Although Germany’s frigid winter weather isn’t appealing to many travelers, its festive Christmas markets rope in holiday-loving tourists every December.

Called ‘Weihnachtsmarkt’ in the country’s native tongue, these special bazaars range from spectacular productions in big cities to folksy and intimate occasions in the smaller towns and villages. Regardless of location and size, the markets promise an entertaining time as visitors explore the extent of the grounds.

Opening hours: Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 20:30 and Sunday 11:30 to 19:30. In 2006, the market is open from th 27th of November until the 23rd of December.

The Freiburg Christmas market on the Rathausplatz in the heart of the Old Town (usually the four weeks before Christmas although you should check before planning anything centred around the Christmas Market - Weihnachtsmarkt) is considered one of the most beautiful Christmas markets in Germany.

Roman Catholicism, one of Germany's two principal religions, traces its origins there to the eighth-century missionary work of Saint Boniface.

In the next centuries, Roman Catholicism made more converts and spread eastward.

In the mid-1990s, most of the country's roughly 30 million Protestants were organized into twenty-four member churches of the Evangelical Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland--EKD), headquartered in Hanover.

Later in the decade, the church's headquarters is scheduled to relocate to Berlin. The mainline Protestant churches belong to one of three groups: Lutheran (ten); Reformed, or Calvinist (two); and United, or Lutheran-Calvinist (twelve).

With about 28.2 million members, the Roman Catholic Church in unified Germany is organized into five archdioceses, eighteen dioceses, three diocesan offices, and one apostolic administration.

Two of the archdioceses are based in Bavaria (Munich/Freising and Bamberg) and two in North Rhine-Westphalia (Cologne and Paderborn). More than 57 percent of all German Roman Catholics live in these two Länder . Another 28 percent live in the three Länder of Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, and Rhineland-Palatinate. Only about 900 of the church's 13,000 parishes and other pastoral centers are located in the new Länder .

When Hitler came to power in 1933, approximately 600,000 Jews lived in Germany, some of whom were among the most prominent members of society.

Over the next twelve years, most fled or were murdered, along with millions of East European Jews, Slavs, and other nationalities.

As of January 1992, seventy-six Jewish congregations and Land associations had about 34,000 members, with the largest communities located in Berlin and Frankfurt am Main.

Following the influx of foreign laborers in the 1960s and early 1970s, Islam established a religious presence in Germany, making it the religion with the country's third largest membership.

As of 1994, approximately 2 million Muslims resided in Germany. Most of the Muslims are either Turkish, Kurdish, Iranian, or Palestinian.

Additional Muslims have entered the country as refugees, fleeing the ethnic and religious conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

The free churches in Germany include about a dozen affiliated but independent churches and congregations that emerged from Protestant renewal movements, primarily in the nineteenth century.

Some free churches practice baptism, and others accept a simple public declaration of faith. Prominent among the former are Baptists and Methodists, who set up religious communities in Germany in 1834 and 1849, respectively. Methodism was brought to Germany by immigrants returning from the United States. Since 1854 a third group, the Free Evangelical Congregations, has practiced baptism of believers, without making it a precondition for membership in the congregation.

Freiburg in Breisgau, the third largest city in Baden, is beautifully situated at the foot of the Schwarzwald mountains on both banks of the Dreisam.

The census of 1 December, 1905, gave the number of its inhabitants as 76,286, of whom 53,133 were Catholics. The city was founded in 1120 by Conrad, a member of the Swabian House of Zähringen, which rules in Baden even to this day. According to the original city charter, which is still in existence, the city was from the beginning a market or commercial centre, and all the privileges then enjoyed by the citizens of Cologne were granted to the merchants and other citizens who settled in Freiburg. It became a flourishing town even during the lifetime of its founder.