The first documentation of Frankfurt’s Christmas marked has been in 1393, in the beginning the marked didn’t have the same function then today. It was meant as a possibility to stock up on supplies for the city’s population before the coming of the coldest days in Winter.
Contrary to other markets and fairs that have been held, the city didn’t allow non-citizen to have a booth and sell their goods on the market. Only the inhabitants of Frankfurt could partake in the market. Which made it a very intimate affair with little theatres to push away the Dredd of the darkest time in the year.
Throughout the centuries the marked became then closer and closer to what we know today. Then, In 1851, Heinrich Hoffman published his book “König Nußknacker und der arme Reinhold“ a book about an ill boy who is guided though a world of toys by the nutcracker king. When he wakes up, he finds himself healed and surrounded by the toys he saw in his dreams.
People began manufacturing the wooden Nutcracker doll from the book and selling it as toys and so the nutcracker became an iconic staple of the Christmas market.
During the second world war a lot of the original sites of the marked have been destroyed and the marked had to chance locations several time. Since the seventies it can be held in the original places again and has developed into a tourist attraction and one of the biggest markets in Germany of its kind.
The modern Christmas marked consists of around 200 booths and stretches from Hauptwache to the Zeil, the Liebfrauenberg, the Neue Kräme, the Paulsplatz, the Römerberg and the Fahrtor until the Mainkai
The Marked starts on the fist of advent and can be visited until the 22 of December. In the marked you will find all kinds of things including the traditional mould wine, “Quetschemännsche”, little figures made from nuts, prunes and raisins as well as a the “Frankfurter Brenten” cookies made from almond paste dough.
