Frankfurt Christmas tree: nagging is allowed again
-
fromSteven Micksch
conclude
This year’s Christmas tree Gretel is finally standing in front of the Römer. The spruce arrives neatly disheveled from the Spessart. The criticism is not long in coming.
The first steps are usually the most difficult. Learning the golden while walking and also maneuvering around the Christmas tree. When the big truck and trailer, on which the Spruce Gretel is still resting, drives along the Mainkai yesterday, the precision work begins. The driver gets out again and can be shown exactly how the transport car comes from down there on the Römerberg. 15 minutes later, the first step is done. Another 90 minutes later, this year’s Frankfurt Christmas tree is in place.
Before the tree is right, countless people are standing around Gretel. How many, exactly, is difficult to say with the coming and going. There are at least more than 60. Children and adults, residents of Frankfurt: inside and outside – the setting up of the Christmas tree hasn’t had that many audience for a long time. Perhaps because this time the work will be carried out in the afternoon.
An elderly couple from Sulzbach dies watching the action to the end. You don’t want to reveal your name. “Otherwise the phone won’t stand still with us,” says the woman. When the tree is still on the trailer, it is difficult to assess whether it WILL look stately standing up. “We’ll wait,” says the Sulzbacher. Her husband is convinced: “It’ll be fine.” Both of them think that a tree is simply part of the process, both at the Christmas market and at home.
The fire brigade has now loosened Gretel’s transport belts. Now the two cranes come and are supposed to raise the spruce. The winch of one crane is jammed. Patience is required. Suddenly cheers. Red and white heart-shaped balloons soar into the sky above the tree. But Gretel is still lying, why this jubilation? It quickly becomes clear: Behind the spruce thicket, they just got married. Congratulations. The crane winch is finally working again.
Little by little the tree of nuns rises up. Broken branches fallen down. The Gretel looks pretty disheveled after the traffic. “It looks so rancid, dude,” says a younger viewer. “This is what forest dying looks like,” shouts a man from behind. He gets some laughs. “Every tree is beautiful when it is decorated,” argues a woman. The woman from Sulzbach thinks: “That’s a bummer”.
Viewers Adolf Schneider from Bad Soden is more experienced. “Like every year, it looks awesome at first. But they’ll fix it. ”With repairs and lighting, the spruce will be beautiful again. Thomas Feda, Managing Director of the Frankfurt Tourism and Congress Association, also sees it that way. “It is a tree that can be restored with reasonable effort.”
On November 22nd, the Frankfurt Christmas tree will be “opened” by Mayor Peter Feldmann. Then Gretel will also stand there enlightened for the first time. Ready to be amazed – or just to nag.