Legends, stories, and traditions featuring witches have long been part of German culture. Think about all the Fairy Tales you heard as a child cautioning you about witches. Witches in Germany date back to the pagan times, before Christianity, and some celebrations and customs still appear in the modern world. Walpurgisnacht or Hexennacht (Witches’ Night) mixes Pagan tradition with a…
Category: German legends
Is German Chocolate Cake German? NO! Here’s the Real Story…
A question I hear almost as often as the Christmas Pickle question came up again today. “Is German Chocolate Cake German?”. Well, the short answer is- NO, it’s not. But, before you go off to read something else, let me share some German Chocolate cake history and how it got its name. German Chocolate Cake History German Chocolate Cake was…
Krampus in German Folklore – Who IS Krampus?
I grew up with Northern German parents, so I learned about Krampus when I was much older. In my world, Knecht Ruprecht was St Nicholas’s sidekick, and Krampus lived in Bavaria and Austria. But now, because of movies and popular culture, as well as annual Krampus Runs, the myth of Krampus is becoming synonymous with German Christmas. But who is…
Germany Land of Legend and Real Fairy Tale Locations
Germany is a land of legends and real Fairy Tale locations, and the most fantastic thing is that you can visit these places! Ancient forests, Castles with high towers, wide open fields, and Statues. Imagine visiting an enchanted castle where Sleeping Beauty waited for her prince or wandering the forest where Little Red Riding Hood met the Wolf. You can spend…
The Tale of Kunigunde von Kynast- a Silesian Folk Tale
Love this story I got from Paul Von Stache. It’s a fairy tale or folk story from Silesia (Schelsien). I had never heard it before. It sounds like an original Grimm tale, and definitely not a Disney-Happy-Ending-with-singing-Animals Story. The tale is about Kunigunde von Kynast. It took place in Kynast Castle (a/k/a Burg Kynast) in Schlesien. Here’s the story- …
The Elves of Cologne -The story of the Heinzelmännchen of Köln
Once upon a time, as the legend goes, the city of Cologne was helped by a little race of creatures called Heinzelmännchen. It began simply enough; when the humans went to bed, the Heinzelmännchen came along and finished all the work left undone. The idea of Elves or Gnomes doing work while humans sleep has a long history in German…
Groundhog Day- An old German Tradition in America
Is Groundhog Day a GERMAN Tradition? Weather prediction using a burrowing animal on the 2nd of February Candlemas has roots in Germany. The Pennsylvania Dutch German immigrants who landed in America brought these traditions along. Of course, a few adjustments had to be made. Pennsylvania had no badgers or hedgehogs (Igel), so a groundhog was substituted. (And Bill Murray didn’t…