24th of December 2023 - Christmas Eve in Nuremberg

The Nuremberg rallies were a series of celebratory events coordinated by the Nazi Party in Germany.  These played a seminal role in Nazi propaganda events, conveying a unified and strong Germany under Nazi control.  Today we drove into the Nuremberg Aldstadt past the area where these rallies took place.  After WWII, the top surviving German leaders were tried for Nazi Germany’s crimes, including the crimes of the Holocaust.  Their trial was held before an International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.  We were driven around the outside of the courts where judges from the Allied powers of Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States presided over the hearing of 22 major Nazi criminals.  The crimes charged before the Nuremberg courts were crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes.  In all, 199 defendants were tried at Nuremberg, 161 were convicted and 37 were sentenced to death, including 12 of those tried by the IMT.

Our walking tour of the Nuremberg Aldstadt started at Nuremberg Castle which is a group of medieval fortified buildings above the medieval centre of Nuremberg.  The castle, together with the city walls, is considered to be one of Europe's most formidable medieval fortifications.

The castle gave us a view over Nuremberg Aldsttadt.

We walked down to the Nuremberg Aldstadt past the Altes Rathaus (old town hall) building with its coat of arms with black eagle and sculptures over the entrance.

 

Once in the Nuremberg Aldstadt  we visited the Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt in the Main Market Square in front of the Church of Our Lady.

This Christmas market  is one of the oldest and most famous Christmas Markets in the world.  The wooden booths of the Christkindlesmarkt offer traditional Christmas decorations and sweet treats such as gingerbread. It is a traditional festive German market with yuletide treats like gluhwein, gingerbread and Nuremberg's famous bratwurst sausages.

 

One of the booths very much lit in red lights was selling flambeed gluhwein.  My sample was most welcome after a cold and wet walk down from the castle.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to take a city tour in one of the old fashioned stage coaches.  The coachmen play nostalgic Christmas tunes on their bugles.