Welcome to the main Lübecker Weihnachtsmarkt, Germany!
My love of Christmas Markets began some 35 years ago in Salzburg, Austria. I loved the concept. The gluhwein, the festive cheer, the wonderful gifts you could get! It was all so wonderful and romantic. I even spent some time in village outside of Salzburg, helping to construct a booth for friends in the local market. It was freezing cold, we were doing it at night, and we drank tea out of a thermos, but unfortunately we could not feel our toes.
I went back to Salzburg at Christmas in 1980 and the beauty had not worn off. When I married, had children, one of my goals was to get them back to Salzburg for a Christmas market when they were children, I could only imagine their wonder. I did not get them there as children, it just didn't happen. However, about 15 years ago Chicago started a Christkindl Market and so we began to visit it. In the children's high school years we were often the parent chaperone's for the German club kids to participate. This year my son is in Lubeck Germany and he is enjoying the same fun, ambiance and spirit, as I did when I was his age, so many years ago. He has now also visited a very small market too in Ratzeburg Germany. Ratzeburg is right on the border of the former East Germany. When Germany was reunited, and the wall came down, people were said to stream across the bridge into this town. He was visiting school friends here and had a meal of wild boar and strolled the market after.
These markets are something which if you have the chance to experience, you will never forget! I have some information about the various markets in Luebeck below. This town is definitely a Christmas market happening place.
Lübeck’s Old Town is an island and it has a wonderful Christmas Market. There are markets next to the Town Hall, where these pictures are taken and also in the pedestrian area and on Koberg. The scent of roasted almonds, spiced wine and grilled sausages makes it an inviting place for a cozy date. My son has had several gluhwein dates here! This market is practically just outside his apartment door. Roughly 200 small Christmas stalls offer self-made wooden toys and Christmas tree decorations. In 1648 Lübeck’s Christmas market was mentioned for the first time in historic documents. Lubeck, the former “Queen” of the Hanseatic League is a UNESCO world heritage site and has one of the best Christmas Markets in Europe.
Historic Christmas Fair
The historic Christmas market at the foot of St. Mary’s Church makes visitors travel through time – medieval flair amidst modern Lübeck!
Down the street from his apartment in a slightly different direction is a medieval Christmas market at St. Mary’s churchyard. Here craftsmen offer wooden carvings, furs, hand made silver jewelry and other items while musicians and jugglers in historic costumes entertain. If you are interested you can drink gluhwein here and also do some medieval dancing around small fires, quite a festive atmosphere!
Christmas Fairy Tale Forest
For 30 years Lübeck’s Fairy Tale Forest has been a festive attraction. 500 illuminated fir-trees and 21 stalls beautifully recreate tales of the Brothers Grimm.
There is also a family style market along the banks of the Obertrave River, with the Old Town as a backdrop. This is where you will find cookies, lots of decorated Christmas trees, and characters such as Mr.Winter and Mrs. Frost, Christmas Gnomes and where the kids can look forward to being entertained by them. This is the place where you can leave children for a couple of hours while they attend cookie baking school. No kidding. The Christmas bakery invites kids to mix and knead dough and bake and decorate cookies. They get a cup of hot chocolate, a kitchen apron and a real “baker’s diploma”. There is also a living Advent calendar and an ice rink for the children. Also nearby is a display of the fairy tale world of the Brothers Grimm, figures of Snow White, and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty invite the visitor to see 20 tableaus illustrating various of these famous stories and an old fashioned white horses and carriages merry go round to ride on!
Crafts Fair at St. Peter’s
At St. Peter’s, more than 50 craftsmen from Northern Germany offer a wide variety of traditional and contemporary gift ideas. This fair is a nice one, with a little café, all in a church on Schmiedestrasse. Here you can also enjoy at 50-m height a fantastic view of the town, the most wonderful Christmas City of the north. Also, since this is a church, there is a contemplative evening devotion and organ music, if you are interested in participating.
Craftsmen’s Christmas fair at Hospital of the Holy Spirit
The arts and craft market inside the festively decorated church hall and in the small rooms of the long hall of the medieval Hospital of the Holy Spirit areunique. The exhibitors come from all over Germany and Northern Europe. This is an especially popular stop for visitor from Denmark, Norway and Sweden who come in droves for this event.
