Christkindlesmarkt Nuremberg

Almost every Älg has heard of it, but almost no one has seen it – the Nuremberg Christmas market.

Älgbert Elgson

Christmas was just around the corner and the Christmas spirit still left something to be desired. Too much stress, too much everyday life, too many things to do. Since Älgbert is a big Christmas fan, this wonderful time shouldn’t pass us by without a trace, so we decided to spend a weekend in Nuremberg during Advent.

In order to be as close to the action as possible, we stayed at a hotel within the city walls. There, at the main market, one of the oldest and largest Christmas markets in Germany is located in the run-up to Christmas. This can be traced back to the middle of the 17th century and we were excited to see what there was to discover there.

Since we were expecting a large number of visitors, especially in the evening, and couldn’t wait to stroll through, we started the day full of joy at the Christmas market. We inspected stands, found beautiful and less beautiful works of art, bought a little something for those who stayed at home and, after getting a rough overview, tasted them properly.

Stalls with punch, gingerbread or bratwurst were in the majority and literally attracted us. Älgbert pounced on punch with gingerbread, while we thought the famous bratwursts in the form of „Drei im Weggla“ were worth trying. These are three small Nuremberg bratwursts that are placed in a sliced bread roll (= Weggla) and traditionally served with mustard. But it wasn’t just these that impressed us; we also had to try various drinks throughout the day. We particularly liked the twin towns market, which can be found on Rathausplatz, which is almost adjacent to the main market. Unfortunately, there is no Finnish city that is twinned with Nuremberg and therefore there were no Finnish specialties for Älgbert, but in the end he settled for Scottish shortbread.

Of course, we didn’t just look at the Christmas market in Nuremberg, because we wouldn’t have come for that. Nuremberg is much more than just the city of the Christkindlesmarkt, which is opened by a chosen Christ child every two years. Nuremberg is primarily the city of beer, gingerbread and bratwurst, but there are also non-culinary sights such as the many picturesque half-timbered houses that adorn the old town and the imperial castle, from which we enjoyed a great view.

The imperial castle itself houses an exhibition in which we learned more about Nuremberg’s past. Life in the city changed significantly, especially during the Nazi era, and the old town was ultimately almost completely destroyed by several bombings during the Second World War and historical buildings were razed to the ground. Despite considerations of abandoning the city and rebuilding it somewhere else, it was decided at the time to rebuild most of the important buildings.

Reichsparteitagsgelände

The Nazi party rally grounds, which are located just outside the city center but can be easily reached by bus, are still a reminder of the National Socialist era. Since the terrible events, the city of Nuremberg has been particularly committed to peace and the realization of human rights, which is why, since 2001, a documentation center has been located in the unfinished congress hall on the Nazi party rally grounds.

An audio guide accompanied us through the permanent exhibition „Fascination and Violence“, where we learned a lot about National Socialism. Over four hours we were told facts about the origins and consequences of National Socialism, always making a connection to local events. Although we always follow the historically relevant events of our travel destinations with great interest, some people became a little impatient when there was still no end in sight to the exhibition and the words from the motivated audio guide speaker were still pouring out like a waterfall .

After the visit, we almost felt a little overwhelmed because of the information that was a little too detailed for our taste and we urgently needed some fresh air.
In order to sort out all the knowledge and also realize what happened back then, we decided to explore the surrounding area. The Nazi party rally grounds include not only the unfinished congress hall but also several other colossal buildings, some of which still exist today. We visited the Zeppelin Field and the Zeppelin Main Grandstand and walked along Große Straße to the Memorial to the Fallen.

Almost everyone who has ever studied German history knows the buildings from photographs from that time or from various films. However, once you stand there, you can hardly believe the size and extent of things and then you realize that all these events really happened and hopefully will never happen again in the future.

Regensburg

In contrast to Nuremberg, the buildings in Regensburg were luckier because they survived the war and the bombing relatively unscathed. The medieval old town itself was hardly affected and is now considered the largest of its kind in Germany and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2006. Its narrow streets, the numerous patrician houses and chapels from all artistic periods of the Middle Ages were waiting to be discovered by us.

In contrast to Nuremberg, this market seemed very small to us, but this could also have been because we skipped the „romantic Christmas market at Thurn and Taxis Castle“ due to the entrance fee of € 9.00/adult. The freely accessible stands were spread throughout the old town, live music and Santa Claus driving around created a Christmas atmosphere. Älgbert even discovered a stand with fan merchandise of himself and was completely overjoyed.

We strolled through the city with the accompanying food and drink until the weather lived up to the city’s name and we started our journey home.