Christmas in Germany: A Cultural History

Contents

Contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction Germany’s Favorite Holiday 1 Chapter One Scripting a National Holiday 13 Chapter Two Contradictions in the Christmas Mood 65 Chapter Three Christmas in Enemy Territory 93 Chapter Four Under the Sign of Kauflust 139 Chapter Five Christmas in the Third Reich 189 Chapter Six Ghosts of Christmas Past 239 Conclusion The Nation around the Christmas Tree 283 Notes 291 Bibliography 339 Index 373 This page intentionally left blank Figures 1.1 Cover of Hugo Elm’s Golden Christmas Book, 1878 12 1.2 Christmas Eve with the von Droste-Hülshoff family, from the sketchbook of Jenny von Droste-Hülshoff, 1833 29 1.3 Edward Brüning, On Christmas Eve, from the family magazine Ueber Land und Meer/Deutsche Illustrirte, December 1888 35 1.4 Christmas “wish card” printed in Berlin, 1906 44 1.5 A. Zick, Holy Night, frontispiece from The Christmas Book, 1899 45 1.6 Gifts around the Christmas Tree, lithograph, circa 1875 61 2.1 Worker’s Christmas, circa 1910 66 2.2 Anti-Christmas cartoon from Schlemiel, 1904 72 3.1 Cover of Der Schützengraben (The Trench), December 1915 94 3.2 Father Jakob Ebner in military uniform 104 3.3 Officers and enlisted men celebrate War Christmas 112 3.4 Bavarian War Christmas party 114 3.5 Christmas in a dugout on the western front 115 3.6 Air Force Squadron 292 celebrates Christmas on the western front, 1916 116 3.7 Military railroad workers receive Christmas packages on the eastern front 117 3.8 Postcard: “Christmas Greetings from the Front,” 1917 126 3.9 Postcard from Galicia, Christmas 1916 127 3.10 Private sketch: “Best Christmas Wishes, from Father, 1915” 128 4.1 The “Grand Christmas Sale” at Tietz Department Store in Berlin, circa 1925 138 4.2 Advertisement for mass-produced Christmas decorations, 1906 146 4.3 Model Christmas advertisements marketed by Die Reklame, 1896 149 4.4 Christmas display window, Tietz Department Store, Berlin, 1913 151 4.5 Schubert and Halle, The Berlin Christ Market in Breite Strasse, 1796 156 4.6 After Karl Rechlin, Christmas Market in Berlin—An Unwilling Customer, 1865 157 4.7 Anti-Christmas cartoon, Rote Fahne, 25 December 1926 183 5.1 Joseph Goebbels at a Winter Relief celebration, 1936 190 5.2 A German Labor Front Christmas party at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Berlin, 1938 196 5.3 Joseph Goebbels at an SA street celebration in Berlin, 1933 199 5.4 “Christmas and the Winter Relief,” Leipziger Illustrirte Zeitung, 10 December 1936 207 5.5 Berlin schoolgirls pack Christmas “Gifts from the Führer” for soldiers at the front, 1942 231 5.6 Workers at the Moabit Hospital in Berlin celebrate Christmas in an air-raid bunker, 1944 233 5.7 The War Christmas cult of death, from Deutsche Kriegsweihnachten, 1944 236 6.1 Christmas miracle on the Ku’damm: gift-wrapped Opel Kadett, Der Spiegel, 22 December 1965 240 6.2 Kurt Reuber, The Madonna of Stalingrad, charcoal on paper, 1942 251 6.3 Christmas miracle on Stalinallee: “A New Age Has Begun,” Neues Deutschland, 24 December 1962 267 6.4 Anticommercialism Christmas cartoon by Wigg Siegl, Simplicissimus, 1963 274 6.5 Christmas cartoon from Eulenspiegel, 17 December 1957 279 ...