No fireworks may be set off at these locations
There are three no-gun zones in Berlin this year. Where they are and what happens if the police still find someone there with fireworks.
dpa / Tobias Kleinschmidt
On New Year’s Eve 2022 there will be three no-gun zones in Berlin. Between December 31 at 6 p.m. and January 1 at 6 a.m. no firecrackers or rockets may be fired in the affected areas. This is a general decree issued by the police.
Already in On November 10th, the Berlin Senate announced that there will again be some no-gun zones in Berlin this year. On December 16th, the affected areas were published in the Official Journal – the three ban zones are now finally established.
Official Journal of 16.12.2022 PDF
Böller bans therefore apply to part of Alexanderplatz, in the Steinmetzkiez in Berlin-Schöneberg near Pallasstraße and in some streets around the prison in Moabit.
Firecracker ban in Berlin 2022: These are the areas
- Alexanderplatz: Areas around the Berolinahaus (house number 1), Alexanderhaus (house number 2), Alexanderplatz 3, new building Alexanderplatz (construction site), Alexanderplatz 7, Alexanderplatz 9
- Alt-Moabit, Paulstrasse and Rathenower Strasse until Seydlitzstr – there also in the green area, parts of the Otto-Dix-Strasseparts of Spenerstr and Calvinstrasse.
- stonemasonry: parts of the Winterfeldtstr, Potsdam street, Steinmetzstr, Alvenslebenstr and Pallasstrasse
According to the police, there has been property damage, breaches of the peace, attacks on emergency services and other criminal offenses in the areas listed for several years at the turn of the year. In the Moabit prison there were also repeated false alarms from firecrackers and firecrackers. In one case, this turned into an attempt to escape from prison.
The general decree stipulates that the police may immediately protect and destroy fireworks in the areas mentioned. According to the Official Journal, “if necessary, direct coercion to enforce the measures” is also possible.
In 2019, the Senate issued no-gun zones for the first time, set up barriers and posted hundreds of police officers there to control access. Before that, there had always been arguments and arguments. The bans have proven effective, the Senate said.
The police union wanted a ban on firecrackers within the S-Bahn ring
The police union (GdP) wanted one this time complete ban on firecrackers within the S-Bahn ring. In this way, the police officers want to prevent what they see as “escapades of violence against the police and fire brigade escalating”.
At the turn of the year 2021/22, the purchase of fireworks was banned throughout Germany due to the corona pandemic. In addition, the Berlin Senate regulated 53 prohibited zones in large squares, streets and parks, in which fireworks and staying were prohibited. But hardly anyone found their way around the prohibitions. And the police had to secure the prohibited zones with a lot of personnel and barriers.
The Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik therefore considers a ban on firecrackers within the S-Bahn ring to be hardly enforceable. “That’s a big problem that has to be enforced consistently, especially since we can only recruit a small number of support staff for New Year’s Eve, since the federal and state governments are all involved themselves. We always have to deal with that.” she said in November in the interior committee.
Interior State Secretary Torsten Akmann (SPD) pointed out at the time that the Senate or the police could not issue a nationwide ban on fireworks in Berlin because the federal government was responsible for this because of the explosives law. In Berlin, due to current threats, police law could only ban certain places, such as this year for Alexanderplatz, the neighborhood on Steinmetzstraße in Schöneberg and in the area of Alt-Moabit street.