- Title: GERMANY: CHRISTMAS TOWN
- Date: 17th December 1997
- Summary: ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER, GERMANY (DECEMBER 17, 1997) (RTV) 1. GV TOWN /SLV STREET SCENES (4 SHOTS) 0.17 2. SLV EXTERIOR OF SHOP 0.22 3. HAS INTERIOR OF CHRISTMAS SHOP 0.32 4. SCU ITEMS ON DISPLAY IN CHRISTMAS SHOP, CUSTOMERS AND CHILDREN LOOKING (6 SHOTS) 1.03 5. MV/CU SHOP SALESWOMAN (2 SHOTS) 1.11 6. SCU CHILDREN AND ADULTS LOOKING AT TOYS FOR SALE. (2 SHOTS) 1.22 7. CU ITEMS FOR SALES - CHRISTMAS ITEMS /CUSTOMERS (6 SHOTS) 1.51 8. SCU OWNER OF SHOP WILHELM WOHLFAHRT SPEAKING, SAYING THAT BACK IN 1964 HE DECIDED TO OPEN HIS CHRISTMAS SHOP SELLING ORNAMENTS AS HE WAS TRYING TO BUY A CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT FOR AN AMERICAN FRIEND IN JANUARY AND NONE WERE FOR SALE - SO HE OPENED HIS SHOP WHICH SELLS CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS ALL YEAR ROUND (GERMAN) 2.28 9. SLV SHOP INTERIORS (3 SHOTS) 2.39 10. SLV EXTERIOR OF SHOP 2.43 11. SLV CHRISTMAS MARKET, SANTA GIVING GIFTS TO CHILDREN (4 SHOTS) 3.03 12. SCU NATIVIITY SET /MOTHER AND CHILD WATCHING (4 SHOTS) 3.16 Initials S3 P3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 1st January 1998 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER, GERMANY
- City:
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVADGAFD7AJN0OTB7H3247R3N7Y9
- Story Text: - INTRO: If you want a backdrop of fairy tale castles and gingerbread houses for a Christmas story, Rothenburg in Germany is the real thing.
Rothenburg, a walled mediaeval town above the river Tauber in northern Bavaria is the capital of Christmas kitsch.
Seemingly every village square and city centre in Germany sprouts a yuletide market at the end of November, a tradition dating from the Middle Ages.
But in Rothenburg it is Christmas all year round.
Every latticed window along the cobbled streets seems to be a Christmas shop.
Come the first snow, the elves and santas just move outside.
Stalls jammed into the narrow alleys beside the Gothic town hall look in danger of being swept away by the stream of visitors, half of them foreigners, that flood Rothenburg every day.
English oohs and ahs mingle with bursts of Japanese along the crooked lines of booths that are covered with hand-made decorations straight out of an "olde world" Christmas storybook.
Icy fingers curl for warmth around mugs of mulled wine and foot-long sausages sizzling on charcoal fires send swirls of thick blue smoke around twinkling lights.
Tourism officials say they cannot gauge how much money Germany's 250 main Christmas markets bring in each season.
Rothenburg receives a quarter of a million visitors a year - half of them are foreigners, mostly Europeans, Japanese and Americans.
Nuremburg's December market maybe older. Munich and Cologne maybe be bigger. But Rothenburg is a Christmas market within a Christmas market.
If the stalls do not yield the painted pewter tree ornament or the candle-powered Christmas carousel that you simply must have, then you can join the queue outside gingerbread house facade of one shop that bills itself as the biggest Christmas store in the world.
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