Most people in Germany associate the feast of St. Nicholas with a harmless tradition: children leave their cleaned shoes near the front door on the night of December 5, and the next morning, they expect to find their shoes filled with small gifts and presents brought by Nicholas. However, there are areas in Germany, such as Bavaria, where the Father Christmas-like character has a black companion, Krampus. The Hairy Devil has different names according to region, and is part of folkloric celebrations involving macabre costumes and processions.
Similarly, the Klasoham festival on Borkum, an island with a population of 5,000 people, follows the same deep tradition.
As part of an annual tradition on the night of December 5, women were hit on the buttocks with a cow’s horn. This tradition caused major controversy after a video report by public broadcaster NDR in the 2023 celebrations showed “Klasohms”, young men dressed in traditional costumes of sheep skins and bird feathers, “chasing” and hitting women as part of the festivities.
Security had already been stepped up and the practice banned in 2024, and officials want to reassure people that the same will be the case this year. According to a report in Borkum Island magazine, this year’s festival will be “a safe and united festival for the people of Borkum”. Experience BorkamWhich the city also published on its website.
a controversial practice
In 2023 Report, two male journalists attempt to film the 2023 festivities. Using his cell phone, he easily filmed the day’s festivities, when the community gathered around young, unmarried men wearing the traditional costumes of the Clasohams.
The party continued till night. Journalists secretly filmed a group of so-called “catchers” as they chased down the women and held them down, while the Clasohams attacked their buttocks with cow horns. The people around him, including the children, united and celebrated. the woman was being beaten,
Witnesses and victims testify anonymously for fear of consequences
The NDR report included anonymous interviews with three women and a former male resident of the island who participated in the ritual and have now condemned it.
The women reported that, as children, they were led to believe that it was an exciting game of hide-and-seek that was part of the islanders’ shared identity, which is why they willingly participated in the ritual as teenagers – but it turned out to be a very traumatic experience.
Even the young man who left Borkum still feels that he cannot show his face on camera, fearing that any criticism of the ritual could have negative consequences on his family: “On Borkum, if you talk openly about stopping it, you are told that you don’t understand the festival, that you are not respecting tradition and that you are somehow succumbing to pressure from the outside. [the island],” He said.
NDR correspondents asked islanders to comment on the ritual. Many of those who initially agreed to talk later insisted that their comments be removed from the report before it was broadcast.
‘It’s important for men’
Speaking on camera, an older woman recalls being beaten in her youth during a festival. She said she was definitely never a fan of the ritual.
When asked why this was so important to the people in Borkum, he replied, “It is important to the men.”
He added, “That’s the way Borkummers grow up and that’s the way it is. It’s totally a men’s day. So you have to ask the men, see what they have to say about it.”
One person laughed it off as a harmless joke, explaining that “when they [the young men] Look at a woman, they beat her a little with a cow horn,” adding that “it’s not really violent.”
But anonymous interviewees said the beatings left him with bruises and pain for days. The anonymous former islander reported that the men would feel really proud if a woman could not sit down for five or six days after being spanked.
The organizers of the festival, as well as the police and the mayor of Borkum, all refused to be interviewed by NDR correspondents. The report also notes that all social media coverage of the incident is discouraged to avoid revealing the identity of the Clasohms.
Officials say beating women no longer a part of the festival
Faced with the angry reactions generated by the report, Borkum authorities admitted in a statement in 2024 that avoiding the media had been a mistake: “We realize that the report, which presents a distorted picture of the festival and contains numerous journalistic inaccuracies, is the result of our rejecting all of their requests,” said the president of the association Borkumer Jungs e.V. 1830, which is responsible for carrying on the Klassom tradition.
The association recognizes that this tradition may be seen as controversial today. He said in his press statement that beatings with cow horns were part of the tradition in the past “and also in individual cases in recent years.” “We unequivocally distance ourselves from any form of violence against women and apologize for our historically based actions over the past years.”
Already in 2024, police have adopted a “zero-tolerance policy” when it comes to violence, a police spokesperson said. For 2025, the city plans to take the same measures as last year, including setting up telephone numbers, as well as areas where women can report any dangerous or uncomfortable situations. “These support services represent a significant change and improvement compared to previous years. Otherwise, the festival will be organized in the same way,” the island’s mayor Jürgen Ackermann told dpa.
NDR journalists pointed out in their report that it is possible to deal with media criticism more openly, showing the example of the Krampus Run in Austria.
According to tradition, satanic figures hit the spectators of the procession with birch rods.
The race, fueled by alcohol and chaotic group energy, has made headlines in past years for violent outbursts and injured participants.
There is now tight security around Austrian events, with safe areas for those who do not want to be affected, and each Krampus is given numbers so that they can be identified if needed. Krampus is now encouraged to only symbolically brush off festival visitors, rather than actually whip them.
This article was updated from a previous excerpt published on December 12, 2024. It was edited by Sarah Huckle.