About the project:
Every year, the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises (SenWEB) publishes an open data set on Berlin’s Christmas markets. Up until now, however, there has been no comprehensive overview of Christmas markets in Berlin that allows people to digitally explore Christmas markets at a glance, filter them by information and display them on a map.
The Berlin Christmas Market Finder fills exactly this gap: it’s an interactive map that gives you a consistent overview showing the days and times when Christmas markets are open in Berlin. You can also discover which Christmas markets offer free admission and where there are special attractions. In addition, you can find out the best way to get there by S-Bahn (rapid transit train) and U-Bahn (underground train) and where there are public toilets. And to share your new favorite spot with others, you can simply click on the share function.
With the 2024 update, a search feature for Christmas markets has been added. International visitors can also switch to an English version of the app. The application is designed for easy use on smartphones.
To the Berlin Christmas Market Finder
Background:
The web map initially displays the more than 60 Christmas market locations in Berlin. By clicking on an individual Christmas market, represented by means of a star symbol, the user is directed to further information on the market such as address, directions, website, admission prices, opening hours and other details. The various filtering options are the app’s main function. Here you can use a slider to select a date and an opening period. Additionally, you can filter for Christmas markets that are free of charge and also for the categories “international Christmas markets” and “design markets”. Any Christmas markets that don’t match the filter settings are then grayed out. Public transport locations are displayed as standard on an additional controllable map layer. The location of public toilets can be optionally faded in by means of a slider. The house icon takes the user to the project description, including further information on the data basis and functionalities. There is also a function that allows users to share a map section with others.
This application is based entirely on open data. Open data is now an important part of Berlin’s administrative activities, not only creating transparency and openness but also enabling analytics and applications like this to make day-to-day life more convenient. For this purpose, the Open Data Informationstelle (ODIS) Berlin supports and advises the Berlin authorities on the provision of open data. See the Berlin Data Portal for more open data.
To optimize planning for a Christmas market visit, an hourly weather forecast can be displayed for the selected date. The weather data is sourced from the German Weather Service (DWD), which provides extensive meteorological observations and calculations through its Open Data program. The open-source project BrightSky offers a free JSON API for easy access to these weather data, allowing for an hourly weather forecast specifically tailored for Berlin.
To the Berlin Christmas Market Finder
Data basis and method:
The Christmas markets shown are taken from the dataset Berliner und Brandenburger Weihnachtsmärkte which is provided annually by the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises. This means that only the markets reported to the Senate Administration are listed, so the app does not claim to be exhaustive. The map also contains the locations of public toilets, this information is also available on the Berlin Open Data Portal and is regularly updated by the Senate Department for the Environment, Urban Mobility, Consumer Protection and Climate Action. A different VBB open data set was used to identify S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations near the markets. Christmas markets that are located less than 400 meters away as the crow flies from these stops are shown accordingly when the “short distances” filter is applied. The background map is based on the OpenStreetMap. Individual Christmas markets are only shown by means of a placeholder image. This is because ODIS only wants to use images that are available in Wikimedia Commons, the central, openly accessible media archive.
The processed data and the scripts for data processing can be found in this repository .
Who’s involved?
The Berlin Christmas Market Finder is a project run by the Open Data Informationsstelle (ODIS) in cooperation with CityLAB Berlin. The Open Data Informationsstelle Berlin (ODIS) is funded by the Berlin Senate Chancellery and the Investitionsbank Berlin with resources from the state of Berlin. It is a project of the Technologiestiftung Berlin.
Contact
Lisa Stubert, Project Lead ODIS
