Christmas Carols and Their Stories
Puzzle 39 · The Story of Silent Night · Page 59 in print
The Zillertal Singers
The Zillertal’s Strasser family was loved for its “real Tyrolean songs,” and the first known printing of Silent Night, by the Dresden publisher August Robert Friese, was one of “Four Real Tyrolean Songs.”
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The words
Carl Mauracher
The Zillertal organ builder named as the man who took the song to Tyrol.
Chamois
The soft leather of the Strassers’ gloves.
Donhoff
Count Dönhoff, whose Fügen castle hosted the 1822 royal visit.
Dresden
The city of the carol’s first publisher.
Emperor Franz
Emperor Franz I of Austria, at the Rainers’ 1822 concert.
Silent Night Association: Spreading (opens a new tab) · Silent Night Association: Fügen im Zillertal (opens a new tab)
Friese
August Robert Friese, the Dresden publisher who first printed the carol.
Fugen
The Zillertal village of the Rainer family singers.
Silent Night Association: Spreading (opens a new tab) · Silent Night Association: Fügen im Zillertal (opens a new tab)
Gloves
The goods the Strasser family sold at fairs.
Laimach
The Zillertal home of the Strasser family.
Ludwig Rainer
The Rainer singer credited with bringing the carol to America in 1839.
Silent Night Association: Fügen im Zillertal (opens a new tab)
Rainer Family
The singing family from Fügen who carried the carol abroad.
Strasser
The glove-trading singing family from Laimach.
Silent Night Association: Laimach im (opens a new tab) · Silent Night Association: Spreading (opens a new tab)
Tsar Alexander
Tsar Alexander I, for whom the Rainers sang in 1822.
Silent Night Association: Spreading (opens a new tab) · Silent Night Association: Fügen im Zillertal (opens a new tab)
Tyrol
The Austrian province of the Zillertal.
Silent Night Association: Fügen im Zillertal (opens a new tab)
Wall Street
The New York street at whose end, by tradition, the Rainers sang the carol in Trinity churchyard in 1839.
Sources
- Stille Nacht - Spreading of the SongSilent Night Association (Stille Nacht Gesellschaft), official site
- Stille Nacht - Laimach im ZillertalSilent Night Association (Stille Nacht Gesellschaft), official site
- Stille Nacht - Fügen im ZillertalSilent Night Association (Stille Nacht Gesellschaft), official site