Under the Sign of Kauflust

Abstract

This chapter, which bridges the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to chart continuities that might be obscured by the dramatic events of the war, opens in the 1890s, when the consolidation of an increasingly ubiquitous consumer culture made obvious inroads into holiday observances, and follows that story into the Weimar years (1918–33). It notes that Christmas, according to contemporaries across this period, inspired uncontrolled outbreaks of mass Kauflust—the “desire to buy.” The chapter observes that the resulting profit potential enticed marketing professionals and large retailers, and the rationalization of sales organization and marketing techniques reached a fever pitch during the holiday season. The commercialization of Christmas linked private life to national markets and meanings, commodified folk culture for the masses, and turned urban shopping districts into holiday spectacles, which, this chapter notes, upset clergymen and cultural critics, who decried its effects on the authenticity of German traditions.