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Mostly Saxon Christmas MarketsMostly Saxon Christmas Markets
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Mostly Saxon Christmas Markets

November - December 2024
Finally, the Christmas Market trip, but in a different part of Germany. Saxony, the home of German Christmas traditions, and Thuringia. Read more

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  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets

    We're Off...

    November 26, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    Bags: packed
    Paperwork: hopefully in order

    So this is the great big Christmas Market Trip, which we going to originally do in 2022,in Bavaria. I really wanted to see the market in Dresden, as it's the oldest, but it was too much of an outlier in those plans. If you followed our last trip, well, you'll known Christmas markets didn't happen because in 2021, they canceled them all at the last minute. We moved Bavaria to the late summer.

    But I was persistent, we were going to see what these Christmas Markets were really all about, and on our second attempt, I centered the trip on Dresden, where the main market will be celebrating its 590th anniversary. That led to a lot of new research, and the decision to focus our trip on Saxony, because in terms of German Christmas traditions, this is THE place to be, and most of the trip will be here except for a detour into the state of Thuringia to visit Erfurt and the Wartburg. Besides that: Leipzig, Dresden, Görlitz, Bautzen, Meissen, Freiberg, Saxon Switzerland and Königstein Castle, then the Erzgebirge-- from what I've been told by the smart folks on the Germany forum on Trip Advisor, is the home of German Christmas. Okay, one of them is from Dresden and has some bias towards his state, but the rest of them are from western Germany so...    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets

    In Transit

    November 27, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 39 °F

    Early arrival at Philadelphia airport, slightly different instructions from TSA, but we managed. The flight was less than full, something of a rarity for us when we travel, but we're happy about it. Left more or less on time.

    Now Philadelphia has suffered a demotion. Lufthansa now flies its alternative airline from our airport, Discover. Okay, maybe its budget airline, I don't know. Plane was fine. The same kind we flew on our first trip, a nice 2-4-2 arrangement so we didn't have to sit with a stranger.

    Food: we actually had a choice on this flight, not just “here's this vegetarian pasta” like last time. We had beef. As the Germans would say, “I could eat this.” It was pretty good. Slightly sauerbraten-ish, or similar to a meat tangine I've made in the past. No free glass of wine with dinner.

    Despite the absolute quiet on the plane and the melatonin, I'm unable to sleep, and sitting here wide awake. We're due to land in Frankfurt in a little over an hour and a half. Once there, we have a 2.2 kilometer walk to our next gate-- from one end of the airport to the other, including immigration and security. Two hours to do it if we're on time, so I hope we make it. Lufthansa, when they sold us the tickets, we're confident we could.

    And... we made it. From the next to the last gate at Terminal C, to the last gate in Terminal A, through security and immigration with one short train ride.

    Now, onto Leipzig, and here comes the plane.    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets

    Nikolaikirche

    November 27, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 48 °F

    We arrived in Leipzig, checked into the hotel, and went out to the Christmas Market to eat. More on that later though. We had three objectives for today: Nikolaikirche, Thomaskirche, and Goerderler Monument.

    We started with the Nikolaikirche, mainly because we had passed it already and knew where it was.

    Saint Nicholas Church, a Catholic turned Lutheran church, was originally built in 1165 as a Romanesque church. In the 1500s, it was renovated into the Gothic Hall Style it has to this day. Baroque elements were added in the 1700s, notably the tower and portal. Today, it's a shared church, in use by both Protestants and Catholics.

    One of Leipizg's many important places tied to music, JS Bach was the musical director at Nikolaikirche after his appointment to the Thomaskantor post over at St Thomas. Several of his works debuted here including Saint John Passion (BWV 245 if you're interested in listening to it) and the Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248). Yeah, I like Bach. He's one of my favorite composer, sorry.

    The church was a flash point for the Peaceful Revolution and the eventual downfall of the Communist government in East Germany. Pastor Christian Führer began holding peace prayers every Monday in the church. The prayer meetings grew in popularity, attracting members of the more vocal and open opposition to the government. In the opening months of 1989, the government, through the Stasi, attempted to end the prayer meetings: blocking streets, and arresting random attendees outside as well as inside the church.

    This only emboldened the opposition, and more people came each week. On October 7, 1989, the fortieth anniversary of the East German state, protests occurred around the city. Hundreds were beaten and arrested. Erich Honecker, the General Secretary of the Socialist Party (the one who ran the country), threatened to close the church, and announced that the counter-revolution would be ended on Monday, October 9.

    Expecting bloodshed and knowing they were risking their lives, thousands crowded into the Nikolaikirchen and other central churches that Monday. It was estimated 70,000 people massed in the center of the city. The army and police had been mobilized, expecting violence, when instead, the people just stood with candles and prayed. Low level members of the Socialist Party on the scene urged a withdraw of the tanks and troops.

    The rest, as they say, was history. The Berlin Wall fell a month later.    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets

    Leipzig

    November 27, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 50 °F

    The first church built here was a Romanesque structure in the 1100s. In 1217 the minnesinger (the German version of a troubadour) Heinrich von Morungen gave the church a relic of Saint Thomas which he brought back from India, upon his entrance into the Augustian Canons. The church went through many renovations. The first major change was from Romanesque to Gothic style in the 1480s with the influx of money from the silver mines of the Erzgebirge. More renovations were carried out in the 1700s in the Baroque style, however in the late 1880s these were refashioned closer to their original Gothic trappings.

    The church, like many in Saxony, became Lutheran in the course of the Reformation. In 1539 Martin Luther preached here on Pentecost. It also has strong associations with famous musical figures. JS Bach was the music director from 1723 until his death in 1750, and also taught at the school. Mozart played the church's organ in 1789, and in 1813 Richard Wagner was baptized at Thomaskirche.

    Parts of the church were destroyed in 1943. In 1950, the bones of Bach were moved from their resting place in the graveyard of Saint John's when it was demolished by the Communist government, and interred in Saint Thomas. Sulfur emitted by nearby mines and other industrial pollutants in the post war period badly damaged the exterior statuary, and the paintings inside, despite some restoration done in the early 1960s. A more effective restoration was undertaken by the World Monuments Fund with money from American Express in the early Twenty-first Century.

    There are some notable, but not well known, pieces of art in the church: a Döteber baptismal font and a crucifix by Casper Löbel, which probably hung in the church during Bach's tenure. Much of the stained glass is from the 1890s.

    Oh, apologies for Bach's upside down tomb. You couldn't go all the way to where it is.

    Posting on Goerdeler and first day Christmas markets will have to wait until tomorrow. We've been up close to thirty-four hours. It's 8:00 PM German time and I'm going to bed.    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets

    Finally, the Christmas Markets

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 45 °F

    Since the driving purpose of the trip was to see real German Christmas markets, we went to most of them yesterday when we arrived. Some are really small here, a few stands with food and drink, maybe some vendors, like the Finnish Market, the Sudtirol Market, etc. There's also a Fairytale Market (scary), a Medieval Market (on the small side), and the main market on the square, which was really crowded when we arrived the first time at lunch.

    So here, some pictures from the main market, including the not-attractive looking lunch which was really good. No glühwein yet. Also, pictures from the market around Nikolaikirche, which I didn't even know was there.    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets
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    Fairytale and Finnish Markets

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 45 °F

    The Fairytale Market has the rides for the kiddies, a giant Ferris wheel, more food and drink, shops, and scary dioramas of fairy tales the little kids really seemed to like.

    The Finnish Market has mainly food, flame cooked salmon and Glögi (Finnish mulled wine) being the specialties. I got Steve to actually eat fish and he said it wasn't bad.Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets

    Goerdelerdenkmal

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 45 °F

    Another place we went to last night, it was high on the itinerary. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, the mayor of Leipzig in the early 1930s, and an active force in several attempts to remove or assassinate Hitler. He was a conservative, Lutheran, a firm nationalist, but mostly opposed the Nazi. Like others in the early 1930s, while he didn't support Hitler's rise to power, he thought he would be controllable with the right pressure. As a result, he was constantly sending memoranda, advice, et cetera to Hitler and Goring, in his roll of Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, especially on economics.

    As mayor, he actively opposed the boycott of Jewish owned businesses, even dressing in his full regalia and interfering with SA attempts to close and disrupt shops in 1933. His opposition continued, though he was softer on some issues such as Aryanization of professions, and believed in a fair number of common Antisemitic tropes.

    He resigned as mayor in 1937. On the surface, his resignation came over the removal of a statue of Leipzig-born composer Felix Mendelssohn, but his disputes with the Nazis went far deeper, centered around their Antisemitism and insistence on rearmament and movement towards a command economy.

    Goerdeler worked abroad and in Germany from 1937 to gain support for a putsch against Hitler. He was working for a military state, or a return to monarchy, and told his foreign contacts that this could be done, if the governments of the USA, UK, and France would return what had been taken from Germany in Poland and Czechoslovakia. (This is a gross simplification, but we're time limited here, and this isn't history class...)

    He was involved in several major plots to eliminate Hitler, either through arrest or assassination, including the one most Americans known about, on July 20, 1944. He was, with many others, caught in that one. He didn't hold up well in prison, gave information in the "hope that it would overwhelm the authorities", though it just ended up with more people being arrested. Eight members of his family were arrest on Sippenhaft (blood guilt-- the crime of being related to an enemy of the regime). He was executed by hanging in Plötzensee Prison in Berlin February 2, 1945.

    The Goerderler Monument is a well surrounding by passages from his writing, at the corner of the Neues Rathaus, the new city hall. Four times a day, chimes emanate from within, and we went out to hear it last night at 5:55. A very bad video follows, and pictures we took of the sight today.    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets

    Monument to the Battle of the Nations

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 45 °F

    Finally caught up to today. Apologies for falling behind.

    Started off our day having breakfast in a nearby bakery served by a very non-terminator type breakfast robot. I think his picture is on the facebook page (his? her?). Then we took the tram out to the Monument to the Battle of the Nations, which marks the final defeat of Napoleon in October 1813. The battle took place outside Leipzig, and approximately 90,000 were killed.

    It's huge, very solid, with an immense amount of detail in the stonework. The weather wasn't so cooperative, but it could be worse. If you're interested in Napoleon, the last war against him, there's a museum about it, but we gave it a miss. My historical interests are mainly pre 1700s in Europe, and World War II so...    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets
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    Sudfriedhof

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 45 °F

    Yay! A great big cemetery. If you followed our trip to Bavaria, you'd know we like to visit cemeteries. This is Leipzig's biggest, and honestly we wandered into by accident because we saw the tower of the central building. I said, "That looks like a monastery, let's go look." It wasn't. It was the main building of the South Cemetery, which contains various halls, funeral rooms, and a crematorium. It didn't look like you could visit, but we didn't walk too far inside. We're not ready to get in trouble yet...

    So we wandered around the cemetery, took some pictures. We found the 1948 monument to the victims of fascism, and it brings up a lot of interesting points on how the NSDAP period was addressed in post war DDR. It reminded me of what the historian Claudia Koonz told me way back in the early 1990s, about how the DDR viewed the period so much differently than the West. I'm trying to avoid such touchy political commentary, so look at the pretty pictures.

    The inscription on the monument front and back says: "Led to death, but behold, we are living," and "the victims of fascism admonish us". I had help with that, thank you DeepL translate. Google translate-- be better.

    So look at the pictures, while I remind myself to be quiet. Oh, don't miss the picture of the squirrel!    Read more

  • TravelerMostly Saxon Christmas Markets

    Neues Rathaus Leipzig

    November 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 45 °F

    Formerly know as Pleissenburg Castle, the site of the 1519 Disputation between Martin Luther and Johannes Eck. At that time, Leipzig was still Catholic, and it wasn't for very long afterwards. The castle was mostly destroyed in the Thirty Years War, and was never of significant military value afterwards.

    In 1905, it was rebuilt as the New Townhall. If you remember, last night we went to the Goerdeler Monument here to listen to the chimes. Today, we visited again, hoping to go up to the tower for the views, but due to high winds and rain, it was closed. We walked around inside and took pictures instead. It also has a famous restaurant in the basement, the Ratskeller.

    There was some sort of police party going on, up in the open area on the second level, but someone (husband) told me we couldn't crash it. Sigh.

    That said, it's a nice looking building, but we didn't stay long. Note the police bus-- one career, a thousand possibilities!    Read more

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