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New Year’s Traditions in Germany

On December 31st, Germany celebrates ‘Silvester’, or New Year’s Eve. The term Silvester comes from Saint Silvester, who was pope from 314 to 335. The feast of St. Silvester, which was his burial ceremony, took place on December 31, 335. When the Gregorian calendar was reformed in 1582,  the last day of the year was placed on December 31st, combining German Silvester traditions with what we now call New Year’s Eve. 

Many of the German traditions around Silvester date much further back to a pagan celebration called ‘Rauchnächte’.

Out With a Bang!

The biggest German tradition is to set off fireworks at midnight to usher in the new year. Fireworks are generally not publicly organized, but are bought and set off by people in the communities where they live. The one prominent example of a public firework display is in Berlin, where  fireworks take place at the Brandenburger Tor. Many people enjoy going out into the streets to watch. The mess is huge and the trash takes several days to clear.  

Source: StockSnap.io

The tradition of setting off fireworks has its origins in the ancient belief that noise and light drive away evil spirits to create a new beginning full of good luck and hope. One wishes friends and family ‘einen guten Rutsch’, or a good ‘slide’ into the new year. 

Source: Shutterstock

Traditions and Rituals

A popular tradition on Silvester is to do ‘Bleigiessen’, or lead pouring. By melting a piece of lead (or wax) over a candle and pouring it into cold water, shapes are formed. These are then interpreted by those present as predictions for the coming year. Most of the shapes are interpreted as signs for good luck, success, personal wish fulfillment or hope. 

Germans also give lucky charms to family and friends for good luck. A marzipan pig, shamrocks, chimney sweep figurines and horseshoes are popular. 

Source: RubyLane

In the evening, families and friends often fortify themselves for a long night of celebration with fondue or raclette. On New Year’s Day, many people eat ‘Berliner’ (jam doughnuts) or a sweet bread called a ‘Neujahrszopf’ (aka ‘Newjahrskranz’ or ‘Neujahrsbretzel’) and sleep late after staying up to usher in the new year.

Source: Google

Wishing you a healthy, happy and safe year in 2026. Frohes neues Jahr!

Source: Wikipedia

Text Sources:

www.deutschland.de

www.learngerman.blog

The Early History of the Christmas Tree

Modern Christmas trees originated in Central Europe and the Baltic states, particularly Estonia, Latvia and Germany, during the Renaissance. The Christmas tree’s early roots are connected to the Protestant Christian reformer Martin Luther, who is said to have been the first to add lighted candles. The first recorded documentation of Christmas trees dates from German Lutherans in the 16th century. Its forerunner could have been the ‘tree of paradise’,  which appears in Medieval plays that were performed on the 24th of December. In these plays there was a tree decorated with apples and round white wafers on the stage. The apples represented the knowledge of good and evil from the Garden of Eden, while the wafers were a symbol for redemption. 

But other sources indicate that the symbolic use of evergreen trees goes much further back in time. Evergreens were used to symbolize eternal life by many ancient civilizations including the Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. Tree worship was common among pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian custom of decorating the house with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil. 

Romans also decorated their houses with evergreen trees to celebrate Saturnalia. The Vikings and Saxons worshiped trees. German folklore says that when English missionary St. Boniface struck down a tree dedicated to the God Thor and did not die, he declared that the tree must have been ‘holy’.

By the Middle Ages, evergreen trees had become part of Christian rites and ‘paradise trees’ began to appear on a broader scale in Germany. Later Christmas ornaments from Thuringia, tree-top angels and many other forms of decoration were added to make the Christmas tree more beautiful and cheerful, a symbol of the celebratory spirit associated with the season.

The Modern Christmas Tree

In later centuries, Christmas trees  became the object of aristocratic and royal tastes. Various royal courts throughout Europe displayed Christmas trees with much pomp and glorious show. One of the earliest 18th century aristocrats who displayed a decorated tree at Christmas was Queen Charlotte, the German-born wife of George the III in England. More famously, it was the German-born prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who popularized the tradition in England during the 19th century.

Christmas trees were originally rejected by Puritans in the United States as pagan symbols. However the popularity of Christmas trees  in Great Britain during Victorian times quickly spread to America. Soon the modern Christmas tree became an essential part of the celebration of Christmas in America. 

