To prevent ramming attacks, Germany’s Xmas markets get retractable bollards

For as long as anyone can remember, the highlight of the annual Christmas market in Augsburg, a wealthy 2,000-year-old city in southern Germany, was the magnificent Christmas tree at the market’s centre.

This year, the most popular attractions are the removable security bollards at the market’s edge, newly installed to prevent cars ramming into the holiday crowds.On a recent Dec afternoon, half a dozen captivated bystanders stood around three of these mundane-looking posts. Wielding their cellphones, most of them were filming municipal employees as they used a hand-cranked crane to remove the 770-pound bollards every time a tram needed to pass through.

During rush hour, that involved removing the bollards roughly once a minute. “These things are terrible,” said Hannelore Hendrick, 67, a rare bystander who did not take out her phone.

“They remind me of the dangers of being here.”This year, the carefree spirit of the country’s roughly 3,200 Christmas markets has been somewhat dimmed. Security at these markets has been a national concern since 2016, when a man steered a stolen truck into crowds in Berlin.

Ever since, municipal officials across Germany have tried to prevent further attacks by encircling markets with barriers.Now, officials are taking things a step further after another attack last Dec in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, which highlighted a flaw in the existing security measures. A man ploughed a rented SUV into the crowds there, killing six and injuring hundreds, after squeezing the car through a narrow gap in the barriers that had been left open for emergency vehicles.

To fix that problem 12 months later, the authorities in various cities have blocked such gaps with police vans, metal gates and concrete blocks.Augsburg, where trams run through the protected zone, is unique in installing bollards that need to be moved hundreds of times a day. The contraption is so unwieldy that it has become a national symbol of the new security environment, attracting attention across Germany. The mechanism first became famous through social media in late Nov.

Eventually, a well-known televised comedy show made a segment about it, leading to the charge that the city might be overdoing it, or doing it wrong.A national poll last month found that 62% of respondents were somewhat worried about attacks on Christmas markets; 35% said they weren’t worried at all. The city is spending roughly € 50,000 to secure the Christmas market, according to Augsburg mayor Eva Weber.Though the barriers have their critics, some vendors think the system has attracted more visitors. “We are definitely getting more people than last year — and it’s not just Germans but people coming from abroad too,” said Sina Hefele, 21, who sells ornaments at one of the markets.