Because of the corona pandemic, there is a ban on selling fireworks on New Year’s Eve in 2020 and 2021. This is not likely to happen this year, but it is unlikely that there will be fireworks everywhere: numerous major German cities want to ban pyrotechnics in certain zones.
After two years without selling rockets and firecrackers, New Year’s Eve is expected to be louder and more colorful again this year. Nevertheless, certain areas in numerous German cities are taboo for fireworks on December 31, according to a survey by the German Press Agency. However, a ban on sales and a ban on buying and gathering for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are not foreseeable. In 2020 and 2021 they were imposed at the turn of the year to protect hospitals from being overloaded during the corona pandemic – among other things by preventing injuries when fireworks are set off on New Year’s Eve. According to the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the decision to ban firecrackers on New Year’s Eve is now up to the cities and districts.
In Berlin, among other things, there should be a no-gun zone on Alexanderplatz. The Senate issued zones of this type for the first time in 2019, and at the turn of the year 2021/22 it set up 54 ban zones in large squares, streets and parks, where fireworks and staying were prohibited. However, such a ban is only possible if an epidemic situation of national importance is identified, the Senate said. There aren’t any more.
In several large cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, there should be a no-gun zone on New Year’s Eve for safety reasons, for example in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Bielefeld. In Munich, firecrackers are to be banned again on December 31 within the Mittlerer Ring, in Nuremberg the previous ban zones in the area around the main market and the Kaiserburg will remain in place, according to the city “for the safety of the crowds there and of legally protected buildings”. . Firecrackers are also to be banned in certain areas in Regensburg, Bremen and Hanover, but the decision has not yet been made in Hamburg and Frankfurt. The city of Chemnitz, on the other hand, sees no basis for a ban.
In general, the following applies throughout Germany: In the immediate vicinity of churches, hospitals, children’s and old people’s homes and particularly fire-sensitive buildings, no pyrotechnics may be burned, i.e. no firecrackers or rockets may be ignited. For some, that doesn’t go far enough. The German Environmental Aid is campaigning for an end to private New Year’s Eve fireworks and argues, among other things, with the high level of fine dust pollution from New Year’s Eve firecrackers and rockets, the amount of waste and the burden on animals.
The police union (GdP) is also in favor of a general ban on the private burning of New Year’s Eve fireworks. Due to the enormous and completely unnecessary production of pollutants and the mountains of garbage on the streets on New Year’s morning, this is a measure that may be painful for many, but makes sense, said GdP national chairman Jochen Kopelke. This applies all the more in view of the high risk of accidents – especially under the influence of alcohol -, firecracker and rocket attacks on the police, fire brigade and paramedics, damage to property and the stress on many people and animals caused by fireworks.
Kopelke called on the Conference of Interior Ministers and Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser to address this issue promptly. It is certainly possible to create the conditions for a comprehensive ban on setting off private fireworks with an amendment to the Explosives Act. Possibly, however, a rethinking would have to start there as well.
The Federal Association of Pyrotechnics, an association of professional and amateur fireworks, argues, however, that a ban on small fireworks in front of one’s own front door or in the garden hardly relieves the hospitals. The majority of injuries in the emergency rooms are due to alcohol consumption and related conflicts.
According to the Association of the Pyrotechnic Industry, the industry recorded sales of around 130 million euros in 2019. According to the Federal Environment Agency, the burning of fireworks releases around 2050 tons of fine dust every year, 1500 tons of it on New Year’s Eve. The amount corresponds to about one percent of the total amount of fine dust released in Germany per year.