President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has appealed to the public to abide by a stricter lockdown that will take effect on Wednesday. He said that more restrictive measures were inevitable given the national numbers.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called Germany's rising case numbers 'unerring and distressing'Image: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa/picture alliance
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German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called on Germans for solidarity and consideration over the Christmas period in light of the new coronavirus lockdown.
"The situation is bitterly serious: thousands of deaths in a week and a rate of infection that is threatening to career out of control. We cannot avoid restrictive measures. The facts are unerring and they are distressing," he said in a speech in Berlin on Monday morning.
The president urged people to accept a different form of Christmas this year in order to protect others.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, Germany is currently averaging 176 cases per 100,000 people per week nationwide — more than three times the level at which the government says it is no longer feasible to trace the contacts of people with COVID-19.
Altmaier: Renewed recession can be averted
Meanwhile, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said Monday that he is "relatively sure" that the country will not enter a recession again days before the new tougher coronavirus restrictions come into effect.
Speaking to the public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, the minister said: "I am relatively sure that we will not experience a recession like the one that occurred in the spring."
Although the new restrictions currently run until January 10, Merkel's chief of staff, Helge Braun, told the broadcaster RTL/n-tv that an extension was likely.
"I consider a comprehensive relaxation [after January 10] to be very, very unlikely," he said.
Sense of urgency prevalent in Germany
DW spoke with psychology professor and member of the Leopoldina Academy of Sciences, Ralph Hertwig, about whether the new restrictions will succeed in curbing the rising coronavirus infection rate.
He said the plan's success lay "in our hands to some extent," and that if people stick to rules, there was no reason why the slight lifting of restrictions at Christmas should necessarily lead to a renewed spike in cases, as observed after Thanksgiving in the US.
Christmas shine despite the coronavirus: Germany's cities are festively lit
Most Christmas markets in Germany have been canceled. What remains is festive lighting in many cities. A journey through pre-Christmas Germany: From Lübeck to Nuremberg.
Image: Martin Schutt/dpa/picture alliance
Lübeck
The Holstentor Gate without a twinkling light? Unthinkable! The seasonal decorations in the old town of Lübeck with Christmas trees, fairy lights and garlands create a pre-Christmas atmosphere, even if the traditional Christmas market had to be cancelled.
Image: Markus Scholz(dpa/picture alliance
Hamburg
In many major German cities, the boulevards are festively illuminated in the pre-Christmas period, like the trees on the Jungfernstieg quay in Hamburg. Instead of Christmas markets, individual stalls have been set up in the Hanseatic city.
Image: Daniel Reinhardt/dpa/picture alliance
Lüneburg
Christmas spirit despite coronavirus restrictions is also the theme in the Hanseatic city of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony. The markets have also been canceled here. Instead, the festive lighting in Lüneburg's alleys and in front of the town hall (pictured) is intended to put strollers in a festive mood.
Image: Philipp Schulze/dpa/picture alliance
Berlin
The German capital's many neighborhoods usually have their own Christmas market. The big markets like the one at Charlottenburg Palace or on the Gendarmenmarkt have been canceled long ago; smaller ones may still have some stalls. What definitely remains are the illuminated boulevards, including Unter den Linden, Tauentzienstrasse (photo) and Friedrichstrasse.
Image: Paul Zinken/dpa/picture alliance
Leipzig
The pre-Christmas season 2020 is very different, as can be seen from the emptiness on the large squares in city centers. They can also become more radiant, like the Christmas-lit Augustusplatz in Leipzig. The cups for mulled wine usually sold at the Christmas market can be purchased online this year, the city says.
Image: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa/picture alliance
Erfurt
The Erfurt Christmas market, which in 2020 would have been the 170th one, has also been cancelled. Instead, the Christmas tree and the Christmas pyramid on the square in front of St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Severus Church will be all the more impressive.
Image: Martin Schutt/dpa/picture alliance
Münster
Sometimes an illuminated Christmas tree is enough to mark the festive season. When the medieval center has been so charmingly reconstructed as around the Prinzipalmarkt in Münster, a Westphalian town, the city can only profit from it, maybe not from sales revenues, but in terms of atmosphere.
Image: Jürgen Fromme/firo/augenklick/picture alliance
Bochum
Bochum is also sparkling. And the elk family on the central Dr.-Ruer-Platz square has grown and developed into a small pack. By the way, some retailers of the canceled Christmas market were able to move into empty stores to offer their goods.
Image: Rupert Oberhäuser/dpa/picture alliance
Frankfurt
In front of the city hall, on the central Römerberg in Frankfurt, a lonely pine tree is a reminder that the Christmas market had to be canceled in the banking metropolis as well. This year's Christmas tree is a 21-meter (69-foot) spruce from the Gröbminger Land region of Austria. The impressive tree actually had to be cut down for a stream restoration.
Image: Michael Probst/AP Photo/picture alliance
Mainz
In Rhineland-Palatinate, too, fairy lights and Christmas trees are to create an atmosphere to make up for the Christmas markets that were canceled due to the coronavirus restrictions. In Mainz, fairy lights on the market square in front of the 1,000-year-old St. Martin's Cathedral make the unusual emptiness a little more bearable.
Image: Andreas Arnold/dpa/picture alliance
Nuremberg
Nuremberg's Christkindlesmarkt is probably Germany's most famous Christmas market. From the gallery of the Frauenkirche (photo), the "Christ Child" was supposed to open the market in 2020. In a video message, the actress who plays the traditional role said after the cancellation: "We will not let this spoil our enjoyment. There is so much that gives us joy, happiness and warmth."
Image: Daniel Karmann/dpa/picture alliance
Stuttgart
The Christmas lighting on the Schlossplatz square shows meter-high light sculptures like the Stuttgart horse from the city coat of arms. Instead of the cancelled Christmas market, 33 booths and stalls have been set up throughout the city center.
Hertwig also pointed to the increased awareness of the urgency of Germany's situation among the public as one reason why the measures might have the desired effect.
"Every three minutes [in Germany], a person dies of the coronavirus. And I think most of the population have understood that this is really urgent. And in fact, the support for the new measures is very high," Hertwig said.
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Coronavirus conspiracy theories losing support
The state of Saxony entered full lockdown on Monday, closing schools and shops two days before the rest of the country. The eastern German state on the border with the Czech Republic had seen incidence rates as high as 500 per 100,000 per week in certain areas — 10 times the rate that the government is aiming for.
The region has also been a hotbed for protests against coronavirus restrictions as well as the spread of conspiracy theories which have brought thousands of people onto the streets across Germany.
Survivor confronts skeptics
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However, a recent poll from the Hans Böckler Stiftung revealed that the number of people who support or accept coronavirus-related conspiracy theories has fallen by almost a third since June, in line with the second wave of infections.
Some 28% of respondents said they believed that the pandemic may be a conspiracy by elites, down from 40% earlier in the year. At the same time, the share of people who approved of the government's handling of the crisis was down to 55%, from 65%.
New measure are ethically justified
Helmut Frister, a law professor and member of the German Ethics Council, told DW that the new restrictions were both legally and ethically justified. Calls for voluntary social distancing can only do so much, and so reducing freedoms now "in order to have more freedoms later" was the only option.
However, he criticized the government's failure to fully prepare in the summer, laying the blame for the lack of FFP-2 masks and tests at their feet.
The independent advisory council member considered "problematic" the idea of allowing immunized people to stop wearing masks because "that would mean people would walk around shops without masks on. Who is supposed to control that?"
