“We have a lot of Christmas markets in Germany,” she says, “but if you’re new it’s very hard to get a place We had the opportunity to come here and it’s wonderful The business is good and the people are very friendly The city council look after us very well. They found us an apartment and the school.” At lunchtimes, the queues for Raadschelders’ pretzels, which contain a special ingredient that she refuses to divulge, are far longer than the queues in nearby Greggs, the high-street baker.The market first came to Birmingham in 1997 as part of the city’s twinning arrangement with Frankfurt. Since 2001, it has come back annually and has grown larger every year. Similar markets have now sprung up in Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham.Local affection for the market was proved this summer when an unseemly row broke out over its future. When the city’s Labour council lost power and was replaced by a Tory and Liberal Democrat coalition, one of the new administration’s first acts was to announce the end of the German themed market and its * replacement with a Dickens-style one.

Such was the level of protest that the Birmingham Post had to print an extra page of locals’ letters urging the council to reconsider.The council’s Tory leader, Mike Whitby, was forced to backtrack swiftly, admitting that the response from the public had been overwhelming. “The Frankfurt market is a reminder that we are a part of Europe – it’s a cultural exchange that the Birmingham people have really taken to,” he said. “It indicates that there is a more sophisticated approach to our European links that political people should appreciate.”The market now spreads from the first gl?in bar and Raadschelders’s pretzel stall half-way down New Street up to Victoria Square overlooked by both the town hall and the council house. Just near the top of New Street, 43-year-old Andrea Greier oversees a candy stall selling sweets and gingerbread biscuits as well as another offering what appears to be every type of sausage under the sun.

The Greier family are back for their fourth Christmas and have regular customers who come each year. There is a small population of elderly German women in Birmingham who married British soldiers after the Second World War. “Some of them have not spoken German for more than 50 years,” says Greier. “So they come here to speak to us as well as to buy some proper German sausages.”Outside the council house, Petra Ahrend is doing a roaring trade in bratwurst – traditional plain and spicy German pork sausages – served in a bun.

A short, buxom woman, Ahrend is not against bawling at passers-by in an effort to persuade them to buy a sausage. “Hello ladies and gentlemen!” she hollers, “German sausages here!” There are no shortage of takers.”They certainly know how to make sausages don’t they,” beams market regular Alex Scott. “It’s about time we opened up to our European cousins; we’re all far too insular.”This is a view shared by Nadine Lowenthal, whose Frankfurt Xmas Pub is one of the more popular attractions. Lowenthal and her staff keep the beer and gl?in flowing while helping their customers – or “guests” as Lowenthal puts it – with the odd German phrase. In the evening, the pub is packed with office workers and students seeking refuge from the cold.Lowenthal, who also has a gl?in stall in Frankfurt, first came to Birmingham in 1997 at the request of the manager of the Frankfurt market Now she comes here because she wants to.