tis the season for german christmas markets
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'Tis the Season for German Christmas MarketsDuring the festive season, the scent of roasted almonds and mulled
wine fill the streets of German cities as shoppers in mittens and
gloves pour over handmade ornaments and other goodies at
Germany's Christmas markets.
A traditional Christmas shopping experience in Frankfurt
Christmas markets are a centuries-old tradition that connects the Advent
season -- the four weeks before Christmas -- to the baser pleasures of
shopping. And even though Christmas in Germany also means tinsel and
lights and extended shopping hours, it is the markets that set the country off
from its Christian neighbors.
A typical Christmas market consists of wooden stalls perched on a site in the
center of the city, where people shove past each other to buy Christmas
decorations and stop for a chat over a mug of mulled wine. A nativity scene
is usually on display and often musicians, singers and dance clubs offer
entertainment from a central stage.
Long tradition
Since the 15th century, merchants have traveled to Dresden to display their
wares. To this day, from Nov. 24 until Dec. 24, shoppers flock to the market
in the city center which also features a Christmas pyramid, woodcarvings
and a stollen festival, where a nearly four-ton heavy version of the fruit-cake-
like German Christmas specialty that Dresden is famous for will be dished
up.
The Augsburg market lights up the
night
Cologne has six Christmas markets, one of which is situated next to the
city's gothic cathedral. The cathedral's towers, reaching some 150 meters
(490-feet) into the winter sky, make the giant Christmas tree in the middle of
the setting appear quite small.
In the four weeks of December during which the markets are open, around 2
million people come to Cologne, according to Karl-Heinz Merfeld of the
Cologne Tourism Association.
"The Christmas market industry is still important … and the tourists who
come here are usually really excited -- above all the English and Dutch --
because they aren't familiar with these kinds of markets with the music and
the lights," he said.
In Augsburg's old market, once called the Lebkuchenmarkt after the
gingerbread-like cookie calledlebkuchen it sold, visitors still can find
numerous varieties of the baked goods.
Centuries' old tradition
No trip to the Christmas market is complete without a bratwurst sausage or
a cup of German mulled wine, which is spiced with cinnamon and cloves. It
is said to have originated in India, where the drink was prepared with water,
alcohol, sugar and spices. Apparently the British then brought the recipe to
Europe in the 18th century. Folklore has it that at the Christmas market in
Nuremberg, Germany's most famous, someone first added red wine to the
mixture and created what's now known asglühwein. These days, about every
third stall sells the stuff.
Backer Thomas Schmidt with tons of
the Christmas specialty, stollen, in Dresden
Still, Christmas markets have come a long way since they were first
introduced in Germany. Dresden is said to have had the first, in the 15th
century, and Nuremberg followed suit in 1697. In 1820, the first Christmas
market was held in Cologne and restricted to locals who could buy toys and
food but no alcoholic beverages.
Back to the past
Now Cologne holds a medieval Christmas market where the salespeople
wear wool clothes and wooden shoes and pursue medieval chores like
blacksmithing. The smell of burning wood wafts through the air, and candles
illuminate the setting. Nothing as profane as reibekuchen or potato
pancakes is for sale; hungry visitors can snack on unleavened bread freshly
baked in ovens heated with wood. Nor isglühwein available. Instead, thirsty
souls drink mead.
Since Christmas markets didn't exist during medieval times, one of the
organizers drew a tenuous link to the markets held long ago.
"The emphasis is on a market where there is peace and quiet as opposed to
the other Christmas markets where the turbulences of every-day life are
dominant," he said.
A selection of other Christmas markets around Germany:
* Dortmund (until Dec. 23) with 300 stands of art, decorations and toys
* Munich (Nov. 25 to Dec. 24) on Marienplatz
* Berlin (until Dec. 24) on Alexanderplatz
* Nuremberg (Nov. 25 to Dec. 24) Against the historical backdrop of the
city's main market
* Rüdesheim (until Dec. 23) with 120 stands from 12 states in the romantic
old town
* Bremen (Nov. 24 to Dec. 23) near the town hall
* Frankfurt (Nov. 23 to Dec. 22) in the central shopping district
* Leipzig (Nov. 24 to Dec. 22) Shopping and concerts in nearby churches
* Hamburg (until Dec. 23)
* Wiesbaden (until Dec. 23) a historical craft market
* Weimar (Nov. 25 to Dec. 22) the town hall becomes a giant Advent
calendarDW.DE
Germany's Gingerbread GiantAt the cookie manufacturer Lambertz in Aachen, the factories are
running at full capacity to meet the current demands. The company
is the largest German producer of gingerbread cookies and now
exports worldwide.
