Advent Calendar Origin & History (2/3)
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Printed Advent calendars – the Gerhard Lang era
The first printed “Christmas clocks” were produced in Hamburg in 1902 and were released by the publisher of the evangelical bookstore, Friedrich Tümpler. They cost 50 Pfennig.
In 1904, the Christmas calendar “Im Lande des Christkinds” (In the land of the Christ child) appeared as an insert in the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper. It was based on Gerhard Lang’s (1881-1974) idea.
This calendar didn’t have any little doors to open, instead it was composed of two printed parts: one page contained 24 pictures to cut out, as well as a cardboard page on which there were 24 boxes, each with a poem composed by Lang.
The children could cut out one picture each day, read a verse and glue the picture on it. On December 24th the Christ child, dressed in white, was glued in place.
In 1904, the Christmas calendar “Im Lande des Christkinds” (In the land of the Christ child) appeared as an insert in the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper. It was based on Gerhard Lang’s (1881-1974) idea.
This calendar didn’t have any little doors to open, instead it was composed of two printed parts: one page contained 24 pictures to cut out, as well as a cardboard page on which there were 24 boxes, each with a poem composed by Lang.
The children could cut out one picture each day, read a verse and glue the picture on it. On December 24th the Christ child, dressed in white, was glued in place.
Gerhard Lang / In the land of the Christ child / Advent Calendar History
In his childhood, Gerhard Lang received a version from his mother which comprised a box of 24 “Wibeles”, a Swabian type of baked meringue, in order to make the time until Christmas Eve pass faster.
From 1908 onwards, Lang had his Advent calendar printed by the publisher Reichhold & Lang, and sold these in the following years in increasingly high numbers and in a variety of types – including a version with Braille.
Gerhard Lang worked passionately on the development of new variations, including the Christ child’s house, which one could fill with chocolate; Advent calendars one had to break open in order to get the contents; and ones with doors to be opened, as well as Advent trees with angels to hang up and the little Advent houses. The Advent house was comprised of four colored pieces of cardboard, which could be put together to make a house. The cardboard houses had windows and doors, which had colored transparent paper covering each opening. Starting on the 1st of December, one window would be opened each night, and on the 24th, the front door would be opened. When you put a candle inside, it cast a bright holiday glow.
Gerhard Lang was intimidated by neither cost nor effort when it came to developing new calendars; his prints stand out because of their high quality and attention to detail. Just a few years after Gerhard Lang began producing Advent calendars in larger print runs, other publishers started bringing out Advent calendars. By the 1930s, the Advent calendar was widespread in Germany.
In the end, Lange was no longer able to withstand the price pressure, and had to stop production of his calendars in 1940.