Blog 65: Christmas Markets, A Cultural Phenomenon
Welcome back to Brooke In The Air. As most of you know by now, we are venturing to Germany on the 26th of this month. While in Frankfurt-am-Main, we hope to attend te end of the seasonal Christmas market, or Frankfurter Weihnachtsmarkt, literally Frankfurt Christmas market. Frankfurt has one of the oldest Christmas markets in Europe, with origins dating back to 1393 CE. There is an associated market in Birmingham, England, UK.
As I mentioned, Frankfurt’s Christmas Market dates back to 1393 CE with origins in the Holy Roman Empire. Mentions of a so-called “December Market” in common literature in Vienna, Munich, Bautzen, and of course, Frankfurt. The original purpose of the market was to provide citizens with the opportunity to purchase essential items prior to the onset of winter. Unlike fairs, only those who resided in Frankfurt were permitted to establish stalls in the market.
During the Middle Ages, theatrical and often children-friendly mystery plays were performed at Christmas Markets, which may have originated as far back as 941 CE. At that time, King Otto I spent Christmas at the Royal Palace of Frankfurt and celebrated Christmas Mass at the Salvatorkirche, literally Church of Salvation. As King Otto departed the church, his estranged brother, Heinrich, fell to his knees and pleaded for forgiveness, which Otto granted. The scene was later immortalized in a painting by Alfred Rethel in 1840, which is now housed in the Historical Museum.
Illustrations from the mid-19th century depict a scene similar to the one seen today at Römerberg – a bustling market filled with small stalls. In 1851, author Heinrich Hoffmann published his Christmas fairy tale, King Nutcracker and Poor Reinhold. The original edition was illustrated with a handwritten drawing by Hoffmann himself, depicting the Frankfurt Christmas market. The tale follows a sick boy's dream, in which he is led to a toy kingdom by King Nutcracker, and upon waking finds the same toys under his Christmas tree. This is the earliest known story to feature a nutcracker as a prominent character, and is retold in the art museums built along the Museumsufer today. Shortly thereafter, in the 1870s, Seiffen in the Ore Mountains began producing nutcrackers, which are now a popular item available at Christmas markets.
Fast forward a millenia or so, and during the Second World War, the historic setting of the Frankfurt Christmas market was destroyed during Allied air raids. In the post-war period, the market was held in various locations around the city, as the Römerberg was a construction site due to the erection of the subway system in the late 1960s and early 1970s. By the 1970s, the market was able to return to its traditional location. Following the reconstruction of the East Row in the Saturday Mountain in 1983, it has become a popular tourist attraction. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, the city of Frankfurt cancelled the Christmas market planned for November 23 to December 22. In its place, Tourismus+Congress GmbH Frankfurt am Main (The Frankfurt board of tourism) made digital content available as an online Christmas market on the Internet.
The Christmas Market offers numerous goods, valuables, and especially alcohol and food for sale for roughly a month and a half throughout the period of Advent. The market (or markets, plural) currently occupies the neighborhoods/suburbs of Friedrich-Stoltze-Platz, Hauptwache, Mainkai, Paulsplatz, and Romerberg in Frankfurt. The Frankfurt market is considerably larger than most parallel markets such as the market in cross-country Munich.