It's a hard choice...
Unless you have a cold, you will not miss the smell of sweets in the air at the
omnipresent Christmas markets in German cities and towns. One
unmistakable scent is that of gingerbread. The Lambertz cookie company,
based in Aachen, Germany, makes its money off of it. With sales over €400
million ($532 million), Lambertz is the main player on the German Christmas
cookie market. And it is seducing sweet tooths now in North America and
eastern Europe.
Lambertz's ingredients include hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, candied orange
and lemons, honey, flour, sugar, eggs, marzipan and most importantly, spices:
Anis, ginger, coriander, cloves, cinnamon -- just to name a few -- are all
combined to produce a variety of cookies, including the trademark "Printen"
cookie. The origins of the cookie are uncertain. Some proudly speculate that
Charlemagne, whose throne still stands in Aachen, was the inventor of the
rectangular cookie. But that is just speculation.
Supplier of church and city hall
Lambertz is sole supplier to Aachen's
cathedral
One thing is certain: The Lambertz tradition dates back to 1688 when the
family bought the rights to establish a bakery on Aachen's main market. The
name of the bakery was called Zur Sonne -- in reference to the reigning
monarch in France at that time, Louis XIV, the Sun King. For over three
centuries Lambertz, who still use the sun in their logo, has been the
exclusive supplier to both the Aachen cathedral and city hall.
In 1820, the first "Printen" was produced, said current sole owner, Hermann
Bühlbecker, a descendant of the Lambertz family. It takes a strong jaw to
bite into the cookies. There is also the chocolate covered variety, created by
accident in the late 19th century by one of the family's daughters.
Earlier, the cookies were produced laboriously by hand. The forefathers of
the company would be proud of the modern production lines where a scent
of Christmas emanates from the cookies as they glide past.
Plants in eastern Europe
Gingerbread or "Printen" do not hold a firm foothold just in Germany. In
eastern Europe, particularly where Germans once lived, gingerbread is
beloved, Bühlbecker said. The aroma of gingerbread belongs to the
Christmas tradition in the German-speaking regions in central and eastern
Europe.
Besides the six factories in Germany, Lambertz has a plant in Katowice,
Poland to cater to the markets in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
Now, Lambertz is also finding out that North Americans have grown fond of
their various baked goods. Bühlbecker said they print "German cookies" or
"European cookies" on the boxes for the large supermarket chains in North
America.
Hermann Bühlbecker
Some 3,500 employees work for Lambertz. Bühlbecker (photo) took over the
company 28 years ago as sole owner and manager. He said he feels a deep
responsibility for the welfare of his workers and Germany in general.This is
reflected in some of the numerous awards Bühlbecker has won of late. In
2002 he was honored as the Entrepreneur of the Year in Germany. One year
later, he was added to the list of Best Entrepreneurs of the World. All this a
small bit of sunshine, like in the company logo, at a time where gloom
usually wins the economic headlines in German newspapers.
Santa's Other Workshop: Thuringia
NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST: GERMANY'S FOUR CORNERS
Northern Germany's Literary Houses
Platt and Proud
Sylt: In Winter, a Mellower Pleasure
More Beach up North
Climbing the Windmills of Schleswig-Holstein
Rhine River Transformed Into Nearly Pristine Water Stream
The Rhine River's Gold Rush
The Business of Carnival
Vogelsang Castle: In the Shadow of the Third Reich
Eastern German Town Boasts Cutting-Edge Technology
Blame it On the Bratwurst
Santa's Other Workshop: Thuringia
Six Centuries of Sweet Success
Catch a Wave in Germany's California
Neuschwanstein Castle Modernized for Visitors
Reinventing the Bavarian Myth
Bavaria Says "Grüß Gott" in Chinese
The southern Thuringian Forest, home to makers of toys and glass
Christmas ornaments, is known in Germany as Christmas country.
A snowy paradise
Scarcely any other town has been so renowned for its toy making as the
southern German town of Sonneberg, which lies on the tourist area referred
to as the "German Toy Road."