Today, Wikipedia claims that 84 percent of Christmas trees displayed in US households are artificial (American Christmas Tree Association, 2021). The artificial trees may lack the typical smell and texture of a live tree, but they offer the advantage of sustainable, repeated use and help to reduce deforestation.

Happy holidays!

Sources:

www.wikipedia.org

www.britannica.com

www.iamexpat.com

Photo Source: iStock

Sausages are among the oldest of all processed foods, even mentioned as far back as the 9th century B.C. in the Odyssey. However, the frankfurter was probably only developed in 1487, five years before Christopher Columbus sailed to the new world, in Vienna, Austria, where it was known as a ‘Wiener’. 

Other sources claim that the frankfurters originally came from the town of Frankfurt-am-Main, though there is no proof that the ‘hot dog’, as we know it today, had any specific town of origin in Germany. Indeed many forms of sausage are traditional to Germany. The hot dog, however, is the most prevalent in America, where over 7 billion are eaten between Memorial Day and Labor Day every year, according to Eric Mittenthal, president of the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. 

Source: Shutterstock

When Did Hot Dogs Come to America?

The answer to this question is also not completely clear. Hot dogs appeared with the first German immigrants in the late 1840’s. They ate sausages from butcher shops at home and at street fairs and festivals, as well as in beer gardens. The evidence shows that sausages were certainly  being sold by street vendors in America by the 1860’s. 

The birth of the modern American frankfurter is often attributed to Charles Feltman, a German immigrant and baker by trade, on Coney Island in New York in 1867. He sold his hot dogs from a cart along the sand dunes of Coney Island as a convenience food for bathers. His ‘Coney Island Red Hots’ were an instant success and would later lead to the establishment of Feltman’s Ocean Pavillion in Coney Island, which was at one point known as the largest restaurant in the world, serving 10,000 guests at once. By the 1920’s, Feltman was selling up to 40,000 hot dogs a day.

Source: Feltmans of Coney Island

The Hot Dog Bun

Hot dogs were originally served on paper serviette-like plates, but this proved messy and expensive, since many customers didn’t return the containers. Feltman is credited as the first to develop a hand-sliced, elongated bun, which set the precedent for the modern hot dog bun. One of the Feltman organization bun-slicers was Nathan Handwerker. Handwerker eventually developed his own competing brand of hot dog and bun, still existing today and nationally known as Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs.

From that point on, hot dogs spread to Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and Los Angeles. Each city had its own special toppings, but all had one thing in common; affordability and convenience. By the early 20th Century, hot dogs were a common feature at baseball venues and other spectator sporting events around the country. 

Where Did the Name ‘Hot Dog’ Come From?

Hot dogs were first coined ‘red hots’ at some time in the late 1880’s because of the heat of the grill that was used to cook them. The ‘dog’ part is assumed to be a joke, referring the the long length of the sausage, which is reminiscent of a German dachshund. There is no specific evidence to suggest that the term referred to dog meat as an ingredient in the sausage. One source says the word hot dog came from vendors at the New York Polo grounds who, in 1901, were selling the sausages from portable hot water tanks shouting ‘They’re red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!’

Source: Shutterstock.

Thus is the history of the humble hot dog in America. Guten Appetit!

Sources:

www.wikipedia.org

www.CNNtraveller.com

National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (www.meatinstitute.org)

Who Were the Grimm Brothers?

The Grimm brothers were German folklorists and linguists who were best known for the Kinder- und Hausmärchen, better know in English as Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and his brother Wilhelm (1786-1859) were among the most important scholars of their time. The Grimm brothers not only made important contributions to the preservation of German culture through the stories they collected, they also did important work on the history of German language, its development and the cultural influences that contributed to its evolution.

Some of the best-known stories in the Fairy Tales include ‘Rapunzel’, ‘Hansel and Gretel’, ‘Cinderella’, ‘Snow White’, and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.

The Grimm Brothers, Source: Britannica.com

What are the Grimm Brother Fairy Tales About

The Grimm’s Fairy Tales are a collection of fables and stories from the oral story-telling traditions in Germany and around the world, including Scandinavia, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, England, Serbia, and Finland. The idea was to preserve these tales, many of which date back into antiquity, for future generations before they would get lost in times of political and cultural change.

