Analysis: Most German Christmas markets to open as planned in 2025
Beginning in mid-October, numerous social media posts alleged that Germany had canceled a significant number of Christmas markets in 2025 because of rising security costs.
The claim appeared widely in English on X (here and here) and Instagram (here and here). Each post drew tens of thousands of likes and thousands of reposts. The claim also circulated to a lesser extent in Japanese (here, here, and here) and Chinese (here and here).
Among them, one popular X post mentioned an Oct. 14 article by Duna Press titled, “Germany cancels Christmas markets 2025.” The article listed locations, such as Rheinfeld and Schongau, as having canceled their Christmas markets, and described Stuttgart as a city facing operational and financial pressures.
Some AI chatbots echo cancellation claims
Some AI chatbots also reiterated the cancellation claims.
For example, a Baidu AI search summary in Chinese cited a Weibo post from Oct. 18, stating, “Following the terrorist attacks in Berlin and Magdeburg, Germany, in October 2025, regulators raised security requirements for large events, leading many organizers to cancel events due to excessive costs.”
[Correction on Nov. 21, 2025] The publishing date of the Weibo post, the screenshot and translation of the Baidu AI summary have been revised.
Similarly, Grok, an AI chatbot developed by xAI, provided information consistent with the Duna Press article.
However, no official sources support the widespread claims. Annie Lab contacted several city governments and relevant official tourism sectors. None of them confirmed cancellations of their Christmas market plans.
Christmas events to proceed as planned
Annie Lab contacted officials in all locations mentioned by Duna Press and received responses from two before publication (note: the article likely misspelled Rheinfelden as “Rheinfeld”).
A representative of the Rheinfelden Tourism Association confirmed by phone on Oct. 30 that its Christmas markets and related events will proceed as planned in 2025.
The tourism office in Stuttgart responded by email, stating it is not aware of any Christmas markets being canceled or restricted. The email also suggested checking with market organizers directly. Stuttgart’s official Christmas market website (archived here) confirms the event will run from Nov. 26 to Dec. 23.
Both Rheinfelden and Stuttgart are in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg where more than 160 Christmas markets are scheduled to open this year, according to the state tourism page (archived here). Many are set to open in the last week of November.
The state tourism office confirmed by email on Nov. 3 that there is no indication of fewer markets this year and said it was not aware of any cutbacks due to increased security costs.
Annie Lab also contacted other cities known for large Christmas markets, including Berlin, Dresden and Nuremberg.
The Nuremberg tourism office confirmed that its market will proceed as scheduled. It said planning for the event began early in the year and security measures are reviewed annually with local police and other departments, taking into account past incidents such as the Magdeburg market attack last year and a bomb threat at Munich Oktoberfest.
All city or state tourism offices that replied to Annie Lab confirmed markets in their region will go ahead as planned. However, on Nov. 9, German news outlet Bild reported the cancellation of Overath town’s Christmas market, citing a lack of funding for security as the reason.
Previous incidents at German festivals
On Dec. 20, 2024, a driver rammed an SUV into a crowd at the Magdeburg Christmas market, killing six people and injuring 323. Duna Press mentioned this incident in their article, seemingly to support its claims about increased security costs causing event cancellations in Germany.
Following this incident, a related claim circulated on X suggesting that the Magdeburg Christmas market had been canceled for this year. However, on Nov. 12, multiple German media outlets, including Der Spiegel and MDR, reported a statement from Mayor Simone Borris confirming that the event will proceed as planned with tightened security measures.
According to the official website of the Magdeburg Christmas market (archived here), at the time of writing, the festivities are scheduled to commence from Nov. 20, 2025, and continue until mid-January 2026.
At this year’s Oktoberfest in Munich, an explosion in a residential building elsewhere led to a bomb scare and delayed the Oct. 1 festivities by several hours.
Official tourism promotions
The German National Tourist Board maintains a dedicated website listing Christmas markets nationwide. We found more than 2,900 events on the site with the filtering word “market.”
Major markets, including Dresden Striezelmarkt, Munich Christkindlmarkt and Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt, provide information on their official websites, detailing their opening dates, highlights, and traveling information.
City tourism websites for Cologne, Hamburg and Essen also offer details about upcoming Christmas events. All these planned events corroborate the widespread operation of Christmas markets in Germany this year.
Debunking by other fact-checking outlets
Annie Lab’s findings align with those by other fact-checkers.
German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) contacted officials in Schongau and Dormagen (which has a district named Rheinfeld), and both denied the claim (archived here).
DW reported that only a small number of local markets were canceled this year. DW also noted that Duna Press’s article relied on unsourced claims and used AI-generated images.
Duna Press updated its article on Oct. 30 mentioning the fact-check by DW and published a follow-up article rebutting DW’s analysis.
Euronews (archived here) also debunked a widespread image purportedly showing a German Christmas market under heavy police protection, confirming the image was AI-generated. The media outlet reiterated that only a few markets were canceled because of repairs or financial reasons.