Villas and workshops
Back in the 1920s, the town shipped toys, often handmade, to the rest of the
world. Although history played its part in phasing out much of the business
during the course of the century -- this part of the country became East
Germany during World War II -- there are still a number of toy makers in the
region, and the tradition lives on. A stroll through the town shows the signs
of the wealth the toy business brought: villas of former toy manufacturers,
erstwhile trading establishments and workshops, town halls and schools.
There is also the German Toy Museum, the oldest in the country. It attracts
visitors to Sonneberg from all over the world, with some 60,000 items in its
collection, 6,000 exhibit pieces, and a unique library of toy history. There
you can read about how arduous a task it was to make the filigree toys from
the early 19th century. The top floor of the toy museum is dedicated to dolls.
Competition blues
In the area around Sonneberg, most families were in some way tied to the
making of toys. After the region became part of East Germany, the
businesses were nationalized. Today, the challenge for the remaining toy
makers is to compete on the open market against toys made in low-wage
countries.
While toys are important to a German Christmas, so are Christmas trees --
and with the trees, the decorations.
Lauscha also makes these plain red
christmas ornaments
The cradle of glass Christmas tree decorations is the small Thuringian city of
Lauscha. In 1835, a human glass eye was made in the town, adding to its
international renown for glassmaking.
Christmas ornaments
In Lauscha, the Museum of Glass Art documents the origins of ornament
making. In the beginning, cotton batting was shaped into winter motifs,
covered with decorative paper, and covered with clear paste and glittery
glass dust.
Today in Lauscha, "Weinachtsland," or "Christmas Land," is open year round.
You can see the breakable artworks being created, and buy them, too:
chubby cheeked angels, silvery Christmas trees and icicles, colorful birds
with feathery tails, exotic fruits, Santa Claus on a sled or a motorbike -- over
10,000 different ornaments in all.
Round-the-Clock Shopping Comes to GermanyNow that Germany's unpopular store closing law has been
scrapped, state legislatures have started liberalizing opening
hours, and permitting round-the-clock shopping six days a week.
During special events such as the World Cup soccer games this past summer, store
opening hours were liberalized
North Rhine Westphalia passed a state law on Thursday that permits stores
in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Essen, among other cities, to stay open 24 hours
a day from Monday to Saturday, and on four Sundays or holidays a year. The
densely populated western state follows the lead of the Berlin state
legislature last week, which in addition to the Monday through Saturday 24
hour rule, will stores to be open on Sundays ten days a year.
This past summer, Germany's unpopular Ladenschlussgesetz or store closing
law was scrapped in a move to shift federal power to Germany's sixteen
states, several which have been expected to expand their store opening
hours regulations, which used to be among the most restrictive in Europe.
Europe's most deregulated shopping legislation
Shop until you drop?
The economically depressed eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are also expected to completely deregulate
shopping hours six days a week, while retailers in the state of Rhineland-
Palatinate, which borders on France, will be permitted to remain open until
10 pm during the week.
Up until now, the fifty-year-old Ladenschlussgesetz, which has undergone
numerous reforms over the last 17 years, mandates stores can be open from
6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays, and imposes a general ban on
Sunday opening. Exceptions include florists in the vicinity of hospitals and
shops at airports and railway stations.
Before 1989, stores were only allowed to open until 6:30 p.m. on weekdays
and 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays, with many smaller general stores closing even
earlier.
Unions and churches critical of extended shopping hours
The law was deeply unpopular with German consumers, but defended by
unions, which argued that longer hours did not necessarily contribute to
higher revenues and that they posed a threat to smaller family-owned shops,
which could not compete with the longer opening hours and resources of
large department stores and supermarket chains.
The churches have also been strong critics of store hours liberalization and
in particular of Sunday trading as interfering with family life and promoting
excessive consumption.
A mega-media store in Berlin plans to
experiment with all night shopping on Fridays
Wolfgang Huber, spokesman for the Protestant Church, said "Can you
imagine an entire month without a single shopping-free Sunday? That means
protection of our Sundays and holidays, which are supposed to be
guaranteed by our constitution, has completely fallen away."
Retailers say that liberal state laws simply give them the latitude to set their
own hours, but how long they decide to remain open would depend on public
demand for extended hours.
Larger chains in central locations, such as C & A at the heart of Berlin's
Alexanderplatz plan to open late on weekdays and Dussmann, the media
department store on the central Unter den Linden boulevard plans to do
business all night on Fridays.DW.DE
Saint Nicholas: The Bearded Legend
CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY
Americans Taking Bigger Bite of German Christmas Fare
Saint Nicholas: The Bearded Legend
Berliners Celebrate New Shopping Hours
Germany's Christmas Markets: All That is Filling and Festive
Singing: The Price Merkel Pays for the Chancellery
Germany's Hottest Christmas Market
A Home for Angels in Germany
Berlin Begging for More Santas
While Germany's children are looking into the shoes they put out
before going to bed and spent the night hoping to find them filled
with candy in the morning, kids in other countries might be scared
they'll get the whip.
Saint Nicholas with staff and mitre
The island of Borkum has an unusual way of celebrating the Feast of St.
Nicholas.
Saint Nicholas, known as Klaasohm in the regional low German dialect,
roams the island in the night of Dec. 5 and spanks young women on the
behind. And he whacks them hard, using a big curved cow-horn.
Borkum boasts six of these such red-nosed "Klaases" who sport huge
sheepskins on their backs and have cow-tails. They drink schnapps with the
local men and dance on the bar tables till late in the night and they give gifts
to the children.
This old whaling custom has very little to do with the celebrated fourth-
century bishop from Asia Minor, but it is how the islanders celebrate St.
Nicholas Day. In what seems to outsiders to be no more than an excuse for
drunken debauchery, the night is reputed for being great fun and the young
islanders start their preparations months in advance.
A humble and generous bishop becomes a legend
Nicholas, a fourth-century bishop
from Asia Minor
More traditionally, however, Nicholas is known as a gaunt bishop from the
ancient city of Myra, now in Turkey. He apparently became a bishop at the
age of 19 and gave away his inheritance to the poor. His humility and
generosity gave rise to a wealth of legends.
One story tells of Nicholas coaxing grain intended for the emperor from
some sailors in the local port to feed the poor during a famine. When the
cargo was unloaded in Byzantium, not a single grain was said to be missing.
Another time, he bailed out an impoverished father whose daughters could
not marry because he had no dowry for them. Three nights running,
Nicholas threw gold nuggets into the young women's bedroom and thus the
wedding bells were able to toll.
Over time, the gold nuggets were transformed into golden apples, whereas
the Kaiser's grain became tasty foodstuffs and candy.
Nicholas' punishing helper
Together they mete out praise and
punishment
But St. Nicholas didn't run a one-man operation. The good, generous
Nicholas was said to be accompanied by an angry side-kick whose task it is
to mete out punishment to mischievous children. In Germany, this devilish
being goes as Knecht Ruprecht, in Switzerland his name is Smutzli, in
Austria he is known as Krampli and in Holland he is Zwarte Piet, the Black
Peter.
Just as their names differ, so do their appearances and their use of rods,
whips and rattling chains. However, their common role, which arose in the
Middle Ages, was customarily to frighten children into good behavior with
threats of being whipped, slit open or gobbled up.
According to the Dutch, Sinterklaas, wearing his bishop's garb, and Zwarte
Piet in his devil's dress, live in Spain most of the year, monitoring the
children from afar. But, once a year in November, they set anchor in Holland
and their arrival is broadcast on television and the duo travels across the
Netherlands, giving out praise and punishment.
Well-behaved Dutch children receive their annual gifts on Dec. 6, instead of
Dec. 25. Naughty children, however, get the rod -- with Zwarte Piet scooping
up the worst of the worst into his sack and taking them all the way back to
Spain.
Legends all rolled into one
Santa Claus as he is known today
with his helpers the reindeers
In Finland, Nicholas goes by Joulupukki. He is neither holy nor devilish but
pretty pagan. He lives in Lapland and distributes gifts on Dec. 6, which are
reminiscent of pagan times. A descendent of this 900-year-old man has been
trying to prove his existence for years. In his version of the St. Nick story,
the sack and the rod are symbols of male fertility.
Saint Nicholas, Black Pete and Santa Claus have merged into one happy
entity, as have the myths and legends, culminating in a cheery Christmas
celebration at the end of the year. The Christian reformers of the Middle
Ages had their part in this metamorphosis and people transposed their
pagan customs to Christmas.
