tell me how was christmas

Anna Hackl, 91: There were two little angels in front of the door

The mother of the farmer, who was born in Schwertberg in 1931, saved the lives of two Soviet escapees from the Mauthausen concentration camp in the days after February 2, 1945. The story was also made into a film. Back then, as a 13-year-old girl, Anna Hackl experienced everything and also became a lifesaver. Ms. Hackl, how was Christmas when you were a child, did you also stand at the window and see the Christ child?

I was not yet six years old, so in the 1930s there were two little angels at the door. curls, white dress. It was Christmas when I got a doll’s pram. I only found out much later that it was the girls next door. But it was a very special Christmas. My parents always secretly decorated the tree, there were two glass birds on top, then a chain with small glass balls, a second one with larger glass balls and angel hair. And nuts also hung on the tree. Often we also got hats, gloves or a scarf. And for dinner there was always a roast with dumplings, later sausages. My mother was a good cook and Christmas was always very important to her.

After the festival we went to mass in the village, in the dark through the snow, we didn’t have a lantern because we knew the way anyway. Everything used to be very ecclesiastical. If the 24th fell on a Sunday, we went to mass in the morning, and again in the afternoon and at night. I’m having a family party this year on the 26th, where I’m cooking Schnitzerl. Then come all my children and grandchildren.

Josef Zauner, 74: We weren’t allowed to see the biscuits

Josef Zauner was not born into the confectionery trade. The son of a Lungau mountain farmer family went to Bad Ischl to complete an apprenticeship in the famous Imperial and Royal Court confectionery Zauner. The childless boss couple later adopted him. Mr. Zauner, what memories do you have of Christmas on the mountain farm?

I grew up with 14 siblings on a farm in Tamsweg. At that time, Christmas was still very religious. We never got any material gifts, but as children we were really looking forward to the festival.

My mother always secretly baked cookies, and of course we smelled them, but we were never allowed to see them. Only on Christmas Eve did each child receive a package of biscuits as the only present. I’m sure my later love for confectionery comes from there.

Every year, Christmas Eve began with the prayer of the rosary. After that, my father went through the whole house with incense, also into the stable, and we children followed. Prayers were prayed in every room.

In the evening there was roast pork in the Rein, where potatoes were also fried in the last half hour. For us, this celebratory meal was something very special at the time, a real luxury menu. After dinner, the presents came, and then the whole family sat together and discussed. For mass, which began at midnight, we trudged down through the snow for kilometers into the valley.

Johann Pfaff, 102: It was a day like any other

As the fifth child and first son of his family, Johann Pfaff was born in 1920 in Vukovar in today’s Croatia as part of the German-speaking ethnic group of the Danube Swabians. After the Second World War he fought his way to Upper Austria. He ran a farm with his wife, and later the family settled in Fischlham. Mr. Pfaff, how was Christmas celebrated in Vukovar in the 1920s?

Christmas was a day like any other. There was slightly better food than on weekdays, as usual on Sundays. Pigs were slaughtered in December and the women made sausages out of everything. We didn’t have much fruit, but the women baked nut or poppy seed strudel. There were no presents, maybe figs once or an orange now and then. In Vukovar there were only oaks and ash trees, no spruce or fir, so we didn’t have a Christmas tree either. On Christmas Eve the youth came together. It was played with nine Kukuruz grains and nine beans “Mill” or cards, anything that cost nothing. At eleven o’clock we went to church together, after that it was all over.

His granddaughter Christina Gärtner remembers that her grandfather didn’t want to spend any money on a Christmas tree for years. Today, Johann Pfaff enjoys the view from the kitchen window of his house in Fischlham, where there is a colorfully decorated Christmas tree in the garden.

Werner Gamerith, 83: sugar beet syrup as the best gift

Dealing with nature, with the garden and the self-planted fruit and vegetables has been a major concern of Werner Gamerith, author, photographer and environmental activist from Waldhausen im Strudengau since early childhood. Born in Mödling in 1939, he already experienced as a small boy how important health and family are. Mr. Gamerith, how did you experience Christmas after the end of the Second World War?

Belief in the Christ Child gave us children great hope at the time, even if this belief was destroyed in elementary school. Nevertheless, my brother and I were enchanted when we came home after a walk with our father and the decorated Christmas tree stood in front of us. Knitted sweaters and gloves were given as gifts.

But there was also a very special gift on the gift table: a glass of sugar beet syrup. Sugar was hard to come by back then. My parents grew sugar beets in the garden, boiled them and squeezed the juice with a potato press. This stood on the stove for a few days and was thickened. My brother and I received the finished sugar beet syrup on Christmas Eve – I still have the wonderfully sweet taste in my mouth. Christmas was always a wonderful family celebration, because what mattered was not giving gifts, but being able to be together after the war.

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Edmund Brander

Local Editor Salzkammergut

e.brandner@nachrichten.at

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Source: Nachrichten