Julleuchter - Third Reich Usage

Third Reich Usage

In a 1936 memorandum, Heinrich Himmler set forth a list of approved holidays based on pagan and political precedents and meant to replace Christian rites with SS inspired reconstructions of pre-Christian Germanic festivities. The list included April 20 (Hitler's birthday), May Day, the Summer Solstice, and the November 9 Beer Hall Putsch anniversary. Climaxing the year in Himmler’s scheme was the Winter Solstice, or Yuletide, an event that brought members of the SS together for communal meals that harked back to imagined German tribal rites.

The Julleuchter and other symbols were also meant to serve as a consolation to women who, by having married into the SS, had to renounce the spiritual shelter and service of their church.

The SS soldier was instructed to set up a shrine that included a ‘’Julleuchter’’ in the corner of one room of his household. "The house of the SS man ought to know because one of its corners is intended for the celebration of his family. In it is to summarize those things that remind people of his higher obligations. ...On the chest, in the corner and shall include heirlooms, are all year round and the Julleuchter the Julteller (pewter or earthenware) of individual family members who use them on all holidays of the year, but also on birthday, wedding and death . ... The Wall adorns the image of the Fuehrer and Reich SS, to pedigree and family photos, mementos of war and times of struggle. The large SS runes will not be absent. The Jul-and SS-corner is the yardstick the extent of the SS man and his wife at the Customs of the SS to participate.“

Apparently even as the Red Army was advancing and the fall of Berlin was in the foreseeable future, The Julleuchter was used during the decoration French volunteers in the Waffen-SS. One surviving soldier said, “In the light of a candle burning on a Julleuchter, a Jule Candlestick, symbolizing the never dying sunlight, Fenet decorated a number of comrades with the Iron Cross. Although simple, the ceremony that evening seemed all the more extraordinary.”

An article about the Julleuchter was published in the German magazine “Germanien” in December 1936. Pagan and cultural information, along with information about the Allach production of the Julleuchter were given. Another article was published in the SS periodical SS-Leitheft Jahrgang 7 Folge 8a about the Julleuchter and the 2 Solstice periods of the year. In 1939 the Julleuchter was also mentioned in “Die Gestaltung der Feste im Jahres und Lebenslauf in der SS-Familie”(Celebrations of the SS Family) by Fritz Weitzel.