Käthe Wohlfahrt is Christmas spirit in a shop, like a trip to a traditional village dressed up in German-style ornaments. Harald Wohlfahrt is from the second generation of this family business that started in 1964, and he tells us that it all started with a music box that his father wanted to give to an American soldier stationed in Germany; since then the Wohlfahrts' shops have been filled with quality traditional artisan products made in Europe.
You'll find special ornaments like the wooden pyramids – which come from the Ore Mountains between Bohemia and Saxony – as well as cuckoo clocks, nutcracker soldiers in all sizes, tin ornaments with hand-painted Christmas motifs, and blown glass decorations made specially for the Barcelona store (a taxi, the chimneys from Gaudí's Palau Güell, a Black Virgin, as seen in Montserrat). There are up to 5,000 items on the shelves so you can enjoy Christmas all year round. 'Whatever the time of year, people who still haven't heard of us come in because they don't know when another store like this will turn up,' says Wohlfahrt, 'for the products but also for the atmosphere.'
In addition to the shop in Rothenburg, they have different establishments in Germany, Belgium, France and the United States. When Wohlfahrt learned that the space on this corner just off La Rambla was available, he jumped at his chance to open Käthe Wohlfahrt in Barcelona.