The Frankfurt Christmas Market (earlier also known as the Baby Jesus Market) takes place yearly during Advent in Frankfurt am Main's old city. With around three million visitors, it is one of the largest Christmas markets in Germany and a highlight of the city's yearly event calendar. It begins on the Monday before the first Sunday of Advent at the earliest and always ends on the 22nd of December.

History[edit]

A Christmas Market in Frankfurt was first documented in 1393. In the Middle Ages, Christmas did not yet have the folkloristic meaning it has today. The Christmas Market was initially supposed to provide all citizens with the opportunity to stock up on necessities before the coldest period of winter started.

Unlike the trade fairs, the Christmas Market banned foreign merchants from offering up their goods for sale. Only citizens from Frankfurt were allowed to open up a booth.

In the Middle Ages, mystery plays, which possibly originated in the year 941, were performed additionally to the Christmas Market. Back then, King Otto I. resided in the Königspfalz Frankfurt during Christmas and celebrated the Midnight Mass in the Frankfurt Cathedral. As he left the church, his renegade brother Heinrich kneeled before him and asked for forgiveness, which led Otto to make up with him. The painter Alfred Rethel depicted this scene in 1840. Today, the painting is in the Historical Museum of Frankfurt.

In the 19th century, the Christmas Market started to resemble our modern-day version. It became tradition to set up and decorate Christmas trees, and the residents of Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen had the special privilege of selling christmas trees in the Römerhalle. Additionally, by decree of the magistrate, childrens toys, Christmas trees and Christmas pastries could be sold as well.

Illustrations of the time show a similar picture to today: small sales booths, closely huddled around the Römerberg. In 1851, Heinrich Hoffmann, author of "Struwwelpeter", published his christmas fairytale "König Nußknacker und der arme Reinhold" ('King Nutcracker and poor Reinhold'). The first edition was illustrated with a drawing by the author himself, which depicted the Frankfurt Christmas Market. The main character is a sick boy, who dreams of King Nutcracker leading him to a realm full of toys. On the next morning, the boy finds all of the toys he saw in his dream under the christmas tree, and his health fully recovers.

This is the first Christmas tale in which a nutcracker plays a significant role. Taking the illustration of this nutcracker as reference, around 1870, wood turners started producing the first nutcrackers in Seiffen in the Ore Mountains. Nowadays, these nutcrackers are one of the essential goods offered for sale at the Christmas Market.

During World War II, the historical site of the Christmas Market was destroyed during the Bombing of Frankfurt by the Allied Forces. In the post-war era, the Christmas Market took place at changing locations throughout town, since the Römerberg was a huge construction site due to the building of the subway system in the late 60s and early 70s. The Christmas Market eventually returned to its original location in the 70s. After the reconstruction of the historical Ostzeile in 1983, the Christmas Market developed into a tourist attraction.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany caused the city of Frankfurt to cancel the Christmas Market of 2020^[1], which was supposed to take place from November 23rd to December 22nd, on October 24th. The organizer, Tourismus+Congress GmbH Frankfurt am Main, supplied a range of digital content branded as 'Online Christmas Market'.^[2]

The Christmas Market Today[edit]

The Frankfurt Christmas Market consists of over 200 stalls in the inner city, stretching from the Hauptwache to the Mainkai. The stalls offer a colorful mix of 56 gastronomic stands and heated pubs, 29 confectionary stands and 6 children’s carousels. The 98 sales booths for Christmas articles form the heart of the market. From handicraft manufactured in the Ore Mountains to candles, puppets, tin toys and modern or traditional Christmas ornaments, a wide range of different goods is offered.

The exhibition of Frankfurt artists in the Paulskirche and in the Römerhallen occupies a permanent place in the program of the Christmas market. A stage is erected on top of the Römerberg for scenic performances.

