The fenced-in Christmas market: A sharepic distributed on Facebook and WhatsApp creates discontent at Christmas time. Will Christmas markets be held in cages for protection in the future?

At least that's the impression you get when you look at this sharepic. It seems like you're looking at a high fence. The structures in the background actually suggest a Christmas market. The description of the picture is:

Christmas market in Berlin...
It's come to this point...
We're celebrating Christmas in cages

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The description itself is largely correct. Since you can easily see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the background, this picture, which belongs to the following message on WhatsApp, was taken in Berlin.

Christmas market in a cage: Screenshot WhatsApp
Christmas market in a cage: Screenshot WhatsApp

The fact check: Christmas market in a cage

To be precise, this picture was taken at Breidscheidplatz in Berlin. This is the place where Anis Amri carried out an attack with a truck on December 19, 2016, in which twelve people were killed and more than 70 were injured ( see here ).

The image in the WhatsApp message is not new. It does not show the current structure of the Christmas market at Breidscheidplatz, but was taken during the market's construction phase in 2018. This is a photo from the dpa ( compare ).

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Interesting at this point: The photo was taken from a low perspective. This gives the appearance that it is a tall fence. However, that is not the case.

The Christmas market at Breidscheidplatz was actually particularly secured in 2018. should ultimately reach a weight of 3-5 tons . Photographed from the “normal perspective” you can see that it is not a high cage fence, but rather mesh baskets (see here).

As you can also see in the pictures, these baskets are about the same height as the safety beacons next to them. These safety beacons are typically 1.20 – 1.40 meters high ( compare ).

Incidentally, this barrier was also erected again at the Easter market in 2019 and remained standing afterwards, so that it can now be seen again at the current Christmas market. However, a new concept will be applied in the future. The Tagesspiegel wrote about this in April 2019:

None of those involved question the fact that the barriers in their current form cannot be a permanent solution. “It is clear that permanent security elements cannot look like these,” said Pallgen, adding that the “necessary protection” must be provided, but “blocking elements must not cause a fear scenario.”

Conclusion:

Yes, the photo is real. However, due to its unusual perspective, the mesh baskets look like a high fence. The statement that in the future Christmas will only be celebrated in cages, as the sharepic says, is debatable because it is an exaggeration. Even in Berlin, where the mesh baskets are used, people are aware of the unsightly appearance and want to change this in the future.

This might also be of interest:

No, Seehofer does not recommend bulletproof vests at Christmas markets.


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )