ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the intersection of the German Lutheran heritage of the village of Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills with the romanticised rural idyll. It focuses on two main constructions, those of the Germanic Lutheran heritage and of the rural idyll, both of which are used in complex ways to create the meanings of the place of Lobethal. The chapter discusses a critical investigation of Lobethal's contemporary construction as a Christmas wonderland as a specific form of rural idyll place making. In short, Lobethal's Christmas wonderland is a social construction that strategically utilises discourses of the rural, the religious and the community. The seventeen day Lights of Lobethal festival draws upon a constructed intersection between the village's Germanic Lutheran heritage and romanticised notions of rural community. Lobethal has experienced religious conflict episodes, racial exclusion and economic depression. External prejudice and the erasing of the town's Germanic heritage notwithstanding, Lobethal prospered economically during the First World War and the Great Depression.
