Just before the peak season of Christmas markets begins across Germany, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) reports that it has no concrete indications of any threat to these events. “The Federal Criminal Police Office currently has no findings or indications from which a concrete threat to events related to the Advent and Christmas season, particularly Christmas markets, can be derived,” a BKA spokesperson told AFP on Tuesday. After addressing potential security issues, the Magdeburg Christmas market will also be able to open to visitors as planned on Thursday.
The city of Magdeburg, along with representatives from the Saxony-Anhalt State Administration Office and the police, agreed on strengthened security measures. Against the backdrop of the deadly attack on the state capital’s Christmas market almost a year ago, the State Administration Office had initially criticized this year’s security plan and described the market as a “potential target for an attack.” Approval was therefore not granted at first.
Following several meetings and on-site inspections, the security concept was revised. It now includes “risk-reducing and security-enhancing measures” that have been implemented in recent days. Saxony-Anhalt Minister President Rainer Haseloff (CDU) also intervened to mediate. According to the city administration, the organizer will receive the necessary approval by Wednesday at the latest.
On December 20 last year, a man drove a rental car through the Magdeburg Christmas market. Six people, including a nine-year-old boy, were killed and more than 300 were injured. Despite the attack, only a few Christmas markets have been canceled this year, such as in Overath near Cologne, where no budget remained for security measures. The majority of the roughly 7,000 markets across Germany will take place.
The BKA spokesperson told AFP that the situation is being “regularly and continuously monitored and assessed” in the lead-up to the Christmas market high season. Due to large visitor numbers, central locations, and open access, public events during Advent and Christmas are a focus of security authorities at both federal and state levels.
Earlier, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) called for uniform safety rules for Christmas markets. During his inaugural visit to Halle an der Saale on Tuesday, he said the federal government was “making every effort to ensure that we also arrive at common standards so that the Christmas markets can take place.” He added, “I am very troubled that we can no longer hold Christmas markets even in smaller towns without a comprehensive security concept.”
Merz emphasized that the protection of Christmas markets “is a task of the respective state police.” This, he said, is not a responsibility the federal government can assume. “But we support every form of coordination and alignment of security concepts, because we have this problem in every federal state in Germany.” He announced that he will deliver a speech at a memorial service in Magdeburg “a few days before Christmas.”
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