Whatever the tradition today's children believe, the hope that Nicholas has
paid them an overnight visit leaving them gifts and candy has become the
norm. Whether he put them in their clean shoes, threw them through the
window or sneaked them into their stockings hanging above the fireplace is
irrelevant. Santa Claus can also wear a bishop's hat, a long beard or daddy's
bathrobe for all they care.
The ubiquitous, super-cuddly, white-bearded Santa Claus who has become so
well-loved among children across the world is a recent invention. He
appeared on the world-stage during a 1930s Coca-Cola advertising
campaign. His permanent grin has not been wiped off since.DW.DE
German Christmas Culinary Traditions Endure
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS
Bayern Munich Under the Christmas Tree
Germany and Gospel: Christmas Tradition, Year-Round Passion
Santa Takes a Festive Bashing
Book Biz Gets out its Gladrags
A Fine Old Pickle
Targeting Santa
Plastic Payment Gaining Ground in Germany
Train Service Aims to Reduce Yuletide Blood Pressure
Pushing for Pre-Christmas Peace in Germany
German Christmas Culinary Traditions Endure
Crispy goose or suger-covered raisin cake: Good food belongs to
German Christmas celebrations as much as the Christmas tree. And
many a traditional dish dates back to medieval times or even
earlier.
Crispy duck is a German Christmas favorite
Before they adopted Christianity, Germanic peoples celebrated winter
solstice around the same time as Christmas. Meals were cooked from
whatever the year's harvest brought in -- grains, conserved fruit, potatoes.
Everything was dished out for the holidays in one form or another.
Nowadays, many Germans eat only salad or fish -- a Christian symbol since
medieval times -- on Christmas Eve. On the first day of Christmas, Dec. 25,
they take to the table for a massive roast lunch. Traditionally, Germans tuck
into goose, and it remains popular.
Variations on goose
Just after the feast of St. Martin on Nov. 10, which Germans also celebrate
with a meal of goose, farmers work to quickly fatten up their birds to meet
the huge Christmas demand for geese. Even so, Germany still has to import
them from Poland and Hungary. Siegrid Höltel, who runs a farms that raises
geese near Cologne, doesn't put great stock in fattening up geese.
Due to fears of bird flu, geese had to
remain in their stalls this year
"Geese that have only been kept in their stalls and fattened up are really
something different than geese that are allowed to graze in fields all summer
long. They're more tender and lean."
The tradition of roast goose at Christmas is centuries' old. In 1588, Queen
Elizabeth I of England ordered everyone to have roast goose for their
Christmas meal because it was the what she had been doing when news of
the English victory over the Spanish Armada reached her. Goose then
became the traditional Christmas dish in England and spread from there to
Germany.
But there's more to the Christmas goose tradition than just that. In earlier
times, Christians didn't only fast at Easter but also during the 40 days
between St. Martin's Day and Christmas. On the first day of Christmas,
Germans broke the fast with goose.
Goods for the gods
Stollen from Dresden is famous
around the world
Baking at Christmas also dates back to an earlier time. The Germanic tribes
offered the food as gifts to the gods.
Even the calorie-conscious would be loath to avoid the baked goods that
mark German Christmas, including gingerbread cookies andstollen, a
fruitcake with raisins and sometimes marzipan. The latter, the most well-
known of German holiday loaves, was created in 1457 by a cook at
Hartenstein Castle near Torgau. Covered in powdered sugar, the cake
vaguely resembles a baby wrapped in a blanket -- to bring to mind the birth
of Jesus Christ.
Supposedly it's bad luck to cut the stollen before the holiday. On the other
hand, if everyone gathers to eat it after Christmas Eve mass, the entire
household will be protected and blessed. But it seems that Germans are no
longer concerned by such superstition -- years ago supermarkets started
selling stollen as early as late summer.DW.DE
Berlin Begging for More Santas
CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY
Americans Taking Bigger Bite of German Christmas Fare
Saint Nicholas: The Bearded Legend
Berliners Celebrate New Shopping Hours
Germany's Christmas Markets: All That is Filling and Festive
Singing: The Price Merkel Pays for the Chancellery
Germany's Hottest Christmas Market
A Home for Angels in Germany
Berlin Begging for More Santas
Germany's unemployment rates are falling, but the German capital
is experiencing a serious shortage of Santa Clauses this year. Is
Grinch planning to steal Christmas again?
