In many other European languages, the word for gingerbread translates literally to "pepper cookie" but it does not contain pepper either. In older times they were made primarily for medicine, and contained a higher amount of various spices and no sugar.
The usual recipes nowadays contain ginger but often also equal amounts of ground clove and cinnamon. Common is also cardamon, Seville orange zest (dried and ground, not pieces) and sometimes nutmeg or mace.
About the same combination of spices are in mulled wine and in British "mincemeat pie" (+allspice, with fruits but no meat!).
Besides the common crispy cookies, there are some thicker, softer varieties.
The German "lebkuchen" (often connected to Nuremberg) has nuts and pieces of orange zest and can also come in various flavours, like chocolate, apple or cherry. For the past years, I have bought some of these for Christmas as well. I have even tried baking them but not succeeded well.