Less cheer, more fear in Germany
Christmas markets lose twinkle with virus all around
BERLIN — Germany this December doesn’t feel right.
There are no groups of friends gripping mugs of steaming red wine spiced with cinnamon and cloves crowding Rothenburg’s medieval market square or beneath Cologne’s towering cathedral.
No brass bands play carols before Berlin’s Charlottenburg Palace.
Nostars shine fromthe eaves of Seiffen’s wooden huts.
The magical figure known as the Christkind did not spread her golden wings and welcome the world to Nuremberg’s annual Christmas market. The darkened city square did not spring to light, revealing, in the verse she recites annually, a “little town within the city, which of cloth and wood is made; fleeting in its brief splendor, but everlasting throughout the ages.”
The coronavirus is muting Christmas celebrations around the world.
But the absence of seasonal merriment and public cheer is particularly palpable, and painful, in Germany’s marketplaces and squares, largely devoid of their beloved Christmas markets because of the pandemic.
“When you walk through the streets of Munich or Nuremberg these days, without the bright lights and good cheer, without the smell of hot mulled wine — I just miss all of that,” said Oliver Pötzsch, 50, an author whose novels draw from his Bavarian family’s history.
Germans have gathered at outdoor markets in the weeks before Christmas since the 14th century, when vendors first built their stands in city centers to sell theirwarestopeoplecomingfrom church services. They offer an array of foods, artisanal gifts and other provisions for the coming celebrations and the long winter months.
Tourists from across the globe throng the half-dozen markets — often fashioned on different themes, like a Scandinavian or
sustainable Christmas — in cities like Berlin, Cologne and Munich.
The locals, though, are drawn to the more intimate festivals in towns and villages across the country, often in the regions where they grew up.
“They were always meeting places,” Margot Kässmann, 63, a former bishop of the Lutheran Church in Germany, said of the Christmas markets, also called Advent markets.
“Today, Christmas markets remain very social places where
friends and family gather,” she said. “But even people who are alone will go there on their own to take in the smells, the lights and the music, which have something comforting about them.”
Germany’s roughly 3,000 Christmas markets are also an economic boon to many communities, bringing in nearly $3.5 billion last year, according to the German Association of Fairground Employees.
Local restaurants, breweries, bakeries and artisans also depend
on the annual holiday fairs for a substantial amount of their income.
Nina Engel has been selling glass ornaments at the Christmas market in Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt for years.
But as December drew near and the country’s number of new coronavirus infections remained high, the German capital joined cities across the country that have canceled their markets.
The Gendarmenmarkt, an elegant square, stands opento the cold this year.
No music lovers spill from the steps of the Konzerthaus into a temporary village of white tents, glowing with golden stars atop their peaks and warmed with laughter, sizzling sausages and a glittering array of crafts and gifts.
This year, the city allowed a fraction of the vendors to set up pop-up stands on street corners or in empty squares, in an effort to recoup some of their costs and spread the Christmas spirit.
“We have to pay for everything up front,” Engel said, gesturing to rowsof sparkling glass hummingbirds, pickles, pizza slices, Santas andsnowmen,hungamongsilver, gold and red bulbs at her stand on the pedestrian zone of the Friedrichstrasse shopping street in Berlin. “We are here to try to sell at least a few items — it’s better than nothing.”
Other cities have also allowed a few stands to open, to aid vendors and maintain a modicum of Christmas cheer — but at a distance compliant with regulations that require strangers to keep 6 feet apart.
Local restaurant owners are offering hot mulledwine, or Glühwein, from the steps of their shuttered eateries for patrons seeking a sip of the ubiquitous seasonal drink that doubles as a handwarmer, as long as yourmugisfull.
Others are trying to re-create that Christmas market feeling at home, going all out with windows outlined in colored lights, blinking snowmen and giant, glowing Santa Clauses — displays that many Germans only know from Coca-Cola commercials and Hollywood movies.
“I’ve noticed people are decking out their houses with terrible American-style lights and Santa Claus hanging from their balconies,” Pötzsch said.