Since 2012, the queer “Rosa Weihnacht” ("pink christmas") market has occupied the Friedrich-Stoltze-Platz on the edge of the Christmas market. ^[3]

Since 1995, a ceramic mug in changing colors has been produced annually for serving mulled wine or hot cider at the Christmas market. The mugs show different Frankfurt themes: from 1996 to 2000, the Römer, the Alte Oper, the Paulskirche, the Frankfurt cathedral and a profile picture of Johann Wolfgang Goethe (in the context of the year of Goethe in 1999) were depicted. From 2001 to 2003, a series of mugs with Christmas themes (Christmas tree, Santa Claus and snowman) in front of a stylized image of the Frankfurt skyline and the Römer was produced. In 2004, the Römer was once again portrayed, in 2005 the Alte Oper and in 2006 the Paulskirche, framed by Christmas motifs. In addition to the traditional Christmas mugs, a small Bembel could be purchased in 2007. A Bembel is a big-bellied pitcher used in Southern Hesse to serve cider. Both mug and pitcher showed the silhouette of the historic Römerberg Ostzeile and the cathedral.

Customs[edit]

The typical Frankfurt Christmas goods include the Quetschenmännsche, small figures made of nuts, prunes and raisins, the Frankfurter Brenten (cookies formed from marzipan dough) and especially the Bethmännchen.

The Turmblasen on Wednesday and Saturday evening is an advent concert of a trombone choir. Members of the trombone choirs of the Protestant City Deanery of Frankfurt am Main and Offenbach play Christmas carols from the roof gallery of the Old St. Nicholas Church.

The large nativity scene at the Christmas market with life-size figures was donated by the exhibitors.

On Saturday before the First Sunday of Advent at 4:30 p.m., on the eve of the first Sunday in the church year, all downtown church bells chime for half an hour.

Political Controversy about the Market's Opening on the First Sunday of Advent[edit]

In 2005, the first Advent fell in the month of November. As a result, Frankfurt's municipal authorities permitted the opening of shops in the city center on a Sunday in Advent for the first time. Up until then, the legal regulations only prohibited the opening of shops on Sundays in December. On November 18th, 2005, the Protestant and Catholic Churches in Frankfurt announced in a joint press conference that the bells of the city center churches were to remain silent on Saturday, November 26th, 2005, as a "sign of silent protest" against the opening of shops on the first Sunday in Advent. The churches saw this as a gesture of defiance against the "special public and political appreciation of church holidays". They said that this meant that the prerequisite for the Great City Ringing, which had been contractually agreed upon in 1978, had ceased to exist on the part of the city. The Catholic Church called on its members to boycott the openings on Sundays.

This was the first time since 1978 that the Great City Ringing was canceled. The magistrate had explained that opening shops on the First Sunday of Advent in 2005 was intended to prevent the people of Frankfurt from going out and shopping in other areas since many communities in the Rhine-Main area and large shopping centers were also open that day.

The churches' decision was controversially discussed by the urban public for weeks. The President of the Hessian Retailers' Association, Frank Albrecht, estimated that more than 90% of the shops in Frankfurt's city center and Sachsenhausen were open on the First Sunday of Advent in 2005 and regretted that "no reasonable dialogue had been held in the run-up".

On December 19th, 2005, the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs announced that Hesse -- as soon as the federal government had created the legal basis for it -- would present its own shop-opening law. On the 23rd of November, 2006, the Hessian parliament passed the new law on shop-opening hours, which came into force on December 1st, 2006. It stipulates that in the future all Sundays in Advent must remain free of special opening hours, even if the first Advent still falls in November.

Frankfurt Christmas Market in Great Britain[edit]

Since the 1990s, so-called Frankfurt Christmas Markets have also been held in several cities in the UK, the largest of which is in Birmingham, the sister city of Frankfurt. With over 80 market stalls mainly from German showmen and around 3.5 million visitors^[4], it is claimed to be the world's largest German Christmas market outside the German-speaking world. Since 2002, there have also been Frankfurt Christmas markets in other cities, such as in Manchester, Edinburgh, and Leeds in 2011.

Literature[edit]

Walter Gerteis: Das unbekannte Frankfurt. Dritte Folge. Verlag Frankfurter Bücher, Frankfurt am Main 1963, This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
Lothar Zenetti: Das allerschönste Fest: Ein Frankfurter Weihnachtsbuch. Knecht Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-7820-0386-1.