Scenes like this one are something the German capital can only dream of this year
It's started again: the annual euphoria which converts parts of the German
capital into a Teutonic version of a US shopping mall. Customers are
beginning to be lured into a commercial winter paradise in which countless
mugs of despair-dampening mulled wine, consumed against the headache-
guaranteeing cacophony of jingle bells and white Christmas, can easily drive
many a parent to the brink of insanity. At least, it comes only once a year.
Berlin's newly built central train station has erected a 20-meter (65-foot)
monster tree with more than 28,000 branches and around 40,000 Christmas
crystal ornaments, the most expensive tree Berlin has ever seen. But
something is rotten in Christmas land. Berlin's Santa Clauses are,
apparently, getting lazy.
"Heinzelmännchen" (Santa's Little Helpers) -- a Berlin-based student
organization that specializes in finding employment for Santa Clauses and
Christmas angels -- said that one month before Christmas, they have only
received 100 Father Christmas applications.
"I'm worried because we need young talent," said project manager Rene
Heydeck. "We need 300 applicants more to cover some 4,500 jobs that we're
likely to have this year."
But what kind of angels?
Germany's new popstar angels
Perhaps, Germany is looking for a different kind of magic this winter. The
wildly popular German singing contest Popstars, which over the past few
years has produced one successful group ("No Angels") and a most diverse
series of flops, was running this year under the motto "The Country Needs
New Angels."
And by angels, the producers certainly didn't have Christmas in mind. And if
they did, then it's because they, too, wanted to take advantage of the
lucrative Christmas market. Senna, Bahar and Mandy -- the three girls who
recently made it to the band called Monrose -- will have their first single
released on Dec. 1.
As it turns out, the Christmas labor market is no less flourishing in the
headquarters of Berlin's Santa Clause Central.
"Last year, I had 70 Santa Clauses working for me," said Berlin's senior
Father Christmas, Frank Knorre, whose business card proudly declares that
he has been a Santa since 1980. "Now I have assembled only one half of
them. I'm taking candidates ranging from school kids to pensioners, if they
fit."
What do Santas really want?
One more mug, and I'll be fine
Is it possible that Santa Clauses are getting tired of the whole holiday
hullabaloo? Do they really prefer to do what most Germans do -- eat more
than they should and realize, at some point, that they have mulled wine
coming out of their ears?
Or are they hoping for something particularly wild this year -- getting busted
by the police for running around wearing nothing but Christmas lights? Or
taking Mrs. Clause, for once, to the long-promised, topless Caribbean
vacation?
Whatever it is, we can only hope that Santa Clauses will come to their
senses, suppress their personal desires, forget about their secret fantasies,
and remember that they're there for children's sake.
Not to mention that they can still make a buck or two. Renting a Santa
Clause for a 20-minute visit to a family of up to children in Berlin costs
between 27 and 29 euros ($35 - $38).DW.DE
The German Afghan ConnectionAn Afghan sultan who finds mention in wild carnival songs and a
German club serving pork and pepper steak in Kabul? Germany
and Afghanistan have more in common than most think.
Why Germany? - That was the question on most people’s minds when the
Afghan conference on the future of the war-torn country was reported to be
held in Germany. Apart from the obvious explanation that Germany is a
neutral country like Switzerland or Austria, there’s more to the German-
Afghan connection than meets the eye.
No colonial past
For starters, Germany never invaded Afghanistan – the country was just too
far away and the Germans too busy conquering territory in Europe.
Unburdened by a colonial past, it’s no wonder that the Afghans look upon
Germany as a benevolent nation. Not just that, but Germany was a close ally
of Afghanistan’s during and after the world wars, and helped form a united
front against England, which wanted to spread its notorious colonial
tentacles over Afghanistan.
As far back as the Berlin conference in 1978, iron chancellor Otto von
Bismarck helped pour oil over troubled relations between Afghanistan and
England.
The grateful Afghan leader, Amir Abdul Rahman looked to Bismarck as a role
model and went about earnestly trying to unite the disparate ethnic groups.
To his pride, he even earned the name, "Bismarck of Afghanistan"!
