Christmas in Nazi Germany
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The celebration of Christmas in
Background
Christianity had long been the main faith of the Germanic peoples, dating to the missionary work of
Hitler and the Nazi party promoted "
Early Nazi celebrations of Christmas occurred in 1921 when Adolf Hitler made a speech in a beer hall in Munich to 4,000 supporters. Undercover police reporters wrote that the crowd cheered when Hitler condemned "the cowardly Jews for breaking the world-liberator on the cross", swearing he was "not to rest until the Jews ... lay shattered on the ground." The crowd then sang carols and nationalist hymns around a Christmas tree, with gifts being donated to working-class attendees of the speech.[5] After taking power in 1933, Nazi ideologues initially sought to reject Germany's long-held Christmas traditions—renaming the festival Julfest, and propagating its Germanic origins as the celebration of the winter solstice. But for the majority of Germans, the Christian traditions remained the basis of the holiday, and the churches were outraged by the removal of Christ from Christmas and maintained the Christian traditions among themselves.[6]
Christmas in the Nazi regime
The Christmas tree was also changed. The traditional names of the tree, Christbaum or Weihnachtsbaum, was renamed in the press as a fir tree, light tree or Jul tree. The star on the top of the tree was sometimes replaced with a swastika, a Germanic
Shop catalogues containing children's toys made available during the holiday season featured chocolate SS soldiers,[9] toy tanks, fighter planes and machine guns. As a sign of appreciation, Heinrich Himmler frequently gave SS members a Julleuchter ("Yule lantern"), a kind of ornate Germanic candlestick, some of which were made at Dachau concentration camp.[7][12][13] Housewives were prompted to bake biscuits in the shape of birds, wheels and swastikas for their children.[citation needed]
By 1944 the movement to remove Christian influences from Christmas lessened as the government concentrated more on the war effort.[7] In 1944 civil celebrations of Christmas marked the festival as a day of remembrance for Germany's war dead.[citation needed]
Opposition
While most Germans embraced the Nazis' rebranding of Christmas, at times it was reported that there was hostility by a minority. Files from the
See also
References
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Online - Germany : Religion; web 23 May 2013
- ^ Ian Kershaw; The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation; 4th Edn; Oxford University Press; New York; 2000; pp. 173–74
- ^ William L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; p. 240
- ^ from Norman H. Baynes, ed. (1969). The Speeches of Adolf Hitler: April 1922-August 1939. 1. New York: Howard Fertig. p. 402.
- ^ a b c d Perry, Joe (December 22, 2015). "How the Nazis co-opted Christmas". The Conversation. Retrieved December 25, 2015.
- ^ Christmas: Not such a holy night under the Nazis; DW Online; by Faith Thomas; 24/12/09
- ^ a b c d e f g h Paterson, Tony (21 December 2009). "How the Nazis stole Christmas". The Independent. London. Retrieved 21 December 2009.
- ^ a b Boyes, Roger (17 November 2009). "How the Nazis tried to take Christ out of Christmas". The Times. Retrieved 21 December 2009.
- ^ a b Morrison, Rebecca K. (22 December 2010). "Did the Germans invent Christmas?". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
- ^ Hardwig, Florian (26 December 2015). "Lieder zur Weihnachtszeit (1940)". Fonts in Use. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
For a compilation of Christmas songs, there are indeed exceptionally little references to the biblical nativity story, or Christian elements in general. "Gott" (God) and "Engel" (angel) appear only twice, and are outnumbered by terms like "Stern" (star), "Licht" (light), "Nacht" (night), "Feuer" (fire), "Wald" (woods), etc. Santa Claus is replaced by a pagan "Sunnwendmann" (Solstice man). Instead of Mary, there is "Frau Holle" (Mother Hulda). And there certainly is not a single mention of the Jewish baby named Jesus.
- ^ "How Hitler and the Nazis tried to steal Christmas". The Daily Telegraph. London. 17 November 2009. Retrieved 21 December 2009.
- ^ Smith, David Gordon (13 November 2009). "Swastikas and Tinsel: How the Nazis Stole Christmas". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
- ^ de Waal, Edmund (18 September 2015). "Figurines in Dachau - Edmund de Waal on the Nazis' love of porcelain". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
External links
- "Photos from a Nazi [Hitler's] Christmas Party (Dec 1, 1941)". Life. Slideshow. Dec 1, 2013. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014.