Germans happy but wary as holiday markets open

Germany’s Christmas markets opened yesterday at the start of the holiday season, with security staff on hand and concrete barriers to protect shoppers, nearly a year after an Islamist militant killed 12 people by driving a truck into crowds.Some 2,600 markets, known for their sparkling Christmas trees and wooden stalls serving candied nuts, sausages, mulled wine and handicrafts, opened across Germany under tighter than usual security measures.The markets are beloved by Germans and a major tourist attraction for visitors this time of year.In the city of Bochum in Western Germany, organisers decorate concrete bollards, wrapping them up as Christmas presents with bows to make them appear festive.The German city of Magdeburg invested €40,000 ($48,000) in concrete blocks made to look like Lego pieces, according to Bild newspaper.In Berlin, Petra Henne, who had been at the market in December last year just half an hour before Tunisian militant Anis Amri drove a hijacked truck into the crowd on the Breitscheidplatz, came out for the opening this year to enjoy the festivities.The extra security was “a bit oppressive”, she said. “And it is awful, this violence that you can’t do anything about. But Berliners are on good form and they carry on anyway. What else can one do?”“We are happy that the market is starting up again,” said Martin Gelmer, the pastor for the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which overlooks Breitscheidplatz.“But at the same time we know what happened here: that people died here and that other people must now live with serious injuries,” he told AFP, shortly after leading a service for the vendors.Organiser AG City, which has also deployed teams of private security guards in orange vests, expects up to one million visitors by the time the market winds down on January 7.It will close on the attack anniversary, when a memorial in the form of a gold-coloured crack in the ground with the names of the victims will be inaugurated.Last year’s horror weighed heavily on many present.“You think about it ... I don’t feel so at ease,” said Christa Okunick, 67, visiting from the western city of Dortmund.Last year, she came to the Christmas market a week before the attack, an experience she couldn’t put out of her mind on this visit. “It is an unsafe place, and you can’t protect it at all ... I’m indeed a bit scared.” Others such as Noreen Moore, 73, visiting from the US state of Colorado, were unfazed.“It’s part of the German custom,” she said, describing how she came to Berlin for the Christmas markets and hoped to visit as many as she could on her trip.She felt “very comfortable” walking around, she said.An interior ministry spokesman said that the risk of an attack in Europe and Germany is “continuously high”.Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere urged Germans not to be afraid to enjoy their time-honoured holiday markets.People should be “mindful but not fearful”, he told Bild. “Christmas markets are part of our life and culture.”Organisers and business owners had complained that the government was reluctant to share the cost of extra security measures.“What could be done was done,” said Berlin’s mayor, Michael Mueller, noting that those measures still could not guarantee absolute security.The Alternative for Germany (AfD) far-right party asked members of the public to share pictures showing extra security measures at their local markets and post them on social media in protest against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open Germany’s borders to more than one million asylum-seekers.The AfD blames Merkel’s immigration policy for what it says is a rise in crime and extremist attacks.Klaus Schultheis, an expert in German Christmas markets who collects annual national data on the subject, said that he knew of only two markets that were cancelled over security concerns.“Christmas markets are a piece of the German culture that shouldn’t disappear no matter what,” he said. “It goes on.”