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December 2000/ January 2001
VIENNA: BEYOND THE IMPERIAL
by Rich Rubin
The sun glances off the elaborately-tiled roof of St. Stephen's, Vienna's main cathedral, a gothic vision of towering spires and green/gold mosaics which
could be centuries in the past unless you turn and see the entire scene reflected in the curving, mirrored Hans Hollein building across the square. The glass panels of this stunningly modern building throw back the gothic image like a large-screen TV, as if to say, "You see, Vienna is both of these things at once."
It is a mystery why Vienna has a stodgy reputation. True, it boasts broad boulevards lined with imperial palaces, baroque towers, and fierce statues of long-gone rulers.
But take a closer look: there's a bohemian undercurrent here, and always has been, an iconoclastic spirit that's a surprise to those expecting only icy formality. This is the city where Freud gave birth to psychoanalysis, where Trotsky hung out in the local coffeehouses, where Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) sprang to fruition, where offbeat painters like Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Egon Schiele thrived. People forget this side of the city sometimes.
Even the layout is layered, onion-like. Inside the famous Ringstrasse is the city center (District 1), with the other districts forming circular strata around the center:
2 through 9 on the next concentric level, larger-numbered districts a bit more haphazardly strewn around the circumference. For a great orientation, ride the Ringstrasse tram, watching in delight as world-class monuments sail calmly past your window and neighborhoods change with the subtle shifts of a spectrum. It's like a giant baroque puzzle, full of wonders to explore, from the Hofburg, or Imperial Palace, a veritable city in itself with its grand entrance and regal buildings, to Schonbrunn Palace, the Hapsburg's country retreat where the splendors of the interior are matched by the extensive and elaborate gardens--and the view of the luscious grounds and distant cityscape from the Gloriette, a frilly hilltop monument.
But for every tradition there's a counter-tradition, and I parallel my voyage to imperial splendor with an exploration of the very un-imperial Jugendstil. My journey begins (as did this
Viennese movement) with the Secession Building, whose white facade topped by a golden ball created such a stir when it first appeared.
Inside lies Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, a hodgepodge of swirls and faces and even a huge gorilla, practically no more than a border around a mostly-empty wall--but what a border it is!
“Son of the Beach” Star
Roland Kickinger
by Vickie J. Rubinson
Even though Austria and Germany are better known for their Alps and skiing, Vienna’s own Roland Kickinger has made a big splash in Hollywood as a Teutonic ocean-front lifeguard in the comedy
series “Son of the Beach.”
While growing up in Europe, Roland never dreamed that he would be a California beach boy patrolling the Pacific Ocean beaches. His trip from the Danube to the sands of Malibu has earned the hunky
star critical acclaim for his comic skills as well as his breathtaking physique.
“I’m having a really fun time on the show,” enthuses Roland in an interview at the Schatzi on Main restaurant in Santa Monica, California. “We laugh all the time,” he says about the show which has
been described as a cross between “Baywatch” and the old comedy series “Get Smart.”
“Sometimes it’s hard not to laugh during a particularly funny scene. We have to think of something serious just to get through it...but we manage,” Roland assures.
“Son of the Beach” follows the action-filled life of lovable idiot “Notch Johnson” (played by Timothy Stack), the world’s greatest lifeguard. Each week Johnson and his sexy “SPF-30” lifeguard unit
bumble their way to success on the shores of the lovely Malibu adjacent beach while solving a murder, busting a drug lord or helping an attractive woman get over her fear of thongs.
Roland Kickinger, who plays “Chip Rommel” in the series, is a native of Germany who hopes to eventually go home because he knows one day Germany will have an ocean of its own. Originally from
Vienna, Austria, a former European National Bodybuilding Contest winner who won the title of “Mr. Austria,” Roland recently gained national attention hopping across the hot sand at the beach in a memorable
AT&T 1-800-COLLECT commercial with Ed O’Neill.
Mittenwald
By Lydia Enderle Bell
"A living picture book" is how Johann Wolfgang von Goethe described the Alpine village of Mittenwald in l876 when he stopped to spend the night on his way to Italy. Nestled between the
6000-feet high peaks of the Wetterstein and Karwendel Mountains, with its narrow cobblestone streets, its baroque parish church of St. Peter and Paul, and its half-timbered, beautifully painted house facades,
Markt Mittenwald, as the community officially calls itself, certainly earns this designation.
At 912 meters (3000 feet) above sea level, surrounded by evergreen studded forests and pristine Alpine lakes, with over a hundred miles of hiking trails, 35 miles of cross-country and downhill
skiing trails and numerous other recreational opportunities, Mittenwald is the highest altitude health resort in the Bavarian Alps. Unlike other mountain communities, however, the little town of 8000
distinguishes itself through a rich cultural heritage -- during the Middle Ages it gained fame as a significant market place and two hundred years ago it became a renown violin-making center.
Markt Mittenwald's cultural and economic development started between 195 and 215 A.D. when the Romans built the Via Raetia, a 430-km ( approximately 270 miles) long road that connected the city of
Venice in the south with the Bavarian city of Augsburg in the north. Initially used for troop transports of the Roman legion, in the Middle Ages, this route became an important traffic link for the transport of
goods. Venetian merchants provided spices, exotic fruits, cotton, silk, gold, silver, olive oil and wine from Italy and the Orient and German merchants delivered such goods as copper wire, weapons, armor and
fabrics. Mittenwald, which was conveniently located on the road, quickly seized the opportunity. The enterprising residents built Conestoga-style wagons and formed the "Rott," an organization of
drivers who gained the legal right from the government to monopolize transportation to and from Italy. Merchants traveling through Mittenwald were required to deposit their goods in the community's newly built
warehouses, paying hefty fees to the Rott. When the existing road could not handle the ever-increasing traffic anymore, the Rott drivers turned to the Isar river that runs through Mittenwald and
built floes to transport goods. In the process, they developed a lucrative lumber trade with the rapidly growing Bavarian cities of Munich and Landshut.
Stollen Pleasures
By Sharon Hudgins
'Tis the season when bakery windows in Germany are piled high with special sugar-coated fruit-and-nut breads known in most regions as Stollen.
Also called Christstollen and Weihnachtsstollen, these traditional Christmas breads are made in the shape of a flattened oblong loaf, representing the swaddled Christ Child. The name for these festive breads supposedly comes from an Old High German word for wooden posts or sticks, symbolizing the wooden manger in which the Christ Child lay.
Stollen have been popular Christmas breads in Germany for centuries.
Every year, the week before the Advent season began, German housewives baked loaves of Stollen for their families at home, and sent additional loaves to relatives and friends in other parts of the country. Professional bakers also shipped their own famous Stollen all over Europe -- and this Christmas bread became well-known for its ability to withstand long journeys and remain tasty even after months of storage.
Several hundred years ago, the Catholic Church forbade the use of butter during the Advent season, as part of the rules for fasting in preparation for Christmas. The edict was disastrous for
both the women who did so much baking at home before Christmas, as well as the commercial bakers whose livelihood depended on the Stollen sold during the holiday season. The problem was solved in 1650, when Prince Ernst von Sachsen successfully petitioned Pope Urban VIII to lift the restrictions on the use of butter during Advent, at least in the region of Saxony. Perhaps that is how Saxon Stollen gained its reputation as the best of all Stollen produced in the German lands.
The most famous Saxon Stollen comes from Dresden, where for centuries the bakers' guild carefully guarded the secret of its recipe for Stollen. However, Dresdner housewives also made their own versions of this tasty loaf, baking the Stollen before the first Sunday of Advent, then storing the tightly wrapped loaves for a month to let the flavors ripen. Traditionally, the first slice of Stollen was eaten on Christmas Eve, accompanied by coffee. The last slice -- of the many Stollen baked before Advent -- was consumed on Easter, by which time the flavor had become almost like that of marzipan.
Ask 100 German cooks for an authentic recipe for Stollen, and you will get 100 different recipes. Most will be made from a rich yeast dough, but each baker will have his or her own
variation on the basic theme. Some Stollen contain raisins, currants and/or sultanas; others add almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts. Candied orange peel and lemon peel, as well as candied citron, are usually included, often with freshly grated lemon and orange peel, too. Spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, mace or cloves go into the Stollen,
along with brandy or rum. Butter is the essential shortening for a good Stollen, but some older recipes call for the use of beef suet or lard.
“Silent Night”
“Stille Nacht”
By Ben Henkey
One hundred and eighty-two years ago this Christmas Eve, in a nondescript Austrian village a few kilometers north of Salzburg, two young men overcame a local parish church crisis and,
unknowingly, presented the Christian world with one of its most widely shared and revered gifts. This is how it happened.
Winding its way north from Salzburg, the Salzach River makes an abrupt horseshoe bend as it passes the Austrian town of Oberndorf on its way to a confluence with the Inn River, some 50 miles
to the north near Braunau. The countryside here is mostly gently rolling farmland, unlike most of Austria, and not unlike parts of the Midwest in the United States. Summers can be rather warm, and in the winter
snows blanket this upland valley. Looking to the south on a clear day, one can make out the peaks of the eastern Alps, which begin to poke their heads out of the plain on Salzburg's northern outskirts.
At Oberndorf in the year 1818, the Salzach's swift cold currents passed very near the Catholic parish church of St. Nicholas, which had been rebuilt in Rococo style to replace an earlier
church on the site that was destroyed by fire in 1757.
Until 1816, St. Nicholas had been included in the parish of the old Salzbergian town of Laufen that stood on the western, or opposite, side of the Salzach. However, Laufen, under the terms
of the Congress of Vienna, which had lost its districts of Altach and Oberndorf, had become part of the German state of Bavaria. Oberndorf, now in Hapsburg-ruled Austria, became a parish unto itself, under the
jurisdiction of the Salzburg bishopric. It was the latest in a number of demoralizing blows to strike this little corner of Europe following the Napoleonic wars. Austria had been occupied by the French in 1809.
A year later, the once-independent Salzburg province was annexed by Bavaria. It returned to Austria briefly in 1815, but a year later the area, including the farmlands on the western bank of the Salzach, was
again awarded to Bavaria.
It was a crushing blow to the bewildered people here who were physically, spiritually and economically drained by 70 years of almost continuous conflict, dating back to Austrian Empress
Maria Theresa's wars with Frederick the Great of Prussia in the 1740s.
The members of the new parish of Sankt Nickolai zu Oberndorf, having watched three generations of their sons conscripted for whatever conflict was in progress at the time, and now
separated from the former members of their flock by the latest shift in political boundaries, would have welcomed some uplifting news as Christmas neared.
However, as fortune would have it, the church's 60-year-old pipe organ had broken down. The ever-present dampness from the nearby river had swollen some of the wooden parts of the organ to
the point that they would not operate, and the church mice, who had nothing better to gnaw on than the leather of the pump organ's bellows, were jointly responsible. The organ builder/repairman, who made
Oberndorf a regular stop on his rounds, would not pay a visit until the following spring.
Plans for special organ and choral music on Christmas Eve had been scrapped by the church organist and choir director, Franz Gruber, a 31-year-old schoolteacher in the adjacent village of
Arnsdorf who supplemented his income by putting his musical talents to use at St. Nicholas. The son of a family of weavers from the town of Hochburg, a little way up the Salzach valley, he showed a flair for
musical composition, but, unlike the Haydns and Mozarts before him, could not make a living at it.
By Christmas Eve morning, news that the midnight Mass would lack music had gotten around the valley by word of mouth, and the sheepherders, weavers, salt miners, farmers, riverboat men and
their families, who made up the parish congregation, were upset at their organist and choirmaster.
Equally concerned was the parish's curate, Father Joseph Mohr, who had been assigned to St. Nicholas a little more than a year earlier, together with Vicar Joseph Kessler, when the new
parish had been formed. Although only 26, Mohr already had a reputation as a free-spirited priest, and regularly found himself serving as confessor to the rivermen who plied the Salzach in their goods barges. He
often could be found singing, preaching and playing his guitar while sharing a beer with members of his flock in one of the riverfront taverns frequented by the boatmen.
The German Skiadler: A New National Symbol?
by Amy De La Hunt
When they appear on television sports shows, the men of the German National Ski Jumping Team look more like a teenage singing group than professional athletes. They are skinny (the heaviest
weighs about 154 pounds/70 kilograms), they are cute and they attract flocks of females.
So how did they muscle out the big boys, the soccer players and race car drivers and tennis stars? Simple. The young "eagles" soared over their heads.
In the two seasons since Martin Schmitt, Sven Hannawald and company hatched on the ski jumping stage, they have dominated. Schmitt's ten victories in the 1998/1999 season set a new World Cup
record and ensured him the overall title. He did even better last year, winning eleven World Cup events and another title. In ski flying, where athletes are in the air more than the length of two football
fields, Schmitt also won the 1998/1999 World Cup.
Hannawald is always there pulling at Schmitt's tailfeathers. He finished the 1999/2000 World Cup ski jumping season in fourth place, but bested his teammate by winning the ski flying title.
Their timing could not have been better. Last season the television station RTL bought the broadcast rights for the Vierschanzen-Tournee (Four Hills Tournament), a sporting highlight of the holiday season since the 1950s, and promoted it (and the sport as a whole) with a vengeance.
“With four very different jumps in Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen between December 29 and January 6, the Vierschanzen-Tournee tests athletes' adaptability and stamina in a way not even the Olympics can match,” said Toni Guggemoos, president of the Ski Club Partenkirchen and lead organizer of his city's contest. He went on to say that anybody can win one stage, but being consistent enough to win it all is a unique challenge.”The one who wins this tournament is truly the best," he said.
Christmas Museum Opens in Germany
In September 2000 the first Christmas museum in Germany opened in the medieval walled city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Created by the Käthe Wohlfahrt firm, the museum is a logical extension of
their well-known Christmas stores.
The permanent exhibition shows the development of Christmas traditions beginning with the history of the holiday. Reproductions depict the first decorated Christmas tree as dating back to the
Bakers Guild of Friburg im Breisgau in 1419 when tres were decorated with apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers that the children were allowed to pick as treats. In addition to standing fir trees,
small hanging trees, twigs and triangularly constructed pyramids known as Klausenbäume were used.
Three rooms display decorated trees from the Biedermeier era to 1945. Glass cases showcase heavy glass Kugels and glass ornaments form Lauscha, wax and stencil decorations, cotton ornaments,
Dresden paper ornaments, Bohemian cardboard ornaments, wax angels, tree topers and many more early and interesting decorations.
The variety of Christmas tree stands, and the many characters that have developed into Santa Claus make fascinating displays. The museum traces the Santa character back to two saints: the 4th century Bishop of Myra and 6th century Abbot Nikolaus von Sion. In Germany Santa’s appearance was popularized by Moritz von Schwind’s drawings of Weihnachtsmann.
Advent calendars, Paper nativities, Scraps, and cards are also displayed. Printed paper nativities were very popular during the 2nd half of the 19th century but Advent calendars are known from the 1850s, but weren’t printed until after 1900. Scraps or chromolithographs were often glued to baked goods or combined with tinsel or glass balls to make tree ornaments. Greeting cards became a popular addition to holiday celebrations with the advent of quality color printing.
A special showroom in the Christmas museum is devoted to an extensive private collection of German Nutcrackers. The nutcrackers made in Erzebirge are decorative objects made of wood to imitate
authoritative figures with large jaws. In addition, the museum houses displays of Pyramids, Spinnen (Spider Chandeliers), Light Angles, Miners and Smokers.
The continuity of the Christmas celebration, reflecting the changes over time, is beautifully presented in the German Christmas Museum. For more about the museum see www.weihnachtsmuseumwohlfahrt.com
O Holy Night, in Munich
Banker Max Schmederer's magnificent collection of nativity scenes enthralls visitors to the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum year-round.
By Nan Bauroth
For over a century, Munchners have celebrated the Christmas season with a pilgrimage to an unlikely place - the basement of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. This traditional excursion
into a little-known wing of the institution honoring Bavaria's cultural contributions holds special meaning for those privy to its secret. For there, tucked away like a box of sugarplums, sits a treasure trove
of spectacular antique nativity scenes that, but for one of Bavaria's native sons, might have vanished into the mists of time.
The legacy of Munich banker Max Schmederer, the Krippen Exhibit houses the world's finest collection of crèches dating from the Renaissance. Few Americans are aware that this glorious Christmas pageant in miniature exists in the heart of Munich. Even fewer know that krippen or
cribs, as the Germans call nativity scenes, came to grace our mantel because the Catholic Church forbade them for a century, and that Bavarians played a significant role in keeping the beloved religious
tradition alive.
This inspirational Christmas story began in 1223, in the Italian village of Greccio. Desirous of bringing the Christ Child's birth alive for his followers, St. Francis of Assisi staged the
first nativity scene in a stable, replete with ox and ass. Townspeople bearing torches illuminated the reenactment, and as Thomas chanted the Gospel, the entranced crowd fell to singing, an act deemed the origin
of the Christmas carol.
This dramatization caused such a sensation that thousands journeyed to the crib at Greccio, saving bits of the animal provender as a miracle cure. Within a few years, Christmas cribs
proliferated in monasteries and convents throughout southern Europe, with church officials seeing them as a way of teaching the scriptures to an illiterate population.
Calendar
DECEMBER 2000
Tulsa, OK
December 1-3: Christkindlmarkt. 2nd annual by the German Society of Tulsa. For information call (918) 744-6998 oe see www.dfrontiers.com/gast
Fredericksburg, TX
December 1-10: Weihnachten in Fredericksburg. Tree lighting, arts & crafts, home tours, Christmas tree forest. For information call (830) 997-9591
Zoar, OH
December 2 & 3: Christmas in Zoar.
Old world Christmas customs, decorated private homes and museums, holiday crafts for decorating and gifts. For more information, call (800) 874- 4336 or (330) 874- 2646
Old Salem, NC
December 16: Salem Christmas. For information call (888) 653-7253
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