Intangible Heritage and Its Associative Objects as Exemplified by the Materiality of the Portable Material Culture of German Christmas Markets

Abstract

Many aspects of intangible cultural heritage have associated objects of material culture that augment or enable aspects of intangible heritage to be exercised or emphasized. Christmas markets have been publicized as the quintessential event in Germany leading up to Christmas, with the over 2000 locations attracting large numbers of local, domestic, and international visitors. From their origins as mercantile venues during the medieval period, Christmas markets have evolved into multisensory social and experiential events, where the acquisition of Christmas decorations or gifts has been supplanted by the consumption of mulled wine in a social setting. Christmas markets represent intangible cultural heritage staged in ephemeral surroundings. While the abundance of material culture in Christmas markets is widely understood, this focuses on the objects offered for sale at the markets, rather than the objects that characterize a Christmas market and enable its functioning. This paper provides the first comprehensive assessment of the portable material culture associated with the German Christmas markets, covering objects as diverse as payment tokens, lapel pins, special postmarks, beer mats, and commemorative cups issued for the consumption of mulled wine. These objects, as well as numerous other manifestations of material culture, are discussed in the wider framing of the materiality of the markets, examining their ontological qualities within the multiple spheres in which these objects attain meaning (i.e., personal, event, social, and public spheres). It demonstrates that the wide range of alienable material culture associated with German Christmas markets has different manifestations of materiality, depending on the viewpoint of the user (i.e., participant, vendor, organizer), and these manifestations have different expressions of representativeness. On this foundation, this paper examines the various groups of portable and alienable material culture and discusses them in terms of their authenticity and to what extent these are representative of German Christmas markets. While all items have a connection with Christmas markets and function as symbolic shorthand souvenirs, commemorative cups issued for the consumption of hot drinks as well as the deposit tokens associated with these are both genuine and authentic and are also representative of the conceptual, social, and experiential dimensions of the event.