Looking for some Christmas gifts while having downtime, I decided to take a swing to a small town in Thuringia located near the border to Saxony that is famous for one unique trait: gaming!
Altenburg is a small town with a population of over 33,000 inhabitants. For over a millenium, it was considered the center trading point in the region, where the main road between Halle (Saale) and Cheb (Czechia) and one between Chemnitz and Erfurt crossed paths. Today, it is part of the corridor that connects Dresden with Eisenach via Motorway 4 and is just north of the main junction with Highway 93 which connects Zwickau with Leipzig- a corridor that features several small but well-known communities as well as various educational institutions, including five universities, a police academy and two duo-colleges of businesses.
Altenburg dates back to 971 AD, when the Slavic tribes established the community. The town’s castle ruins proved its existence. However the Schlossberg Castle, located outside the present-day city center, was built at a different location in the 12th Century and overlooks much of the city. Much of the architecture dates back to the Medieval Times, including many of its churches, such as St. Bartholomew’s, Fraternity, St. Nicolas, and St. Mary’s. Each one has its own feature that makes the skyline of Altenburg something worth photographing.
Altenburg is the birthplace of the game of skat. It is a three-player trick-taking card game of the ace–ten family, devised around 1810 by the Duchess of Saxony and has since become a household game in Germany and many parts of Europe. The A.S.S. Company (Not the Gluteus Maximus nor the donkey, but the Altenburger und Stralsunder Spielkartenfabriken) was established in 1795 in Altenburg and still maintains its headquarters today. A museum devoted to the history of card playing can be found in the castle today.
Altenburg also has a large pond located about 200 meters from its historic old town and is home to many outdoor events and markets during the summer months, including the flea market and other concerts.
But what about its Christmas market? This is one that I wanted to check out and hopefully get a few items off the Christmas wish list.
The Christmas Market is located in the market square of Altenburg’s historic old town. A map shows you the exact location:
The market is quite small but slender, stretching from Marktgasse and Krongasse on the eastern flank to Klostergasse and Judengasse on the western end, leading towards the Fraternity Church. There are two rows of booths facing each other, with a stage and children’s railroad park on the east side, plus some seating near the Christmas tree and a royalty chair for St. Nicolas, who visits the children every evening at around six for an hour, collecting wish lists and giving them candy. The huts are constructed of oak and linden wood with most of them having a barn-shaped feature. Given Altenburg’s proximity in the rural farming area, the barn huts fit with the scenery quite nicely. Historic buildings dating back to the Medieval era, including the historic town hall (Rathaus), surround the entire market. It represents the traditional style Christmas market which one can expect when visiting Germany.
Sadly though, there are two points of criticism with the markets that are worth mentioning. The first one was its location. While the market square provides a holiday setting that makes a stop worth it, it is hard to find from anywhere. Even with the parking areas available, including the Big Pond, one can expect at least 15 minutes of searching for it in order to find it. For those who may be impaired in terms of mobility, it presents some difficulties, especially when traffic runs through the city center past the market square. Plus giving Altenburg’s hilly setting, walking uphill just to get to the market square presents some vast difficulties. What is recommended here is to do the following to make it attractive:
- Blocking off the sections around the market to allow people to walk there safely.
- Have shuttle service for those who need it to get to the market
- Have signage to the market to draw the attention of the visitors wanting to go there
- Extend the market down to the Big Pond to include some huts and entertainment down there as well.
The second point comes with some arguments from those who are of the opinion: “If you see one Christmas market, you see them all.” Basically, one can see virtually the same meals served, the same gifts of arts and crafts, the same kind of sweets and the same kind of entertainment. Altenburg, unfortunately, fits into that stereotype like a glove. While the market is a great venue for locals living in and around the city, what was missing were the local specialities, especially concerning the main traits that the city has to offer: gaming (especially poker cards), the churches and castle, and some of the local specialities offered by the vendors. Even one from the Altenburg Brewery, which is another popular tourist point was absent during my visit. Most of the vendors came in from outside, including Bavaria and the Ore Mountains in Saxony. But there were only a couple that originated from Altenburg, which made the market very typical. For those who are of this opinion, you won here. 😦
Much of that is not entirely Altenburg’s fault. Since the Christmas Market Massacre at Magdeburg last year, communities like Altenburg had to spend more money on security measures to make the markets safe. They include installing geometric boulders and foldable steel gates, as well as hiring more police officers to patrol the market. These are some of the main features that one will first see while at the market but ones that are designed to make sure we do not have a repeat of last year. Many state officials and representatives of the communities pleaded with the federal government in Berlin to help share the costs, only to fall on deaf ears- one of the contributing factors in the rise of oppositional parties, especially from the far-right Alternatives (AfD) but to a certain degree, the Left (Linke). Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s policies to date have not been popular from a wider spectrum, causing frustration and in some cases, the need to break from the traditional parties. Yet turning to the AfD is like repeating the Third Reich all over again, especially with regards to isolation, and especially the remigration of foreigners and Germans who are not welcomed.
Despite this, Altenburg has a lot to offer in terms of holiday events in and around the Christmas market, be it with Christmas concerts or mass services at the churches, which compensates for the market. Still, when one looks at the market, it does have some room to grow and improve. It takes some effort from the locals and the businesses to come together and present something that makes Altenburg stand out. From my perspective, each Christmas market has its own unique value that makes it a popular place to visit, be it something local or foreign. A successful Christmas market should have something that bucks the stereotype of being the typical Christmas market. Kiel has its fish. Nuremberg has its Lebkuchen and Christkindl. Berlin has different themes for different markets. Flensburg has its punch and rum. Altenburg has its skat and cards. Start with that and ask yourselves, how can we make it better? Then add the localities, and you have a market that stands out from the rest.
My visit in Altenburg was a short one, but it was enough to grab some impressions on it and make some recommendations for the future. It’s a market that is full of friendly faces and has a great setting. It’s one with full potetial to be better than what it is. It’s a question of how to get there without making it overcrowded.
In the next post, we have a video on what a person can find at a German Christmas Market and how they vary from city to city. It includes a little history on it, which is an eye-opener from what I’ve researched so far. 🙂
You can find more photos of the market in Altenburg by clicking here.
THE FLENSBURG FILES 