this as a departure from the “special public and political appreciation of church holidays”. Thus the requirement for the 1978 contractually agreed big city bell on the part of the city no longer applies. The Catholic Church called on its members to boycott Sunday shopping.
For the first time since 1978 there was no city bell. The magistrate had declared that the opening of the shops on the First Advent in 2005 was intended to prevent Frankfurt residents from migrating to the surrounding area to shop. In numerous communities in the Rhine-Main area and in the large shopping centers, the shops were also open on the First Advent in 2005.
The decision of the churches was discussed controversially in the city public for weeks. The President of the Hessian Retail Association, Frank Albrecht, estimated that over 90% of the shops in downtown Frankfurt and in Sachsenhausen were open on the First Advent in 2005 and regretted that “no reasonable dialogue had been conducted in advance”.
On December 19, 2005, the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs announced that Hesse would submit its own shop opening law as soon as the federal government had created the legal basis for this . On November 23, 2006, the Hessian state parliament passed the new store closing law , which came into force on December 1, 2006. It regulates that in future all Advent Sundays must remain free of special openings, even if the first Advent falls in November.
Frankfurt Christmas Markets in Great Britain
Since the 1990s there has been a Frankfurt Christmas market in several cities in Great Britain , the largest of them in Birmingham , a twin city of Frankfurt. With over 80 market stalls, mainly from German showmen, and around 3.5 million visitors, it is the world's largest German Christmas market outside of the German-speaking area . Since 2002 there have also been Frankfurt Christmas markets in other cities, in 2011 in Manchester , Edinburgh and Leeds .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Official website
- ↑ Frankfurt Christmas Market Successful Abroad , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of December 24, 2011, p. 46
literature
- Walter Gerteis: The unknown Frankfurt. Third episode . Verlag Frankfurter Bücher, Frankfurt am Main 1963
- Lothar Zenetti : The most beautiful festival: a Frankfurt Christmas book . Knecht Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-7820-0386-1
Web links
- Trailer of the Frankfurt Christmas Market on YouTube
- Pre-Christmas disharmonies - Frankfurt and the Christmas market. Newsletter, Issue 2. Institute for Urban History , June 15, 2007, archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; accessed on August 23, 2018 .
- 360 ° panoramic images of the Frankfurt Christmas market
- The Christmas market at frankfurt-tourismus.de
- Frankfurt Christmas Market in Birmingham, UK
Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 50 ″ N , 8 ° 40 ′ 49 ″ E
