Christmas in Germany : a cultural history

Author / Creator

Perry, Joe

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Online

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Summary

""Covering nearly two centuries of Germany history, Joe Perry analyzes the ways various groups constructed and contested the Christmas holiday, a central element of modern German experience and ide...

""Covering nearly two centuries of Germany history, Joe Perry analyzes the ways various groups constructed and contested the Christmas holiday, a central element of modern German experience and identity. This is an outstanding work, impressive in its scope and breadth, the depth and range of its research, and the richness and relevance of its analysis. It is crisply written, absorbing, and exhaustively researched:'P︣aul Lerner, University of Southern California" ""Perry's work is original, comprehensively researched, and a major contribution to understanding the central importance of the evolution of a consumer culture in modern Germany. The scholarship is sound, impressive, and provocative."R︣udy Koshar, University of Wisconsin-Madison" "For poets, priests, and politiciansa︣nd especially ordinary Germans ︣in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the image of the loving nuclear family gathered around the Christmas tree symbolized the unity of the nation at large. German Christmas was supposedly organic, a product of the winter solstice rituals of pagan "Teutonic" tribes, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and the age-old customs that defined German character. Yet, as Joe Perry argues, Germans also used these annual celebrations to contest the deepest values that held the German community together: faith, family, and love, certainly, but also civic responsibility, material prosperity, and national belonging." "This richly illustrated volume explores the invention, evolution, and politicization of Germany's favorite national holiday. According to Perry, Christmas played a crucial role in public politics, as revealed in the militarization of "War Christmas" during World War I and World War II, the Nazification of Christmas b the Third Reich, and the political manipulation of Christmas during the Cold War. Perry offers a close analysis of the impact of consumer culture on popular celebration and the conflicts created as religious, commercial, and political authorities sought to control the holiday's meaning. By unpacking the intimate links between domestic celebration, popular piety, consumer desires, and political ideology, Perry concludes that family festivity was central in the making and remaking of public national identities."--BOOK JACKET.

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