Sebastian Köpcke (*1967), Volker Weinhold (*1962) | Photographers
When one travels through the Erzgebirge during the Christmas season, one sees candle arches lit up in almost every window. In many places, an oversized candle arch stands in the marketplace or at the entrance to the town. As an object typical for the region, the candle arch is a fixed, unquestioned element of a traditional Christmas in the Erzgebirge for both locals and tourists. However, this was not always the case.
The seasonal object, equipped with candles, was mentioned in individual cases in churches as of the eighteenth century, always in a mining context, and was originally forged of iron. One of the first still surviving candle arches was produced in 1740 in Johanngeorgenstadt – probably for the “Bergmette” (mining mass) of the miners, who celebrated this during the last shift before the Christmas celebration. Over generations, candle arches remained a component of especially Christmas celebrations in the Erzgebirge with a mining-related character, primarily in the region around Johanngeorgenstadt. The candle arch first became a mass phenomenon in the twentieth century.
With the assumption of power of the National Socialists, the gaze of the regime also turned to religiously motivated Christmas folk art – in addition to nativity scenes, hanging lamps and Weihnachtsberge (Christmas mountains, traditional displays from the Erzgebirge), also the candle arch. Of key importance now was to liberate the Christmas art with a Christian character from everything “oriental”. The “Heimatwerk Sachsen” (Homeland Works Saxony), founded in 1936, was active in this regard. It was polemicised against camels, palms, oriental garments and landscapes, because the focus was now to be on emphatically native Erzgebirge motifs. In the case of the candle arch, miners, thus ‘German workers’, were already represented traditionally – a welcome point of contact for the National Socialists.
The Leipzig-based designer Paula Jordan, who, in addition to the obligatory miners, also included pillow lace makers and toy makers in her repertoire, won a competition revolving around contemporary candle arch design in the context of the “Schwarzenberger weihnachtlichen Feierohmdschau” (Schwarzenberg Christmas Quitting Time Show) in 1937. This motif also received nationwide distribution in propaganda posters and postcards. At approximately the same time, candle arches were increasingly produced in wood, decisively promoted by Max Schanz in Seiffen. It was first this development that made mass distribution in the Erzgebirge possible.
Among the figures of the Jordan arch, quickly viewed as “classic” in the GDR, were, in individual cases, industrial workers, agricultural professions and agricultural machinery; other motifs continued to show petit bourgeois idylls or typed scenes from the lives of “poor people”. However, a fundamental transformation of the motifs has not been noticeable since the 1930s.
This candle arch with the Jordan motif was manufactured for use in a doll’s house. The topmost candle missing in the original has been added with photographic techniques.
Producer unknown
MATERIAL & TECHNIQUE
tin, lead, cast, painted
DIMENSIONS
H 7.1 x W 12.2 x D 1.9 cm
MUSEUM
Museum für Sächsische Volkskunst
PLACE, DATING
likely Erzgebirge, 1937-1960
INVENTORY NUMBER
inventory number F oNr 9