A "schnitzel" is merely a cutlet of meat that is beaten and pounded thin. Cooked just like that, renders it a "natur art" schnitzel. Dipping it in some egg thinned with cold water, rolling it in bread-crumbs, and frying it in a pan makes it a potential "Wienerschnitzel" or Vienna-style schnitzel, with the addition of lemon. Add anchovies and a sunny-side up "spiegeleier" or fried egg and the result is a Schleswig-Holsteiner-art schnitzel. Top it off with a murky dark mushroom gravy, and the result is the "Hunter's schnitzel" or Jägerschnitzel. Make a sauce with paprika and other exotic items, and the result can be a so-called "Zigeunerschnitzel" or "Gypsy-style."
Schnitzels are, dare I say it?, the schnitzel. The technique of preparing and cooking them is very old indeed. In Spanish-speaking nations, the breaded fried cutlet is a "Milanesa" as in Milan, once a part of the Austrian Empire, rather than Vienna, its capital.
As you know first hand from your travel experiences in Bayern and other Bundesländer of the Federal Republic, the "traditional" meat used was veal. This was because the dairy, milk, cheese cattle needed calves in order to lactate. But there is not much wide open range land in Germany, as a rule, and so the calves need to be culled and butchered and eaten. For this reason, a trip to modern Germany will turn up any number of Turkish schnell-Imbiß that serve "dönerkebap." Unlike the Middle Eastern use of lamb, in Germany the Turkish migrant or long term resident often resorts to veal. Today, of course, pork has largely superseded veal as the cheapest meat available, and so most schnitzels served in Deutschland and the Vereinigten Staaten are schweinschnitzels, made with pork.
Believe-it-or-not, but many modern Japanese foods arose from military rations. When conscription was adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army, it was found that the impoverished peasantry that made up the draftees were often in a very parlous physical state and showed considerable debility from malnutrition and scarcity throughout their lives. So rations were, pun intended, beefed up, so that soldiers could carry out all of the grueling and physically demanding tasks required of them. One lasting Japanese army ration that became a popular modern Japanese dish was "Katsu-curry," which was a schnitzel/milanesa, cut up into chopstick-sized morsels, put on top of a bowl of rice, and smothered in a thick gravy with potatoes and carrots and so on.
As for sauerkraut, my wife and I make traditional, Eastern European/Russian-style sauerkraut in a massive crock. It is hard work, but well worth it. You need a pallet of cabbages, salt, and a wood rammer device. It is a very easy fermentation. Historically, there were literal barrels of sauerkraut stored away for long term rations. The best Asian version is Korean kimche, which we've also made, with its somewhat different ingredients and different crock. An Alsatian classic is "bauernschmaus" in German or Alsatian (a Western Germanic language), or "choucroute garni Alsacienne" in French, is a pile of wurst, rippchen, and other pork-derived delicacies within a plateful of hotted up sauerkraut.
As for Weinachtstollen, yes, it is a very old thing indeed. You'll note that actual, honest-to-God German Weinachtstollen is actually not very sweet, and more of a bread than a cake. The sweetness came from dried, preserved, or candied fruits and various spices added to the loaf. The sprinkling of powdered sugar was to look like snow. Way back in the day, a tipple of schnapps or some other distilled beverage could be poured over a slice to, um, soften it for gramps what with his missing teeth and all... This was in the barbarous period when revelers at the Oktoberfest would bring their own krug, or what we call a "bierstein" and rinse it out between fillings from the keg in a common water trough....
Real "hausgemacht" sauerkraut makes the absolute best Russian cabbage soup or "schi." Trying to make it with store bought, vinegar-laded sauerkraut is not good.
I'd encourage you to check out a German army cookbook. It shows some basic old German cooking techniques that were long in use, and most of all, how to feed an army with nothing but cabbage, flour, salt, and this or that scrounged from the surroundings.
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