Overview
- Cities including Göttingen, Hamburg, Kiel, Lübeck, Lüneburg and Bremen are adding road closures, heavy barriers, fencing and in some cases video monitoring, with Bremen setting aside about €3 million for pollers and vehicle blocks.
- Police say there are no concrete indications of planned attacks and describe deployments in places like Essen as precautionary, with a strict nationwide knife ban on markets in place since 2024.
- Organisers and municipalities report sharply higher security bills reaching six- and seven-figure sums, prompting the German Association of Cities to seek state support and caution that more small markets could face cancellation.
- Specific tactics are being withheld, yet visitors can expect more uniformed and plainclothes officers, controlled access points and coordination with local fire services and municipal order units.
- A YouGov survey for dpa finds 62% of Germans are concerned about attacks at markets even as thousands of events begin opening from this week through late November.