Yes, Virginia, there is a Rumpelklaus

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake

Those two lines from "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" created a lot of anxiety for me when I was a child. As far back as I can remember, I liked the idea of Santa Claus, and I sure liked all those presents on Christmas morning. But the idea of Santa -- or anyone -- watching me while I was asleep? That really freaked me out. I can remember being very stressed on Christmas Eve, worrying that Santa was going to come to my bedroom door to check whether I was sleeping or not. The thought still makes me vaguely uncomfortable.

However, I'm counting myself lucky that I never knew about the Krampuss (also known as the Rumpelklaus) back then.




Yes, that does say Munich. And although I was there for two Christmases, I assure you that I never saw anything like that roaming the streets during Advent. In fact, I was quite shocked when I saw this picture, not to mention these, which are more than a little reminiscent of the Insane Clown Posse. (Thanks to Mike R. for forwarding these items!)

So I asked my friend Sonja, who comes from the Allgäu (a region in southern Bavaria) and now lives in Munich, how we could possibly have missed noticing such a thing. And she explained it like this:

I think I can reassure you. You didn't miss this because you weren't aware of what was going on in Munich, but because this was the first time that Krampusses made their way to Munich. And do you know where they came from? Yes, from the Allgäu.

This is something very typical in all Allemanic areas, i.e. Baden-Württemberg, Switzerland, Vorarlberg and the Allgäu. They have various names, in our region they are called "Krampus" or, more commonly, "(Rumpel)klausen" (pronounced something like "Rumplkloasa"). There is also a female version called "Bärbele" in the region around Sonthofen and Oberstorf.

Klausen are an old heathen tradition. They were originally meant to scare off bad demons. Today, they accompany Santa Claus when he visits homes on the night of the 5th or the 6th. You might know that parents can hire a Santa Claus to come around to their house and read out the vices and virtues of the children from his golden book. This is usually rewarded by one Schnaps (at least!) per house (for Santa and his helpers, not for the children!). I used to drive our village's Nikolaus from one appointment to the next, so I can tell you, you'd better make an early appointment ... Usually, two Klausen go into the house with Nikolaus. In our region, they wear old furs, have belts with cow bells, horrible wooden masks and a birch/rod with them... they sure are scary. When Santa reads out bad things from the book, they would jump up and down, making a terrible noise, or show their rod. So you can be sure that the threat "I'll tell Santa if you don't..." works very well on children in the region! My parents never let the Klausen in the house cause they knew I'd be too scared, so the first time I saw one was in our first year at school. I nearly peed myself, I was so scared!!!!

There is also the tradition of "Klausentreiben" on the same two nights. Unmarried men dress up as Klausen and walk around through the villages beating up passers-by with their birches - they really do. They wouldn't beat adults or elderly people, but they love scaring children and especially chasing after young girls. I'm sure you can imagine that I was dead-scared on those nights when I was younger but loved them in my teenage years... Because you normally knew who was going to go as a Klaus... But! You had to make sure to wear thickly padded skiing pants! Otherwise your bum was sore for days!

A couple of years ago, this whole tradition escalated somewhat when the Klausen in some towns got more and more violent and hurt people. Now they have to register and have an ear tag, like cows. And they are only allowed to use birches, no more iron sticks or chains like they used to have with them in earlier years to be more impressive.

This is a living Christmas tradition, as you can see from the websites of some of the groups: Klausenverein, Die Berghofer Rumpelklausen, and Der Krampus.

Sometimes while we were in living in Germany it seemed like US culture had practically overrun German culture -- television, movies, food, advertising, and shopping were so Americanized that it was easy to forget, at times, that there were real cultural differences. But no matter how many Wal-Marts there are in Germany, and no matter what kinds of movies people are watching down at the Mathäser multiplex, I hope the Rumpelklaus will continue to stalk the Allgäu and terrorize children on December 5 and 6.

As long as he doesn't come in and check to see whether I'm sleeping or not. I may never sleep again!