The Dark Ages and Nazis – A Cultural History of German Christmas Markets

Christmas markets are exactly like snow globes. Don’t believe me? Grab your nearest snow globe and look inside. For the most part, you’ll see a perfect Christmas scene: friendly snow falling on merry people and buildings. Now imagine that you are one of those figures. A smile is pleasantly painted on your face and snow falls lightly on your warm hat. The merry buildings are suddenly big and tall. They sell pretty trinkets and shine brightly in the moon’s light glow. Best of all – a whiff of gingerbread whisps throughout the people and stands. A perfect snow globe.

Now my visit to the Nuremberg Christmas markets was almost, almost that. Only switch the snow for rain. I didn’t mind though; the largest Christmas market in Germany made up for it. Wait a minute, let me say that again. The Nuremberg Christmas market is the largest in all of Germany with around 2 million visitors every December! That’s almost 4 times the amount of people that live in Nuremberg. Christmas markets, though, have not always been the immense tourist attraction they are today. They were historically much simpler and came in and out of popularity. Later on, they were even used by the Nazis to propagate their political agenda. Hold up, how did we get from humble beginnings to Nazi influence to our beloved Christmas markets of today?

Well, let me tell you – it’s actually very interesting.

The First Christmas Market

The first Christmas market started modestly in Dresden, Germany back in 1434. It was at first a simple market that didn’t appear to have a strong correlation with the Christian holiday. Christmas markets only started to gain popularity when Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant church, decided to transition gift giving from December 6th (St. Nicholas day. He is the patron saint of children, traditionally associated with gift giving) to the 25th. Luther generally disapproved of worshiping saints and wanted to highlight God as a, “good, giving parent.”

As Martin Luther and the Protestant church gained more and more popularity, so did the practice of giving gifts on Christmas. The stage was set for the snow globe Christmas markets we know today. Trinkets and Christmas themed toys now accompanied the traditional market’s meat and vegetables. Eventually, the industrial revolution and consumerism became the Christmas market’s ticket to stardom. In the main German cities, Christmas markets took over the downtowns and catered majorly towards the newly created working class. However, Christmas markets would lose favor when the “ owners of new downtown department stores campaigned to have them moved to avoid competition” (National Geographic).

Here is where history gets a little tricky.

Nazis Take Over Christmas

Hitler took the fading away Christmas markets and tactically rejuvenated them to bolster Germany’s national pride and tradition. The Nazis weren’t just going to let such a good propaganda machine slip away. In his article Nazifying Christmas, Joe Perry writes that “Swastikas adorned… Christmas trees” and carefully fabricated speeches maintained “unity based on acceptance of National Socialism [and] the celebrity charisma of leadership.” The Nazi party itself and associated groups (mainly the Hitler Youth) organized Christmas Markets all over Germany. In these, as Perry points out, Nazi influence certainly meant politically energized inauguration speeches – speeches that never overtly referenced God or the religious foundations that Christmas markets were built on. Additionally, representations of ‘ideal’ blue-eyed, blond-haired families overflowed the market’s decorations. During Nazi rule, Christmas markets were certainly used to change and improve their public opinion.

Post Second World War Markets

After being postponed for some years (due to active fighting,) Christmas markets started picking up again. Things slowly went back to normal as the Cold war came to an end as well as the fall of the Berlin wall. Here we begin to see our modern Christmas markets as we know them, attracting tourists like a bee hive does a bear.

Although Christmas markets’ unfortunate history with the Nazis did seem to resurface in 2019 when a conservative political party made “racist comments” towards Benigna Munsi, the 17 year old Nürenberger Christkind (a symbolic figure featured in the Christmas market opening ceremony) (Der Spiegel.) Munsi received such comments because of her fathers Indian heritage and the fact that she was the first racially mixed Christkind to ever be elected. Fortunately the party received major public backlash and removed their comments from Twitter. In the end, this shows that Christmas markets still have a lingering connection with the idea of an “ideal” German family/people.

As you can tell, Christmas markets have a rich and broad history – outliving inter-city competition and the Nazi regime. Today they play an incredibly important role as a German tradition staple. Christmas markets can now be found all over the world, always featuring traditional German food and drinks. If your city happens to have one, make sure you take a look – I’m sure you wont regret it!