Spanking tradition ends on German island of Borkum – DW

Most people in Germany associate the feast of Saint Nicholas with a harmless tradition: Children leave their cleaned shoes next to the front door on the night of December 5, and the next morning, they expect to find their footwear filled with small presents and treats brought by Nikolaus.

There are, however, regions in Germany, such as in Bavaria, where the Father Christmas-like character has a dark sidekick, the Krampus. The hairy devil has different names across regions and is part of folkloric festivities involving terrifying costumes and processions.

The Krampus is a mythical figure in Austria and other parts of EuropeImage: Werner Lang/imageBROKER/picture alliance

Similarly, the Klaasohm festival on Borkum, an island near the Netherlands with a population of 5,000 people, follows in this darker tradition.

On the night of December 5, women were spanked on the buttocks with cattle horns. The tradition created major controversy following a video report by public broadcaster NDR at the 2023 festivities in which “Klaasohms,” young men wearing traditional costumes of sheepskin and bird feathers, “chased” down and hit women as part of the celebration.

Safety was already stepped up and the practice banned in 2024, and the authorities want to assure people that the same goes for this year. This year’s celebration will also be “a safe and unifying festival for the people of Borkum,” according to a report in the Borkum island magazine Borkum erleben, which the town also published on its website.

A controversial practice

In the report from 2023, two male reporters attempted to film the 2023 festivities. Using their cell phones, they easily filmed the daytime celebrations, when the community gathered around young, unmarried men dressed in the traditional costumes of the Klaasohms.

The party continued into the night. The reporters secretly filmed a group of so-called “catchers” as they chased women and held them while the Klaasohms hit them on the buttocks with a cow’s horn. People around them, including children, cheered as one woman was being hit.

The Borkum Klaasohm festival has usually avoided the press: These photos are from 2011Image: Reinhold Grigoleit/dpa/picture alliance

The NDR report included anonymous interviews with three women and a former male inhabitant of the island who had participated in the ritual and now condemn it.

The women explained that, as children, they were raised to believe it was an exciting game of hide-and-seek that was part of the islanders’ shared identity. This is why they willingly took part in the ritual as teenagers, but it ended up being a very painful experience.

Even the young man who had left Borkum still felt he cannot show his face on camera, fearing any criticism of the ritual could lead to negative consequences for his family.

“On Borkum, if you talk openly about wanting this to stop, you’re told that you don’t understand the festival, that you’re not honoring the tradition and that you’re somehow bowing to pressure from outside [the island],” he said.

The NDR reporters asked islanders to comment on the ritual. Many of those who first agreed to talk later insisted their comments be removed from the report before it was broadcast.

Men wear masks and traditional costumes as part of the Klaasohm festival on the German island of BorkumImage: Reinhold Grigoleit/dpa/picture alliance

‘It’s important to the men’

Speaking freely on camera, an older woman recalls being beaten in her youth during the festival. She said she was definitely never a fan of the ritual.

When asked why it is so important to people in Borkum, she replied, “It’s important to the men.”

“The Borkumers grow up that way, and that’s the way it is. It’s purely a men’s day. So you need to ask the men, see what they have to say about it,” she added.

One man laughed it off as harmless fun, explaining that “when they [the young men] see a woman, they beat her up a bit with a cow’s horn,” adding that “it’s not really violent.”

But the anonymous interviewees said that being hit left them bruised and in pain for several days. The anonymous former islander pointed out that men would actually feel proud if a woman could not sit for five or six days after being hit.

The organizers of the festival, as well as the police and the mayor of Borkum, all refused to be interviewed by NDR reporters. The report also pointed out that all social media coverage of the event is discouraged to avoid revealing the identity of the Klaasohms.

Authorities say beating women is not a part of the festival anymore

Facing outraged reactions triggered by the report, Borkum authorities acknowledged in a 2024 statement that it was a mistake to have avoided the media.

“We realize that the report, which paints a distorted picture of the festival and contains numerous journalistic inaccuracies, is the result of us rejecting all of their requests,” said the chair of the association Borkumer Jungens e.V. 1830, which is responsible for carrying out the Klaasohm tradition.

The association admits that the tradition can be seen as controversial today. Beatings with cattle horns were part of the tradition in the past “and in individual cases in recent years,” they said in their press statement.

“We expressly distance ourselves from any form of violence against women and apologize for the historically-based actions of past years.”

Already in 2024, the police adopted “a zero-tolerance policy” when it comes to violence, stated a police spokesperson. For 2025, the city plans to keep the same measures as last year, including setting up telephone numbers and areas where women could 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 Akkermann, told German news agency DPA.

The Krampus: an age-old tradition

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The NDR journalists pointed out in their report that it is possible to deal more openly with media criticism, showing the example of the Krampus run in Austria.

According to tradition, people dressed as the devilish figure whip the procession’s spectators using a birch rod.

The runs, fueled by alcohol and anarchic collective energy, have made headlines in recent years for violent outbreaks and injured participants.

Now there is tightened security around the Austrian events, with safe spaces for those who don’t want to be hit, and numbers assigned to each Krampus so they can be identified if needed. The Krampuses are now encouraged to only symbolically brush festival-goers, and not actually whip them.