Advent wreath

Johann Hinrich Wichern, a theologian from Hamburg born in 1808, opened the Rauhes Haus in a small farmhouse given for the purpose in November 1833, moving in with his mother and the first twelve boys. Diakonie Österreich, which calls him its founder, says the wreath was meant to shorten the wait for Christmas for children from the poorest homes. In 1839 a wreath of wood about the size of a cartwheel hung for the first time under the ceiling of the prayer hall in Hamburg-Horn. It carried red candles for the weekdays and white ones for the Sundays of Advent, and one more was lit each day until all were burning on Christmas Eve. Because Advent begins on a different date each year, the red candles numbered between 18 and 24, and the whole wreath between 22 and 28 candles; Diakonie Österreich counts 20 small red and four large ones in 1839.

From 1860 the wreath was also dressed with fir branches and white ribbons. The museum explains the four-candle wreath as a concession to people who wanted the wreath in their living rooms. The Rauhes Haus still lights a Wichern wreath from the first Sunday of Advent, adding a candle a day, and since 2024 St Michaelis, one of Hamburg’s main churches, has hung one built on a wooden wheel about 1.9 metres across.