Kathe Wohlfahrt

Käthe Wohlfahrt is a German company that sells Christmas decorations and articles. Its head office is in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria. According to the Bavarian tourist site, www.bavaria.by, "the unique Christmas store with more than 30,000 traditional German Christmas decorations ... has attracted millions of tourists from all over the world."

Founded in 1964 in Herrenberg near Stuttgart by the husband and wife couple, Wilhelm and Käthe Wohlfahrt, it was taken over by their son, Harald. The firm moved from Herrenberg to the medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in 1977.

In their main shop in Rothenburg ob der Tauber there is a Christmas Museum and a Christmas exhibition. Amongst its extensive range of products are candles, Christmas tree decorations, nativity scenes and nutcrackers. The shop is open all year long and claims to have the world's largest selection of traditional German Christmas ornaments.

The firm has a chain of shops in Nuremberg, Bamberg, Oberammergau, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Berlin, Heidelberg and Rüdesheim am Rhein. In addition there are branches in Riquewihr in France, in Bruges in Belgium, in York in the United Kingdom and also in Stillwater, Minnesota (USA). It also runs stalls at Christmas markets.

In addition to the Stillwater, MN store in the United States, Kathe Wohlfahrt of America also has seasonal stores at Christmas markets in Arlington, TX, Baltimore, MD., Bethlehem, PA, Pittsburgh, PA., Tyson Corner, VA., Chicago, IL, and Philadelphia, PA and a Canadian location in Vancouver.

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Wikipedia