"Dä Sultan hat Doosch!" - Amanullah creates a flutter
But the most charming aspect of German Afghan ties were forged with the
arrival of Sultan Amanullah in Berlin in 1920.
At that time in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, Germany
was still a pariah nation and still in the black. The Pashtun Sultan didn’t
seem to care. He roared around with German President Paul von
Hindenburg in a convertible during a state visit to Berlin in the golden
1920s.
The exotic and dashing Sultan caused quite a stir and fired the imagination
of the Germans. Inspired by the dark foreigner and his mystical land of the
deserts, German song writers furiously scribbled a "Schlager", a popular
German hit and a carnival song for him.
Till today at every carnival season in Germany carnival revelers sing at the
top of their voices, " Die Karawane zieht weiter...Dä Sultan hat Doosch".
Loosely translated it means "the caravan rolls ahead, the Sultan is thirsty".
Sultan Amanullah also suitably impressed the BVG (Berlin public transport).
They promptly named a subway train that he rode on after him!DW.DE
Looking Beyond the FacadeDRESDEN - A CITY RISEN FROM THE ASHES
Stone by Stone
Dealing With A Rising Disaster
Looking Beyond the Facade
Questioning The Reasons For Allied Air War
Silicon Saxony: Chip Factory Brings High-Tech to Dresden
A New Cupola for Dresden's Frauenkirche
UNESCO Honors Three German Treasures
The Destruction of Dresden's Frauenkirche
Irish architect Ruairi O'Brien has designed a museum for the
Platte, those East German pre-fabricated apartment blocks which
were the hallmark of socialist living. On Wednesday he receives an
award for his work.
An Irish architect hopes to bring back life to forgotten ground in Eastern Germany
It is no place for a museum. This desolate, dusty spot on the outskirts of
Dresden, frequented by the odd fox from a neighbouring cemetery, is a
popular training ground for teenage BMX-bikers.
For Ruairi O’Brien, it is a historical site, one to be remembered.
Ruairi O’Brien stands among heaps of sand and concrete rubble on what was
once a housing factory and speaks of "making history alive again". Any
remnants of history, of the factory which churned out panel after panel
essential for those pre-fabricated apartment blocks so typical for the former
GDR, have long disappeared.
What is left is a collection of concrete boulders resting at O’Brien’s feet.
Werner Ehrlich and Ruairi O'Brian in
Dresden.
They are, one could almost say, his pride and joy. O’Brien (right) and his
friend, Werner Ehrlich (left), spent numerous mornings during the factory’s
demolition on the building site, and managed to save several examples of
concrete panels and steel girders from the excavator’s fangs.
"With these fragments, you can recount history", O’Brien says, eager to tell
their tale.
State symbol
World War Two left 18.4 million East Germans in need of an apartment. After
the founding of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), the
government launched a housing campaign for the mass production of
millions of new flats. The Plattenbau, short Platte, soon became an, albeit
unintentional, symbol of the former GDR.
Werner Ehrlich was one of the "lucky ones" to move into a new, modern
apartment in the Dresden district of Johannstadt, an apartment block built
with panels from the local factory.
The first panels fabricated at the factory were made out of rubble from what
was left of Dresden after the bombing. Ehrlich’s four walls may not be as
historic, but they still mean more to him than the apartment's breathtaking
view over Dresden and full central heating which he had not experienced in
his previous home.
"The Platte stands for the birth of the city," he says: without the factory,
Johannstadt, as it is today, would never have been born.
Due to poor sight, Ehrlich had to give up his job as a clerk years ago.
Instead, he took on a job for the town’s culture council, dedicating himself to
Johannstadt’s culture and history.
Ehrlich wanted to rescue the factory, and turn it into artists’ studios or a
youth centre. He couldn’t rescue the building, but together with O’Brien, he
did manage to save at least parts of the factory. These remnants are due to
be be displayed in their open air museum, later this year.
Collage of fragments
O’Brien strides down a small strip of the parched landscape which was once
the factory. The city of Dresden handed over the strip to them after some
weeks of persuasion, and left it to them "to make something out of it" - at
least until it fell into the hands of an investor.
"Here", he says, pointing to a tiny guard's hut, where watchmen once waved
trucks in or out of the factory, "will be the entrance".
