Germany's Christmas markets open with festive cheer and tight security

BERLIN — Traditional Christmas markets were opening across Germany on Monday, drawing revelers to their wooden stands with mulled wine, grilled sausages, potato pancakes or caramelized apples.

Security has been stepped up, with memories of two deadly attacks on Christmas markets still fresh for many Germans.

In Berlin, the famous market at the city's Gedächtniskirche church opened with service open to the public on Monday morning. Other openings included the Christmas markets at the Rotes Rathaus city hall, Gendarmenmarkt and Charlottenburg Palace.

Christmas markets are an annual tradition that Germans have cherished since the Middle Ages — and successfully exported to much of the Western world. Vendors sell not only snacks and drinks but also handmade candles, wool hats, gloves and shiny Christmas stars in all colors and shapes. Children enjoy rides on chain carousels, Ferris wheels and skating on ice rinks.

Security is an issue at all markets across the country.

Last year, five women and a boy died, and many were injured in a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg on Dec. 20 that lasted just over a minute. The attacker is currently on trial in Magdeburg.

On Dec. 19, 2016, an attacker plowed through a crowd of Christmas market-goers at Gedächtniskirche church in Berlin with a truck, killing 13 people and injuring dozens more in the German capital. The attacker, an Islamic extremist, was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

In the western city of Cologne, the Christmas market in front of the city's famous double-domed cathedral was packed with big crowds on Saturday.

“We sense a very good atmosphere here, so we feel that in these difficult times we are currently experiencing, we can give visitors a little moment of respite here," said Birgit Grothues, the spokeswoman for the market. "We see many smiling faces under our illuminated tent.”

Nonetheless, she said that after last year's attack in Magdeburg, the city created a special security plan for its markets in close cooperation with police. It includes an additional anti-terrorism barrier and private security, she said.

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Associated Press writer Daniel Niemann in Cologne, Germany, contributed to this report.