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'Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets During 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

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Page 1: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

'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

Page 2: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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

Page 3: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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

Page 4: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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

Page 5: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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

Page 6: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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

Page 7: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

"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

Page 8: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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

Page 9: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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.

Page 10: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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.

Page 11: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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

Page 12: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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

Page 13: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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.

Page 14: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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.

Page 15: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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.

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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

Page 17: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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.

Page 18: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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

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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

Page 20: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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."

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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

Page 22: Tis the Season for German Christmas Markets

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.