Enlarge image
Christmas market on Hamburg's Rathausplatz (archive photo)
Photo: Henning Angerer / imago images / Hoch Zwei Stock / Angerer
There he stands with his white jacket and a smile on his face and is allowed to work again.
Patrick Müller, 47, has been selling apple turnovers, lard cakes and donuts for around three decades.
His parents and grandparents also had stalls at folk festivals and Christmas markets.
Most recently, Corona interrupted the tradition.
Müller had to work as a truck driver, his wife drove drugs for pharmacies.
Patrick Müller is now in the Hamburg district of Wandsbek.
The "Wandsbeker Winterzauber" is the first Christmas market to open in the city.
A folder at the entrance checks whether the visitors have been vaccinated or have recovered.
Patrick Müller hired four employees and bought eggs, sugar and flour.
He says it was bad for the soul not to work, an up and down. Now he can finally go back to his real job.
What if the market closed again?
He is resigned to fate, says Müller, and then there is nothing he can do anyway.
Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer already called on Thursday to cancel the Christmas markets.
"You can't imagine standing at the Christmas market drinking mulled wine and everything in the hospitals is at an end and you're fighting for the last resources," he said.
Kretschmer is receiving support from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI); in view of the high number of infections, it again calls for people to avoid contacts and cancel events.
The situation in Saxony is dramatic, nowhere are so few people vaccinated, in no other federal state is the incidence higher.
Is the country and will it remain an exception?
Or just a harbinger of the development that could soon grasp the entire republic?
The German Showman Association is appalled by Kretschmer's demands.
Lorenz Kalb says that he has heard a lot of desperation on the phone in the past few days.
“Weeping showmen who don't know what to do next.
The situation is dramatic «, says the chairman of the South German Showmen Association.
His phone is no longer standing still.
"The showmen were pressured by the suppliers to buy goods, otherwise they wouldn't get anything," says Kalb.
They went shopping, hired employees, attended hygiene seminars, thought about how to get customers through the stalls, where to enter and where to exit.
And now there are the first voices calling for the Christmas markets to be closed.
For almost two years, the store operators have practically been banned from working and the industry has been shaken.
"Whole cities depend on such decisions, bakers, butchers, taxi drivers, hoteliers," says Kalb.
He speaks of political activism and asserts: The large, professionally organized Christmas markets are safe.
"What is it now?"
In Nuremberg, the market will not only extend over one square, but also over the city center, the stalls will be far apart.
"The Nuremberg Christmas market is not a binge drinking like in Ischgl, the focus here is on the arts and crafts," says Kalb.
Smaller markets, for example in Rosenheim, have already been canceled.
But those were also Christmas markets run by volunteers, "they cannot adhere to the hygiene requirements."
Calf is upset.
The whole year they were told that nothing could happen in the fresh air.
"And what now?" Hardly anyone talks about the full stadiums or trade fairs - why should the showmen have to believe in it now?
Albert Ritter, President of the German Schaustellerbund, warned in October that the industry had "its back against the wall".
Around 190 million people a year would visit festivals and fairgrounds, 160 million people go to Christmas markets.
This would come "in peacetime", that is, without a pandemic, to a turnover of almost 2.9 billion euros.
Due to the failure in 2020, the financial situation of the showmen had become dramatic, only the bridging funds from the federal government had stopped the free fall.
Frank Hakelberg, the general manager of the German Showman Association, says the mood is catastrophic. The showmen had trusted that, in view of the high vaccination rate, there should be no more extensive closings and lockdowns - so Christmas markets could also take place. "In order to prepare everything for these markets, they used up their last reserves, and many also got into debt."
The Christmas business is extremely important for the showmen.
"If we couldn't feed ourselves winter fat now, then we won't get through the first quarter of the new year," says Hakelberg.
The markets would not take place again until Easter.
It cannot be that an industry is simply shut down.
"Anyone who calls for the markets to be canceled must also say in the same breath how the showman families will be saved from ruin."
Hakelberg calls for the bridging aid to be increased and extended.
"If they are not extended to the new year, there will be series of bankruptcies," he says.
“If the corona situation is dramatic, we will of course not deny it and have to bow down.
But politicians have to decide with a sense of proportion and have an eye on the consequences of their decisions. "
Richard Pluschies doesn't even want to hear what the politicians are saying.
At "Wandsbeker Winterzauber" he sells fire tongs punch, crêpes, mulled wine and mushrooms.
Before that, January 5th, 2020 was his last working day at a Christmas market.
After all, he was allowed to run at least a small snack bar in Wandsbek.
“To work was mentally important for me,” he says.
"You feel very useless very quickly." He likes doing his job and doesn't want to be a burden for the state.
Pluschies thinks it's right that the "Wandsbeker Winterzauber" can only take place under 2G rules.
The showmen would of course have to pay for the four stewards at the two entrances, but at least they could work that way.
The protective measures are extremely important, he also sees 2G as a future model.
"Corona won't just go away, we'll have to live with it."
Markets should be fenced off
The corona protection ordinances are a matter for the 16 federal states, the municipalities interpret them.
The Christmas market in Duisburg has been taking place under 2G rules since Thursday;
Anyone who violates it faces a fine of 250 euros.
In some cities in Rhineland-Palatinate, the situation is still similar at the moment: Here security services are to control the entrances and the markets are to be fenced off.
In Herne, on the other hand, nobody in the city center checks whether someone has been vaccinated, tested or recovered.
"We have 14 stalls spread across Bahnhofstrasse, there is enough space between them," says the press spokesman for city marketing, Alexander Christian.
The booths are primarily intended for people who are already out and about in the city to see doctors or authorities.
In order to avoid larger gatherings, however, there is no stage program, which also did not take place last year.
"The showmen are happy and relieved that they can stand with their booths again," says Alexander Christian.
It is very familiar among the showmen, many of them know each other and also the regular customers.
That is not comparable with the big event Christmas markets like in Bochum, Essen or the Cranger Christmas Magic, a Christmas fair especially for people from outside.
Christian Müller, 45, runs a mulled wine stand at the Christmas market in Wandsbek.
He started working in his parents' business at the age of 16, he says.
It would be a disaster for him if the markets had to close again.
The seasonal workers from Poland and Romania are already there.
"We were able to get them all to get vaccinated," says Müller.
"The first vaccination abroad, then the second here." He had already had to send it to short-time work last year when the Christmas markets were canceled at short notice.
"We have increased the short-time work allowance so that we don't lose it."
A bit refurbished
He and his wife have been self-employed for 30 years, "the past two years have eaten up almost everything," he says.
Although he was able to run a crêpes stand in special areas in Wandsbek, there wasn't much to be said about it.
When the lockdown came last December, hardly anyone bought crepes.
“The cash register was single digits.
We had to close the stand on January 10th. ”They had done a little renovation on the stalls.
"Thanks to government aid, there was money, but we were careful when it came to spending it." You have often asked yourself whether you should really invest another 100 euros for paint.