German Christmas markets issue security cost warning

One of Germany's largest tourist attractions, its array of Christmas markets, is opening this week for the 2025 season, but event organizers have warned steep increases in the cost of security are posing a major financial challenge.

The markets, which draw domestic and international visitors, make a huge contribution to local economies across Germany, but following a series of attacks in recent years, where vehicles have rammed crowds of pedestrians, their level of security, and resulting costs, have gone up significantly.

Earlier this month, the trial began of Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 51-year-old Saudi, who was charged with six counts of murder and 338 counts of attempted murder following a vehicle attack on a market in the town of Magdeburg last December. This followed an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin in 2016, and ramming incidents at other times of year in Munich and Mannheim during 2025.

Sky News reported that the Magdeburg suspect described himself as "an ex-Muslim". His social media posts attacked Germany for allowing the "Islamization of Europe", and he suggested he was a supporter of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

According to the Federal Association of City and Town Marketing, also known as the BCSD, the cost of security for public events, including Christmas markets, has gone up by an average of 44 percent in the last three years.

There is some funding for markets in larger towns and cities but smaller or privately-run events are often left picking up the bill for security themselves, so there have been increasing calls for the country's 16 federal states to provide more support, with one of the justifications being that market organizers claim the measures qualify as counter-terrorism, which is beyond their authority.

"We need nationwide, reliable rules ... otherwise we will soon find ourselves without anyone willing to take on the ever-increasing responsibility for events and shoulder the financial burden," said BCSD chief Gerold Leppa.

The country's interior ministry has acknowledged that Christmas markets "pose a particular risk", but Chancellor Friedrich Merz said it is a matter for state police forces, rather than the federal government.

"It weighs heavily on me that we can no longer hold Christmas markets, even in smaller towns, without a comprehensive security concept," he was quoted as saying during a visit to the central German city of Halle.

Local media reported that when the Magdeburg market opened this year, at least 250,000 euros ($289,404) of new security measures were in place, including concrete blocks to prevent unauthorized vehicle access to market areas.

More than 140 traders opened stalls at the market, which also features an ice rink and a Ferris wheel.

"Expectations are hopeful, naturally with the utmost respect for what happened last year, and we simply hope that people will rediscover their Christmas market," Paul-Gerhard Stieger, managing director of the Magdeburg Christmas Market, told broadcaster RTL.

julian@mail.chinadailyuk.com