BERLIN — The looming black semi with its shattered windshield was gone. The splintered boards and toppled Christmas tree had been cleared from the street and the square.

In their place, the cheery stalls selling mulled wine, crafts and trinkets had returned to the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, which reopened on Thursday.

But if the holiday trappings could be easily restored, the holiday spirit that so infuses Germany this time of year could not, not after Monday’s attack that killed 12 and wounded dozens, at least not yet.

After that attack, the country’s worst in decades, Berliners, like the French and the Belgians before them, seemed determined to continue to live life without fear. Shaken but undaunted, they trickled back to the city’s beloved Christmas markets, most of which reopened Wednesday afternoon.