Trivia Advent Calendar

[J. Beckert]

Good afternoon and welcome back to what I know is the highly anticipated return of our dear friend Frau Eva's annual Yuletide trivia contest, The Advent Trivia Calendar!!

While Eva is very busy preparing her bid to run for Chancellor of Germany, she has asked me to fill in until she has time to return. So, with much pride in her faith in me and some technical assistance from the politest man on the internet, I plan to make this an Advent Trivia Calendar to remember!!

In keeping with Eva's tradition of posting photos that need to be deciphered, here's the first one. Good luck to all of you. Especially the Non Germans. You folks will need it the most.

What is this mess?????