Little Red Riding Hood, Source: iStock

The stories that the Grimm brothers first collected are brusque, blunt, absurd, comical, tragic, and not as one might think ‘fairy tales’. In fact the Grimm brothers never intended the tales to be read only by children. And they did not intend to make them mystical or romantically magical. Instead the tales illustrated universal hardships like hunger, abandonment, and loss through the eyes of children and their families and appealed to the universal values of moral strength in civilized communities.

How Did the Tales Change Over Time?

The Grimm brothers published seven editions of their tales between 1812 and 1857. Each edition included many changes in style and content. The final best-known edition barely resembles the original publication.

The Grimm brothers received numerous versions of the tales already published in their early edition and new tales from strangers, friends and colleagues. They often decided to replace one tale with another version, to delete some of the tales, or to include variants in the footnotes. 

The National Endowment for the Humanities provides us with a good example of how the tales changed over time in this short passage from ‘Rapunzel’ as the text appeared in the first and seventh editions, where Christian elements and darker fear symbols are brought into the text:

First Edition

Once upon a time there lived a husband and wife who had been wishing for a child for many years, but it had all been in vain. Finally, the woman became pregnant.

Now in the back of their house the couple had a small window that overlooked a fairy’s garden filled with all kinds of flowers and herbs. But nobody dared to enter it.

Seventh Edition

Once upon a time there was a husband and wife who for quite some time had been wishing in vain for a child. Finally, the dear Lord gave the wife a sign of hope that their wish would be fulfilled. Now, in the back of their house the couple had a small window that overlooked a splendid garden filled with the most beautiful flowers and herbs. The garden, however, was surrounded by a high wall, and nobody dared enter it because it belonged to a sorceress, who was very powerful and feared by all.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales Live On 

The National Endowment for the Humanities calls the Grimm brothers the Disney of their era, taking stories known to some and spreading them to the masses. They were bestsellers when first published and have never really fallen out of favor, even today.

Sources:

National Endowment for the Humanities

britannica.com

Google ChatGPT

Practical Learning

A key element of the German school system is the emphasis on practical learning and an early career orientation, where students follow either an academic or vocational path based on individual strengths and interests. Childhood education is a function of the individual federal states, but is similar across the country.

The German education system has five stages:

Early childhood education from 0-6 years,

Primary education from 7-10 years,

Secondary education, consisting of two parts, Lower Secondary from 10-15 and Upper Secondary from 16-18,

and Teriary education which includes vocational polytechnic training and academic university studies.

There is an additional educational branch for children with special needs called ‘Sonderschule’ or ‘Förderschule’, not covered in this essay.

Source: iStock

Early Childhood education

The first educational stage includes Crèche or ‘Kita’ facilities, where babies and very young children are cared for and supervised by trained sitters. Kita runs from early morning to early afternoon and is important for working mothers, giving them a safe place for their young offspring while they work. It is usually paid for by the parents.

The children move on to ‘Kindergarten’ at the age of three. In Kindergarten, the children enjoy a play environment but also learn social skills and some elementary aspects of education like counting and recognizing alphabet letters. Kindergarten goes from early morning to midday, often through the lunchtime period. Some children stay on in an afternoon ‘Hort’ (daycare) facility to serve the needs of working mothers and fathers. Kindergarten is financially supported by the German government and the last year is free for children in some German states.

Source: Vedeezy

Primary School

At the age of around six, children start their formal public education in primary school. Most children attend public primary schools where they live. Some are state-run while others are church-run. Only very few children attend a private primary school. In this phase children are learning the ‘three R’s’: reading, writing and arithmetic. They do not initially receive grades, but receive report cards from the beginning. At some point in the fourth grade, teachers advise parents about what school form they recommend for the next educational stage. The public education system options include:  ‘Hauptschule’, ‘Realschule’, ‘Gymnasium’, and ‘Gesamtschule’.

Secondary Education

Hauptschule is geared toward providing students with skills that will help them obtain work and good social integration. Often language skills are part of the training, because many migrant children with no German education begin their school training in this branch.

Realschule is also geared toward preparing children for a non-academic career, emphasizing vocational skills and practical training. Children who attend Realschule obtain their Lower Secondary degree in the tenth grade. From there they can transfer to a Gymnasium or move into a vocational training program.

Gymnasium provides preparation for academic studies. Gymnasiums often have different areas of emphasis, like humanities (Greek, Latin, Philosophy, Religion), languages or technical applications (mathematics, chemistry, science). In the lower secondary phase, most schools have similar curriculums. When the students reach the upper secondary phase, they choose several subjects for specialization. Their results in these special subjects count heavily toward their grade-point average when they finish their ‘Abitur’ ( high school degree).

Gesamtschule is a relatively new branch of secondary school in Germany. It combines all school forms to allow for learning together in one place.

University Education is the final educational phase for students who obtained an Abitur from Gymnasium. There are a variety of university level schools and students usually attend them for up to about six years. It takes usually around  six or seven semesters to complete a Bachelor and another three or four semesters to complete a Masters Degree. 

Source: Adobe

Sources:

University of Europe for Applied Sciences (UE)

www.wikipedia.org

www.howtogermany.com

Steinway Pianos are known and cherished by musicians throughout the world. The history of Steinway & Sons is an iconic story of the American Dream.

The Steinway Family and Early Business

In 1836, carpenter Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg built his first fortepiano (Küchenflügel) secretly in the kitchen of his house in Germany. He immigrated to America is 1850 with his wife Juliane, three daughters and four sons to take advantage of the commercial advantages in building pianos in the USA. His oldest son, Karl, had moved to the United States to pursue clients already a year earlier. In New York, the family anglicized their surname to Steinway, and the sons adapted English first names as well.  A further son named Theodore stayed behind in Germany and continued to build pianos there. In 1865 he joined the rest of the family in the USA, where they had set up production in a factory located in lower Manhattan. 

Heinrich Steinweg, later Henry Steinway Source: Wikipedia

When father Henry Steinway died in 1871, oldest son Theodore and the younger sons William and Albert took over the management of the company. William was a marketing genius, who created the Steinway Hall, where the pianos were exhibited and sold in a concert auditorium. He also created a concert and artist business that encouraged famous musicians to play on Steinway models. In 1880, Theodore and William also founded a factory to build pianos in Hamburg, Germany. 

In the years that followed, the brothers gained many patents, including one for the Duplex Scale, which lent unprecedented clarity of tone to their instruments. In addition to the building of concert grand pianos, the brothers Steinway also began to produce upright pianos as more affordable options for the general public. 

Steinway & Sons in the 20th and 21st Century

By the beginning of the 20th century, Steinway & Sons began to build pianos with mechanical parts. The company completed its 100,000th instrument in 1903, and celebrated by presenting the American people with a concert grand piano for the White House, which remained there for 35 years. It was replaced in 1938 with an ‘Art Case’ piano, which is still in the White House today. An ‘Art Case’ piano refers to a tailor-made instrument created by artists and architects. The White House concert piano is crafted with gold leaf decoration representing the five musical forms indigenous to America: Its gilded mahogany legs are carved to look like American eagles as an embodiment of American spirit. 

Source: White House Historical Association

During World War II, Steinway parachuted around 3,000 specially designed upright pianos to American soldiers fighting abroad so they could play and sing American songs to remind them of home. 

Although Steinway & Sons has gone through ownership changes in the 21st century, it remains a private company with over 300 showrooms worldwide. Steinway concert grand pianos are still made through the nurturing handwork of skilled craftsmen and women. Each consists of roughly 12,000 individual parts and takes well over a year to assemble. 

Sources:

www.steinway.com

www.wikipedia.org

Germans love their potatoes! There are over 270 different varieties of potato grown in Germany, and the average German consumes around 56 kilos of potatoes each year. Although potatoes are today a fundamental staple in the German diet, this was not always the case. 

German Potato Salad, a perennial favorite (Source: Simply Recipes)

The History of the Potato in Germany

Potatoes have their original birthplace in the Andes mountains. They were introduced in Germany in the 16th century, but only became popular after Frederick II, who recognized potatoes as a valuable food source during times of famine, encouraged its cultivation through a combination of education and strategic measures. 

Frederick II (Source: Alamo)

Frederick the Great: the ‘Potato King’

In 1756 Frederick implemented policies to encourage potato cultivation, but encountered resistance from farmers, who did not know how to cook potatoes and often mistook the tuber’s toxic blossoms for edible. Germans considered bread superior to potatoes, so Frederick allegedly came up with a clever plan to change peoples’ minds.

The myth goes like this: The farmers were skeptical about planting potatoes at the directive of the king, so Frederick cunningly set up a potato field and sent heavily armed soldiers to protect it. The farmers thought that the soldiers were guarding something valuable. So when Frederick ordered the guards to carry out their duties less carefully at night, the farmers came in crowds to dig up the potatoes and plant them in their own fields. The crop took off and Frederick created a lasting legacy, gaining the reputation as ‘Kartoffelkönig’ or ‘Potato King’. Even today, when one visits his gravesite at Sanssouci in Potsdam, one sees potatoes placed at the base of his gravestone by visitors. 

The Grave of Frederick II at Sanssouci (Source: Google)

The Versatile Potato in the Household

Today the whole world eats potatoes, but there is actually much more that this humble tuber can do to help in the household as well:

° A cut potato can be rubbed with salt or baking soda on the cut side to scrub grime from cutting boards, pans or kitchen surfaces.

° A cut potato dipped into dish soap or baking soda can be used to remove rust stains.

° Water mixed with mashed potatoes creates a paste that can be used to remove tarnish from metal surfaces like silver cutlery.

° A cut potato misted with water can be used to clean glass without leaving streaks. 

Summary

Everyone knows what a ‘couch potato’ is, but this mighty little tuber deserves high regard for its nutritional value and underrated versatility. 

Guten Appetit!

Sources:

www.wikipedia.org

www.potatonewstoday.com

www.DW.com

Google AI Generator

There are several wonderful Easter traditions in Germany. Some of them are shared in the American tradition of celebrating the holiday. Many are simply fun and a nice way to welcome spring.

Bunte Eier (Painted Eggs)

Eggs have always been a symbol of springtime. Although Eastern Orthodox Christians were the first to paint eggs, the Germans were the first to start hanging them on branches. Like in American families, German families boil and color hard-boiled eggs, but the tradition of hanging them on branches is uniquely German. Some egg painting is truly artistic. Although eggs are quite expensive (in the USA) right now, plastic colored eggs are also sometimes used in Germany and might be a good alternative.

Source: AP

Easter Bunnies

The Easter bunny is one of the most visible symbols of Easter. It has its origins in the Germanic and Saxon goddess of dawn and spring, Eostre. German Easter bunnies include porcelain decoration, chocolate candies and wooden ornaments. 

Source: Erzgebirge.it

Easter Lamb Cake

In Germany there are moulds that can be used to bake an Easter lamb cake. The lamb-shaped cake exists in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, France and Italy. The cake it thought to symbolize Jesus Christ as the sacrificial lamb of God. 

Source: The Farm Wife Cooks

Easter Riding

On Easter Sunday there is a tradition in some parts of Germany to ride horses in a procession wearing uniforms and carrying flags. This is performed on Easter Sunday in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.

Easter Bouquet

Families cut branches from blossoming trees and bushes on Maudy Thursday and put them in a vase until Easter Sunday. Often families add colorful eggs to make the arrangements more festive.

Source: Amazon.UK

Gründonnerstag (Green Thursday)

This is the day that marks the end of Lent. It is a day of celebration, where those things that were abstained from during the six weeks before Easter may be consumed again. Although the word Gründonnerstag is derived from the old German word greinen, which means mourning or crying, today most people celebrate by eating something green, like a green salad or Frankfurter Grünesoße (a green sauce made from herbs, sour cream, boiled eggs and mustard).

Easter Bonfire

Traditionally the people of Hanover, Westphalia and Lower Saxony mark the end of the winter with a bonfire on the evening prior to Easter Sunday. They are usually held in beachfront areas and symbolize the light overcoming darkness. 

Source: Uwe Rudowitz

Good Friday

In Germany Good Friday is called Karfreitag, meaning ‘sorrowful Friday’. It is the highest holiday of the Protestant church. Good Friday is a quiet day: workplaces and shops are closed. Churches  hold services and families recognize the day by eating fish instead of meat for dinner. 

The Palatinate Chapter wishes you a wonderful spring and Easter time!

Sources:

www.germanfoods.org

House Beautiful UK, 27.03.2024

www.iamexpat.org

John Jacob Astor (17 July, 1763 – 29 March, 1848) was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul and investor.

Johann Jakob Astor (Wikipedia)

Early Life

Astor was born in Germany in a small town near Heidelberg to parents who owned a butcher shop. At the age of sixteen, Astor moved to London to work for his older brother who was a flute and piano manufacturer. In England he changed his name form Johann Jakob Astor to the anglicized version. 

Astor moved to the United States in 1783 after the Revolutionary War. He had intended to work for his brother in a butcher shop in New York City, but became interested in the expanding fur trade in North America during his crossing to Baltimore. After working for his brother for some time, Astor began to purchase raw hides from Native Americans and sell them in Europe at a great profit. When the United States formed the Jay Treaty with Great Britain in 1794, Astor took advantage of new trading markets in Canada and the Great Lakes region. He imported furs from Montreal to New York and shipped them to Europe. By 1800 he had amassed over a quarter of a million dollars and was a major international player in the fur trading industry. 

Real Estate Baron

After 1800, Astor started to trade furs, tea and opium to Canton, China. He increased his fortune tremendously. In the 1830’s Astor foresaw the property explosion in New York and condensed his business interests into real estate in and north of Manhattan. Among other investments, he built a farm at Hellgate, a property that ran west of Broadway to the Hudson between 42nd and 46th streets in Manhattan. When he retired from business, Astor became a patron of culture and the arts. He was a Freemason and also President of the German Society of New York (1837-1841).

In proportion to the GDP, Astor was one of the richest people in modern history. He left behind an estate worth 0.9% of the US GDP at the time of his death, roughly equivalent to $276 billion in 2025.

Descendants and the Family Today

One of John Astor’s most famous descendants was his great-grandson John Jacob Astor IV. Like many of the other descendants, John made his fortune in real estate and was the founder of the Astoria Hotel in New York City. This hotel later merged with the Waldorf Hotel, owned by a cousin and rival. Today we know the hotel under the name Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, a leading luxury hotel of the world. 

John Astor IV (Wikipedia)

John Astor IV died on the maiden crossing of the Titanic. Other members of the family were prominent in New York aristocracy, and several were involved in philanthropic work. Today the name Astor is still connected with luxury, history and high society, but the family’s wealth has largely been dispersed. The descendants live spread across the world and no longer control vast real estate empires. 

Source:

www.wikipeda.org

German Roots

German Fredrich Fröbel (1782-1852) founded the first kindergarten in 1838. He created this ‘play’ environment as an experimental social experience for children about to enter school. Up till then, most emphasis in childhood education was based on rote learning and strict behavior. Fröbel’s approach was to let the children be nurtured and nourished ‘like plants in a garden.’ (Wikipedia)

Fredrich Fröbel (source: Fredrich Fröbel Museum)

The pedagogical environment in kindergarten allowed children to develop their self-expression and self-directed learning. This approach was facilitated by play, songs, stories and other activities. Around 1873 musical instrument teaching was also introduced into the national kindergarten movement in Germany. 

School in the 18th Century (source: Getty Images)

Kindergarten Spreads to the United States

The first kindergarten in the USA was founded in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1856 by Margaretha Meyer-Schurz and was conducted in German. Elizabeth Peabody founded the first English language kindergarten in 1860. The first free-of-charge kindergarten was founded by philanthropist Conrad Poppenhusen in 1870, and the first publicly financed kindergarten in the US was founded in Saint Louis in 1873 by Susan Blow. By 1880 there were more than 400 kindergartens in 30 states and kindergarten teacher training schools existed in every major US city.

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (source: Virginia Commonwealth University)

Preschool Child Care in Germany Today

Since 2013, every child in Germany had the legal right to childcare. There are several types of child care available:

°Kinderkrippe (creche) is for children up to three years of age. It is not free and costs vary by region.

°Kindergarten is for children between the ages of 3 and 6. It is not part of the regular school system, and it is not mandatory. Kindergarten can be free, church-subsidized or privately funded and costs vary by region. 

°Kitas (Kindertagesstätte), or child daycare centers provide after-school and sometimes pre-school activities for children after the school day ends. It goes up to the age of 11 or 12. Fees are required and this form of day care is very popular due to the number of women who work.

°Schulhort is an after-school daycare for primary school pupils. 

Sources:

www.wikipedia.org

www.expatica.com

www.socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu