Christmas Markets Under Attack

Christmas Markets, or Christkindlesmarkt, are a huge part of the run-up to Christmas in Germany. They have become a target for jihadis and Leftists.

From The European Conservative

By Sabine Beppler-Spahl

As Christmas approaches, we should celebrate the resilience of normal people and defend a tradition that has become so important to millions.

“You love life, we love death”—a phrase the French scholar Olivier Roy attributes to radical Islamists. Its relevance is starkly visible in the ongoing threats to Germany’s Christmas markets.

The toll of the two biggest attacks on such markets—Berlin in 2016 and Magdeburg last year—is devastating: 19 people killed and over 200 severely injured. The ongoing threat was underscored last week when authorities announced the arrest of five men—three Moroccans, an Egyptian, and a Syrian—in Bavaria for planning an Islamist-motivated vehicle-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the Dingolfing-Landau area. On the same day, the public learned that a 21-year-old from Central Asia was also arrested for planning a similar attack. These arrests follow many others throughout recent years.

Christmas markets have become targets of a certain ‘holy war’ against normal German people. Even as authorities have tried to downplay the significance and breadth of the threats, their character is clear: they are directed at ordinary people, the enjoyment of life, and anything reminiscent of an old Christian tradition.

The elite’s parallel assault

But there is an underlying irony in all of this. It’s not just these terrorists who have sought to undermine this tradition—it has also been targeted, albeit in a far less aggressive and life-threatening way, by modern-day elitism. The traditional Christmas market has long been viewed as a ‘dodgy thing’ by multiculturalists, environmentalists, and all those who felt their tastes were superior to those of normal people.

The criticism, which stretches back several decades, ranges from Christmas markets being celebrations of gluttony and bad for the environment to being too exclusively German. Germany’s green-left elite, in short—like the Islamists, though with very different motives and with different effects—saw this old tradition as something that needed to be reformed, if not stopped altogether. The criticism focuses on ‘waste,’ ‘overconsumption,’ and ‘carbon footprints.’

Take the example of a recent commentary in Der Spiegel (a piece that, in an almost cynical way, was accompanied by a picture of Berlin’s Gedächtniskirche, the site of the worst Islamist attack on a German Christmas market to date): “Christmas markets are hell” is the title. The author, who nonetheless claims to be tolerant (“everyone should be able to drink and eat as much as they like”), describes the markets as thoroughly “kitschy, gluttonous, drunken carnivals.”

Other markets have met the wrath of this mindset as well. In Potsdam, members of the Green Party and others have demanded that an “expert committee” take control over this year’s market. Only such a committee, the argument goes, can ensure that the market becomes more “sustainable” and “inclusive.”

It’s an odd criticism, especially in these times of Islamist attacks. Tellingly, there was no protest from these groups when around 3,000 to 5,000 Syrians ‘celebrated’ the overthrow of the Assad regime at the Christmas market in Stuttgart with “Allahu Akbar” chants. Instead, the usual fact-checkers were quick to denounce reports of Islamist abuse of Christmas markets as “fake news.” Despite the facts, concerns about Islamism are clearly seen as less worthy than those about waste and carbon footprints.

The other side isn’t blameless

True, the other side in the culture war surrounding Christmas markets is not free from guilt either. Claims that Christmas markets have come under pressure to change their names to ‘winter markets’ for reasons of political correctness have been unduly exaggerated. (The reason is more down to an old convention, with ‘winter markets’ being able to open before the official Advent season begins.)

Yet even then, it’s far from exaggerated to say that there have been attempts to break links with older Christian traditions. Novelties such as ‘Queer Christmas Markets’ or ‘Multicultural Christmas Markets’ have sprung up in several cities—smacking of an exclusivity directed against all those normal Christmas market-goers who would not identify with either the LGBTQ+ or multicultural ideology.

None of this is to suggest that there is any direct link between the Islamist attacks and elite snobbery.

Yet the parallels are as striking in the case of Christmas markets as in other examples (the most important one, of course, being the pro-Palestine movement, which is also driven by elite Israelophobia and Islamist antisemitism). The overlap of these parallel strands in this case consists in the barely concealed disdain for Germans—for their preferences, their enjoyments, and their pride in their traditions.

What Christmas markets truly represent

Many critics of Islamism have highlighted the need to defend the Christian tradition in Christmas markets. But Christmas markets in Germany have never really been entirely about Christianity. Nor have they been all about consumerism.

Of course, they’ve always had commercial importance too. With around 3,000 markets annually, they’ve become a source of income for smaller companies and the crafts sector, generating billions in revenue. Some, like the famous Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt, are also important tourist attractions.

Their history reaches back to the late Middle Ages, when people visited these ‘winter markets’ to stock up on supplies for the cold season. With the rise of Protestant tradition after the Reformation, they began to include Christian elements, with artisans selling stars or handmade nativity figures.

Yet what they truly embody is a sense of community that brings joy and comfort in the darkest months of the year. They are frequented by families, work colleagues (in many companies, colleagues organize informal after-work meetings at their favorite Christmas markets), members of sports clubs, and choirs (many choirs—also a German tradition—even perform at these markets).

In short, they provide a space for socializing, evoke childhood memories, and foster pride in tradition. And it is that which has come under such threat.

The true threat emerges

Unlike the current Islamist threat, the criticism of anti-popular and environmental elitism was never a major problem for Christmas markets (normal people simply didn’t care). Indeed, the tradition was so successful that Christmas markets even began to be exported to other parts of the world, and the markets in Germany became as popular with many immigrants as with native Germans themselves—a fact highlighted by some of the victims of recent terror attacks having migrant roots.

It is terrorism, in combination with the penchant of our pro-multicultural elite to downplay the threats from Islamism and uncontrolled immigration, that has become the true problem. 

Though millions are still frequenting this year’s Christmas markets, surveys show that the threats have taken their toll. A recent YouGov survey showed that around 62% of those questioned worry about safety at Christmas markets (22% saying they are very worried and 40% saying they are “slightly” worried).

If the purpose of going to a Christmas market has always been to celebrate a sense of community and winter coziness, it has also been undermined by the many security measures. Security features like steel bollards, concrete blocks, and other access barriers are now common and even required. In addition, there are armed police and security guards—all of which have inevitably changed the character of the Christmas market.

Resilience and denial

It’s a sign of public resilience that terrorists have not succeeded in undermining morale entirely. Christmas markets have still been quite full, with many good people showing two fingers not just at their elite critics but at the nihilist terrorist threat too.

Still, as the threat remains acute, it’s no exaggeration to say that the German tradition of Christmas markets is strained to its limits. 

It’s symptomatic of the short-sightedness of the fact-checkers of Germany’s public broadcasters and other pro-establishment sources that this fact is still being denied. They have called the talk of a dying tradition a far-right myth. As proof, they have pointed to the fact that even the Magdeburg Christmas market, which due to high security costs was due to be cancelled, has in the meantime been opened (though at immense costs and with a shaky future).

But apart from the fact that many markets have indeed not been able to open, they miss a much more important point: Christmas markets are only the real thing if people can enjoy them without the threat of attacks. By trying to downplay the threats, they show they have understood very little of what makes the Christmas market tradition so precious.

As Christmas approaches, we should celebrate the resilience of normal people and defend a tradition that has become so important to millions. Though we, as individuals, can do very little against the threat from terrorism, we can—and must—point to the sources of this threat—the sources that lie both in an immigration policy that has gone wrong and an elite that remains in a state of denialism.

Pictured: The Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, Germany, one of the world's most famous Christmas markets