Smokers (Räuchermänner)

Authentic German Smokers (Räuchermänner), Hand-Carved in the Erzgebirge

A German smoker figure — a Räuchermann in German — is a hand-carved wooden figure built to hold a burning incense cone inside. Once lit, the smoke rises through the figure and drifts out the mouth in a slow, steady stream, which is where the name comes from and why these have been a fixture of German Advent for generations.

Ours are carved and painted in Germany's Erzgebirge region, in the traditional designs the workshops there have always made: woodsmen and bakers, night watchmen and market vendors. We carry German smokers from respected Erzgebirge names like Christian Ulbricht and Richard Glässer, each figure hand-finished down to the detail on the face and clothing.

If you'd like help choosing, our German smoker buying guide covers styles, sizes, and pairing a figure with the right incense. You'll also want traditional Räucherkerzen to go with it — shop our incense for German smokers, and our guide to German incense cones explains how to choose a scent. To understand where these figures come from, our guide to German smokers and their history traces the Räuchermann from Erzgebirge folk craft to the holiday fixture it is today.

However you choose, a German smoker makes one of the more atmospheric traditional German Christmas gifts — it fills a room with scent and warmth through Advent, and tends to come out year after year as part of the season.