Perhaps the warmest, and most popular fair is in the Hospital of the Holy Spirit. About 150 artisans from the world show sell their crafts in the church hall. The area is lined with small rooms which were used up until thirty years ago as living areas for the elderly. In addition to the wonderful crafts, there are freshly-baked waffles and the smell wafts throughout medieval building, where there is also live Christmas music performed. This Christmas market is organized on a volunteer basis by the "Association for Women and Culture" and all the proceeds are donated to charity.
Niederegger Marzipan Bazaar and Café
Of course, Christmas in Lübeck would not be complete without a visit to the Christmas Bazaar at Niederegger’s where you can taste famous marzipan cake, "a delicious gateau with a rich nut brittle cream and a thin coat of marzipan". Luebeck is famous the world over as the home of Marzipan, this company is one of the best known makers. Their shop is a frequent stop for those in need of the special sweet. It makes sense they would have a bazaar for Christmas. What baker would make their Christmas stollen minus marzipan? Ha. Well, as you like it anyway! I make mine without.It is tasty though!Now my daughter will join her brother in Germany for the holiday. I hope they see all the markets and perhaps we will have more pictures to share! At any rate, next time you eat some Mazipan, you might think of Luebeck and all those wonderful markets.
Copyright 2010 by SheilaTGTG55 Pictures by Henry Bernhardt
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Comments
I want to focus on battlefields, famous universities and the homes of super philosophers, musicians and intellectuals. She wants to focus on cultural sites and attractions. Markets seem cool and I would have no problem seeing these, provided that they are genuine.
Has Germany been hit with the horribly vulgar and disgusting "shopping mall" phenomenon we see in North America? Its good to see, here, genuine town-markets, with people walking about, talking, etc....so much more is involved here than merely the commercial.
WUNDERBAR FRAULEIN SHEILA!
UND FROEHLICHE WEIHNACHTEN ZU DICH!
My wife and I, when we visit, would also very much like to stay in an American-friendly village for like 1 week. Something very old, very rustic, very orginal. I want to feel like I went back in time to the 19th century and not see any automobiles, airplanes, tourists or anything. I want to be able to drink beer, eat Sauerbraten and wurst and walk in the hills with a mighty walking stick, fend-off Boars, watch farmers milk their cows and start up random conversations with townsfolk upon the village path. I want to go to a tavern or Bierkeller and sip suds, while reading Kant and listening to Alpenmusik.
I wonder if there are still places one can do this in Germany? In the US, in Pennsylvania, there are still very rural areas one can partake of common American folk-culture. Sure, its modernized to a degree, but one can still partake of it. Of course, one must embrace it, warts and all, but it is still there, actual, real, unadorned, uncommercialized and un-idealized. I want to embrace and wash myself with "the real."
I am so sick of the "fake" the "false" and the "adulterated."
Where can a Westerner find the genuine in the West? Must we always go to the undeveloped lands of the Third World to embrace "the real?" Why can't we find it in our own lands?
GOD HOW I HATE the 21st CENTURY!
This was just beautiful.
rated with hugs
Plus my parents promised to use the wooden ornaments next year. I'm going to make them drag out the pyramids as well
Rwoog5g: Thank you for you visit here. I think a visit to Germany is in order! If you spend some time doing a bit of research I think you just might be able to find what you are looking for. It would be hard to turn back the clock to a simpler time, but in a way some of the former east block countries with their remote villages might be like that to an outside visitor. I think the key is to get to know some people through some exchanges and then you experience the real people and country.
Linda: Thank you for coming to the markets for a visit. I think we would definitely need a scooter to do this all in one day!!!
Scanner: I hope you get there sooner as opposed to later! I am sure it would be a fun experience to visit again, but like you, I have some wonderful memories. Thanks for stopping!
Julie: I have some straw ornaments, and wood ones. I have a very small tree this year, so I just put out some Berta Hummels.
Janice: Yes, some people have done some great travel in their lives and it is so fun to see their pictures and hear their stories! I enjoy OS for that too!
Is there any European old town that's unappealing? Doubt it.
Froehliche Weinachten.