The first exhibits, a heap of grey-brown mottled concrete boulders -
examples of the first panels made at the factory - are to follow, presented in
a large triangle box made of wood. Next come the panels from one of the
most typical editions of former East German prefab building, and so on. A
few straggly bushes growing among a leftover gravel pit struggling for light
will become a place to linger. And the former chimney, now a heap of red
brick rubble, will be turned into a path.
Just 50 wide and 100 meters long, the museum has only the fraction of the
size of a "regular" museum found in most cities today. But this does not
mean it that it has less to offer. O'Brien calls his small, but special museums,
"micromuseums": He has built, and is working on four of these small worlds,
one of which is the Erich Kästner Museum in Dresden. Here, vivitors need to
pull the museum, which is like a large cupboard open, and can pull out
various drawers which hold the exhibits. In the centre of the museum there
is a computer, with which the visitor can inform himself on German author
Erich Kästner via audios and videos.
With his micromuseums, for which the architect will receive a prize from the
Federal Culture Foundation on Wednesday, O'Brien hopes both to include the
visitor in the exhibition, but also to link to various aspects of the main
theme, as in the case of the Plattenbau Museum. Here, there will be
information boards to supplement the exhibits, and visitors will be invited to
contemplate what they read in the tiny park, the "Secret Garden".
Plattenbau blues
His friend Werner Ehrlich has spent many afternoons lingering on the
former factory's grounds."Each part of the museum was made in
Johannstadt", Ehrlich explains. With the museums, and the original exhibits,
he hopes to bring back a sense of identity, lost with the fall of the wall and
the closure of the factory. But he particularly wants to commerorate the
many people who worked at the factory.
300 people once worked at the factory in Johannstadt, its closure in 1990
was a blow to the area. For eleven years the factory was left to decay. The
roof leaked, brambles grew over concrete, graffiti covered walls. The only
visitor was the occasional fox.
Not everyone is happy to see parts of the factory erected again. "Away with
the dirt" was the motto of a local initiative whose members were fed up with
the sight of the factory decaying with time. The initiative fought for years for
its destruction. Their prayers were eventually answered – despite an eleven
year delay.
During its solitary existence, a friend of Ehrlich documented the factory on
film. When he hung up the photos on the site’s fence, as a reminder of what
once stood there, people tore the photos down, wanting to forget what once
stood on this dusty spot.
Ehrlich says the city missed a chance when they demolished the factory. He
says it was something to remember Johannstadt for. But with an east
German unemployment rate of 18.8 percent, Johannstadt’s citizens prefer
not to be reminded of the times when jobs were abundant - and when the
machines purred in the housing factory.
Ehrlich takes it all with humour. "Imagine – when the wall came down, they
didn’t even tell them to stop!". But behind the laughter, Ehrlich very well
knows and takes to heart the concern of those waiting in avail for Chancellor
Helmut Kohl’s back then promised "blooming lands".
Turning their backs
O'Brien has often walked the dusty grounds with Ehrlich, discussing his
concept for the open air museum.
The born Irishman, whose first job on arrival to the city was to turn a multi-
storey apartment block into an operating theatre, has a penchant for
Plattenbauten. He says his fascination lies in the many subjects closely
linked to the Platte: industrial housing production, life in modules and, in the
case of the Plattenbau museum, dealing with derelict land and the recycling
of history.
But, he adds, it is also a question of the future of the Plattenbau.
The population in eastern Germany is turning its backs on those high-rise
apartment blocks which were once the hallmark of their former country. One
million apartments now stand vacant in what was once a socialist society.
After the fall of the Wall, more than a million easterners migrated to the
West in search of jobs, and economically successful eastern Germans headed
for the countryside outside the city.
In an effort to prevent more vacancies, housing companies have attempted
to renovate and modernise prefabricated apartments all over the country.
But thousands of apartments have been left to rot, to vandalism, and
eventually to demolition.
The museum does not belittle the situation of the Plattenbau. Nor does it
follow Berlin's recent Plattenbau trend, when the capital’s creative
youngsters declared prefab housing trendy and lifestylish. It is a reminder of
the history and identity of life in the former GDR.
Ehrlich points a finger to a collection of bits of facade, in various colours,
lying to one side of the former factory grounds. "Difficult to believe, but our
Platte was so colourful", he says with a laugh.
There is a sense of optimism, and pride in his voice.
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