FRANKFURT, Germany -- On Halloween, the roads around Shane Junyor's suburban home will close and nearly 1,000 people will gather for his homemade haunted house.
Every year, Junyor goes big. Last Halloween he dug out his front yard to create a "witch's swamp." His haunted house is a 10-year tradition and has led to business opportunities for Junyor. The Conway native now prepares all year for the day, setting up a business called Gatorgutz to buy and sell Halloween props for other haunted houses, movies and novelty shops.
But at Junyor's house, the ghouls, pirates, ghosts and probably a Harley Quinn or two won't be asking for candy with "Trick or Treat." Instead, the phrase of the night will be "Susses oder Saures" -- German for sweet or sour.
Junyor has lived in Messel, Germany, a suburb of Frankfurt, for about 10 years. He stayed in Germany after serving in the U.S. military and marrying a German woman.
Germans haven't always celebrated Halloween. In Junyor's first year creating the haunted house, he put a few props in his garage and handed out candy to around seven children in homemade costumes. The next year, the number of visitors increased to around 90. He expects about a thousand Monday.
"People over here are just getting into Halloween," Junyor said. "It's a new development."
Now, Halloween should be something that feels familiar to American visitors to Germany. The night in Germany largely mimics the holiday in the United States.
Halloween is now celebrated by one in five Germans, according to a YouGov poll. It's just one aspect of American culture that has become commonplace in Germany as American businessmen and former military personnel make their homes here.
More than 107,000 Americans lived in Germany in 2013. Kaiserslautern, a German city between Frankfurt and Stuttgart, became the largest U.S. military community outside the United States in the 1950s. More than 40,000 military personnel are permanent residents in Germany, according to the Federal Statistics Office of Germany.
Most Americans in Germany have a military background, including Junyor. During German reunification in 1990 there were about 200,000 U.S. soldiers in Germany. That number has decreased to about 42,000.
The military has a long history of bringing Halloween to Germany. One of the largest Halloween parties in the country became a yearly tradition about 40 years ago when members of the American military rented out the castle thought to have inspired Mary Shelley's gothic novel Frankenstein. The venue now hosts one of the country's most popular yearly Halloween parties.
Halloween has become big business in Germany. The German Toy and Novelty Retailers Association expects Halloween revenues to top $200 million.
Although celebrating Halloween is a new development in Germany, profiting from it is not.
German manufacturers made some of the first American Halloween decorations. For collectors, early German-made Halloween decorations are highly prized. After World War I, several American retail magnates including Frank W. Woolworth and Sebastian S. Kresge encouraged German artisans to craft decorations for the growing American holiday market.
Lesley Bannatyne, an American author who has written five books about the history and literature of Halloween, said collectors highly value "Made in Germany" pieces, produced from around 1919 to 1935. A skeleton and pumpkin decoration made by the General Merchandise Co. was recently sold at auction for almost $350. Prices for other vintage items can range from $20 to thousands.
"Contemporary Halloween decorations in the style of old German pieces are extremely popular," she said.
And they're valuable enough that stories and decorations have been fabricated by collectors and scam artists. Generally, jack-o'-lanterns and black cats are common symbols and fetch the lowest prices. Devils are among the rarest and most valuable images. German candy containers and lanterns have been widely reproduced and probably aren't legitimate.
"A supposed trove of decorations was discovered and put on the American market," Bannatyne said. "This story is false and used to get top dollar for newly made objects."
It's a legacy that Junyor is cashing in on. He said the popularity of his haunted house has allowed him to trade the vintage Halloween items as well as more modern Halloween decorations to American haunted house operators and other Halloween-theme businesses.
"I just fell into this," he said. "Now I'm looking for the next level."
Junyor's burgeoning Halloween business is becoming a yearlong endeavor. He said he travels to the United States more now to find clients and to visit haunted houses looking for ways to improve his own.
"It only comes once a year," he said. "I wish it came more often."
SundayMonday Business on 10/30/2016