A composition of festivity and tradition (part 1)
The history of the original Dresden Christstollen® cakes began as early as the 15th century. It was first handed out as a Christmas pastry at the Saxon Court in 1427 under the name of “Striezel”.
At that time, the Christmas festivities were preceded by the Advent fasting period. According to church rules, no butter, milk or sweet additives such as raisins, candied lemon peel or almonds could be used. Baked with flour, water, yeast and oil, the Stollen was just a bland fasting pastry.
In 1450, Prince Ernst of Saxony and his brother Albrecht approached Pope Nicholas V to ask for the butter ban to be lifted. This was initially in vain, because it was not until 41 years later that Pope Innocence VIII decreed a letter known as the “Butter letter”, which permitted richer ingredients. However, he combined the decree with payment of a fine as “butter money”, which mainly went
towards construction of the church.
As the Stollens mostly originated from the Saxon region, primarily from Meissen and Siebenlehn, Dresden’s bakers fought, after the 30 Years War, for the privilege to keep selling only the Dresden Stollens® on the Dresden Striezel market named after it.