He is part of Christmas – in Germany and in many Parts of the world. Long ago, the famous German Nutcracker has expired many other traditional wooden decorations.
Been from the “Smoking man” is one who is called in Germany, more affectionately called “smoker”? It is a wooden figure, in the incense burning; and it looks as if the little man is Smoking. She is one of many traditional Christmas decorations from the Erzgebirge mountains. The Region is known for its ornate carvings, wooden angels, Christmas pyramids, or so-called flying buttress.
For the smoker, there is no English word, because he was never as famous as its direct Cousin: the Nutcracker, his character’s most famous international Export from the Erzgebirge.
The smoker is not internationally as well known as the Nutcracker
Friedrich Wilhelm Füchtner, a craftsman from the Erzgebirge, invented in 1870 the first “production model” of the Nutcracker. That the figure would one day become a Star of the international ballet classic, he could not have guessed.
A German-French-Russian-French-American history
Internationally known for the Nutcracker, it was through his appearances in different cultures. Authors from different countries, takeovers of each other parts of their narratives. International copyright agreements did not exist then. A first Version of the story of the Nutcracker comes from E. T. A. Hoffmann, 1816. The title: “the Nutcracker and the mouse king”. You inspired Füchtner, over 50 years later, to his character.
Hoffmann’s tale was in 1844, the French writer Alexandre Dumas the Elder adapted. The plot of “Histoire d’un casse-noisette” – in German simply as “The Nutcracker” – was almost identical, but the French Version was not nearly as dark as the German version.
Dumas’ adaptation in turn served as the basis for the 1892 by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov choreographed Russian ballet performance with music by Peter Tchaikovsky. The first complete performance of the ballet reached England in 1934, Germany only in 1960. In the USA, the piece was performed for the first time Christmas of 1944, by the San Francisco ballet Company. It was such a Hit that it has since been shown every year, and with hundreds of productions per year, a firmly established Christmas ritual for families in the United States and around the world.
From the Erzgebirge in American households
Similar to popular as the ballet the Nutcracker-figure. They found their way into the homes of the world after the Second world war: at that Time, the wood carving Steinbach, specializing in the Nutcracker, had to leave, the ore mountains and to Hannover to move. There are many of US stationed American soldiers, who closed the wooden guy to the heart and began to give him as a typical German Souvenir from Germany to their families in the home.
Another reason to visit the ore mountains
The famous wooden figures attract visitors to the ore mountains in Eastern Germany. In addition to the various workshops of the Region, the Nutcracker Museum in Neuhausen – is the “first Nutcracker Museum in Europe” – a popular Station. There is the largest Nutcracker-marvel collection in the world.
On the question of why the Nutcracker is always associated so closely with Christmas, the Museum owner Uwe Löschner a pragmatic answer: “During the Christmas season, nuts used poor people to bake the traditional Christmas Stollen and cookies. The Nutcracker was used to crack these nuts.”
However, the figure is more than just a beautiful tool. Their symbolism is understood over the generations, and across the world: thanks to a fairy tale and its universal message of Triumph of Good over Evil.