Striezelmarkt
Encyclopedia
The Striezelmarkt in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
is one of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's oldest documented Christmas market
Christmas Market
A Christmas market, also known as Christkindlmarkt, Christkindlesmarkt, Christkindlmarket, and Weihnachtsmarkt, is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent...
s. It was first mentioned in 1434, under Friedrich II
Frederick II, Elector of Saxony
Frederick II was Elector of Saxony and was Landgrave of Thuringia .-Biography:...
, an Elector of Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, when it was held the Monday before Christmas on the Altmarkt square. Over the centuries it has developed into a huge event with 250 stands, taking up a large part of Dresden city centre and lasting throughout the Advent
Advent
Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday, called Levavi...
period. Today the Striezelmarkt attracts 2 million visitors a year from all over the world.
The word Striezelmarkt comes from Strüzel or Stroczel, which was the name of a type of cake sold at the market, now famous as Stollen
Stollen
A Stollen is a loaf-shaped cake containing dried fruit, and covered with sugar, powdered sugar or icing sugar. The cake is usually made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts and spices. Stollen is a traditional German cake, usually eaten during the Christmas season, when called...
or Christstollen. Stollen is a light airy fruitcake which is quite low in sugar, today available in many parts of the world. The true Dresden Stollen, however, is produced in the city and distinguished by a special seal depicting the city's famous king, August the Strong. The shape of the cake is meant to be reminiscent of the entrance to a mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
tunnel (the literal meaning of Stollen) reflecting the area's silver and tin mining history.
At the centre of the Striezelmarkt stands a 20m high spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
, brought from the nearby Tharandt
Tharandt
Tharandt is a municipality in Saxony, Germany, situated on the Weißeritz, 9 miles southwest of Dresden, on the Dresden-Reichenbach railway.It has a Protestant Church, a hydropathic establishment, and the oldest academy of forestry in Germany, founded by Heinrich Cotta in 1811 together with its...
woods and decorated with lights. At the back of the market square there is a painted wooden fairy-tale castle which is also a giant Advent calendar
Advent calendar
An Advent calendar is a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas. Some calendars are strictly religious, whereas others are secular in content...
. A door is opened every day by children's entertainers, with a puppet show, and on Fridays there is a visit by Father Christmas
Father Christmas
Father Christmas is the name used in many English-speaking countries for a figure associated with Christmas. A similar figure with the same name exists in several other countries, including France , Spain , Brazil , Portugal , Italy , Armenia , India...
himself.
Features of today's Striezelmarkt
Today the most famous features of Dresden Striezelmarkt are the world's largest usable Christmas arch with a breadth of 13.5 metres and a height of more than 5 metres and the 14-metre high Erzgebirge Christmas pyramid. Situated on the Dresden Striezelmarkt is a children’s adventure world. Here, the prune chimney sweep’s cottage and the bakery are open for kneading and arts and crafts. Furthermore, there is the puppet theatre, merry-go-round and a children’s railway. On the Dresden Striezelmarkt a daily stage programme takes place. On the Advent weekends are special events like Dresden Stollen Festival and Pyramid and Christmas Arch Festival.Wooden Ornaments
Many of the stands at the Striezelmarkt sell wooden ornaments of a huge variety of shapes and sizes. This comes from the area's mining history. Dresden is the largest city near the Erzgebirge, or Ore Mountains, where silver and tin were discovered in around 1168. The discovery brought many miners to the area, who then lost their jobs as the German Peasants' WarGerman Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...
and competition from abroad took their toll. Needing a new way of earning money, the miners took up woodcarving, incorporating mining symbols and religious elements into their designs. These symbols can still be found in the Christmas ornaments sold at the Striezelmarkt.
- Candle pyramids
- In many parts of Germany, the candle pyramid (lightstock) is brought out every year to light up the room at Christmas. Two to five round wooden tiers, gradually smaller towards the top, are built onto a central rod which rotates, driven by the heat of candleCandleA candle is a solid block or cylinder of wax with an embedded wick, which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.Today, most candles are made from paraffin. Candles can also be made from beeswax, soy, other plant waxes, and tallow...
s rising up into a rotor at the top. On each tier there are figures connected with Christmas. The whole ornament is usually about 50 cm high, but the tallest pyramid in the world takes pride of place at the Striezelmarkt, towering a full 14m in the air. Originally, the pyramid was a much simpler affair, simply a frame to hang sprigs of firFirFirs are a genus of 48–55 species of evergreen conifers in the family Pinaceae. They are found through much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, occurring in mountains over most of the range...
upon; the modern-day pyramid did not evolve until the early 19th century.
- SchwibbogenSchwibbogenA Schwibbogen is a decorative candle-holder from the Ore Mountains region of Saxony, Germany.The first metal Schwibbogen was made in 1740 in Johanngeorgenstadt. The early candle arches always consisted of black ore. They were made out of one single forged piece and could be painted. The number of...
- Literally, the word SchwibbogenSchwibbogenA Schwibbogen is a decorative candle-holder from the Ore Mountains region of Saxony, Germany.The first metal Schwibbogen was made in 1740 in Johanngeorgenstadt. The early candle arches always consisted of black ore. They were made out of one single forged piece and could be painted. The number of...
means an archArchAn arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...
"hanging" (schweben) above you, between two walls. This candle-holder is indeed arch-shaped, representing the arched entrance to a mine hung with guiding lights; another connection to the area's mining past. Today the "candles" are often lit with electricity, and the scenes cut out of the wooden centre of the arch are not only on mining themes. At night during Advent, nearly every single window in Dresden is lit with these ornaments, traditionally bought at the Striezelmarkt.
- Räuchermann (smoking man)
- Another ornament always present at Christmas-time in Germany, the smoking man is hollowed out with a hole leading to his mouth, hung with a pipe. An incenseIncenseIncense is composed of aromatic biotic materials, which release fragrant smoke when burned. The term "incense" refers to the substance itself, rather than to the odor that it produces. It is used in religious ceremonies, ritual purification, aromatherapy, meditation, for creating a mood, and for...
candle is placed inside him so that he appears to smoke as it burns. There is a wide variety of variations on the smoking man, including old ladies in rocking chairs, Father Christmases, and figures representing nearly every occupation. Smoking men first appeared on the Striezelmarkt in the 19th century.
- Nutcrackers
- The type of nutcracker traditionally sold at the Striezelmarkt, carved and painted with a red coat like a soldier, probably became popular world-wide thanks to Tchaikovsky'sPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
"Nutcracker Suite". The first wood turner to carve the ornaments in this form, Wilhelm Friedrich Füchtner from the Ore Mountains, is said to have been inspired by the nutcracker in the story book Tchaikovsky's ballet came from.
Food and drink
- Pflaumentoffel
- Although they are made of prunesPlumA plum or gage is a stone fruit tree in the genus Prunus, subgenus Prunus. The subgenus is distinguished from other subgenera in the shoots having a terminal bud and solitary side buds , the flowers in groups of one to five together on short stems, and the fruit having a groove running down one...
, these little figures are really decorations, although they can be eaten after Christmas. Pflaumentoffel means plum devil; (also called Feuerrüpel or Fiery Santa), although they are not meant to be devils or Santas, but chimney sweeps, all dressed in black (the prunes) with a top hatTop hatA top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...
and a brush. Until the 20th century, Pflaumentoffel were sold at the Striezelmarkt on trays carried by children trying to earn some Christmas money. The artist Ludwig Richter famously portrayed these Striezelkinder in 1853 in his woodcut "Ausverkauft wegen Geschäftsaufgabe" ("Sold out as giving up business"). In 1910, however, sale by children was banned at the Striezelmarkt.
- Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen (Pulsnitz gingerbread)
- The Christmas market at NurembergNurembergNuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
(Christkindlmarkt) is more famous for its gingerbreadGingerbreadGingerbread is a term used to describe a variety of sweet food products, which can range from a soft, moist loaf cake to something close to a ginger biscuit. What they have in common are the predominant flavors of ginger and a tendency to use honey or molasses rather than just sugar...
known as LebkuchenLebkuchenLebkuchen is a traditional German baked Christmas treat, somewhat resembling gingerbread.Lebkuchen were invented by Medieval monks in Franconia, Germany in the 13th century. Lebkuchen bakers were recorded as early as 1296 in Ulm, and 1395 in Nürnberg...
, but the Striezelmarkt's gingerbread has nearly as long a history. Pfefferkuchen literally means "pepperBlack pepperBlack pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit, known as a peppercorn when dried, is approximately in diameter, dark red when fully mature, and, like all drupes, contains a single seed...
cake": the word "pepper" was used to mean any new foreign spiceSpiceA spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
. The gingerbread sold at the Striezelmarkt comes from PulsnitzPulsnitzPulsnitz is a town in the district of Bautzen, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km southwest of Kamenz, and 24 km northeast of the centre of Dresden....
, a town about 50 km from Dresden; it was first mentioned as a speciality from Pulsnitz in a decree issued in 1558 allowing bakers to produce it there. Pfefferkuchen are usually filled with marmaladeMarmaladeMarmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits, boiled with sugar and water. The benchmark citrus fruit for marmalade production in Britain is the "Seville orange" from Spain, Citrus aurantium var...
or jam and covered with chocolateChocolateChocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
. Unlike gingerbread from other countries, the dough does not usually contain any fat, or indeed gingerGingerGinger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
, but instead nutmeg, cinnamon, ground cloves and allspice, which are added after the dough has been left up to 6 months to mature. In 1780 eight master bakers came personally from Pulsnitz to sell their wares at the Striezelmarkt; today there are many more Pfefferkuchen stands, but the gingerbread is usually sold by hired staff.
- Glühwein (mulled wine)
- One very well-loved tradition on a cold December night in Dresden is drinking steaming mugs of mulled wineMulled wineMulled wine, variations of which are popular in Europe, is wine, usually red, combined with spices and typically served warm. It is a traditional drink during winter, especially around Christmas and Halloween.-Glühwein:...
at the Striezelmarkt. The hot red wine spiced with cloves and cinnamon is served in specially decorated mugs.
Further reading
- Heidrun Wozel: Der Dresdner Striezelmarkt. Geschichte und Tradition des ältesten deutschen Weihnmachtsmarktes. Husum Verlag, Husum 2009, ISBN 978-3-89876-455-1
See also
- List of Christmas markets
- Christmas marketChristmas MarketA Christmas market, also known as Christkindlmarkt, Christkindlesmarkt, Christkindlmarket, and Weihnachtsmarkt, is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent...
- Cuisine of Germany