(Gemini Audio)
(de-news.net) – Jochen Kopelke, the leader of the German Police Union, has cautioned that the hazards associated with fireworks extended well beyond the traditional New Year’s Eve festivities, noting that such devices increasingly posed a threat in football stadiums and within extremist environments. He framed his renewed call for prohibiting certain types of firecrackers against the backdrop of a documented rise in assaults on emergency personnel, arguing that this trend underscored a broader deterioration in public attitudes toward first responders.
Kopelke emphasized that current regulations impose no limits on how many firecrackers or rockets an individual may purchase. This absence of constraints, he suggested, has contributed to exceptionally high sales volumes and created conditions in which private buyers—including segments of organized football fan groups as well as actors on the extreme left and right—stockpile quantities far exceeding what could reasonably be used in a single evening. He underscored that the central problem lay not in the legal product itself but in its widespread and often deliberate misuse. Kopelke further observed that recurrent behavioral patterns on New Year’s Eve reflected broader shifts in social conduct. According to his account, groups of inebriated young men frequently deployed fireworks in ways that placed bystanders at considerable risk, while children and adolescents gained access to pyrotechnics that should legally and ethically remain out of their reach. He contended that previous generations of emergency workers had not encountered the levels of targeted aggression that current personnel now face, interpreting this escalation as symptomatic of a worsening climate of disrespect toward public authorities. He argued that the widespread belief that “almost anything goes” on New Year’s Eve created a permissive environment that facilitated dangerous behavior. As a result, police forces were being redeployed from their home jurisdictions to reinforce operations at identified trouble spots, imposing an extensive nationwide burden. Kopelke maintained that this strain could not be mitigated through merely localized prohibition zones and therefore required more comprehensive regulatory measures.
The managing director of the Federal Association for Pyrotechnics and Fireworks, Felix Martens, stated that meaningful compromise remained possible without resorting to a complete prohibition on consumer fireworks. He argued that law enforcement should concentrate on combating illegal pyrotechnics, which he considered to be the primary source of severe injuries and uncontrolled detonations. Martens referenced joint initiatives between his association, local fire departments, and Berlin’s major trauma center to educate young people about the risks associated with improper handling. He called for a more differentiated discussion of hazard levels within public debate, asserting that public policy should reflect distinctions between low-risk consumer devices and high-impact explosive goods. While rejecting broad prohibitions, he signaled his willingness to support a narrowly tailored ban targeting certain high-powered explosive products, arguing that such an approach would balance public safety objectives with the interests of responsible consumers and manufacturers.
According to a response issued by Parliamentary State Secretary Christoph de Vries to a formal inquiry from the Green Party’s Bundestag group, the Federal Interior Ministry is examining legislative avenues for imposing stricter oversight on New Year’s fireworks. Although the Interior Ministers’ Conference did not adopt a formal resolution on firecracker bans during its December 5 meeting, discussions among the Länder reportedly continued regarding whether police and regulatory authorities should receive expanded powers to limit private fireworks use. De Vries indicated that the ministry remained open to the proposals under consideration and was assessing both substantive and technical pathways for reform, potentially involving amendments to the Explosives Act or to its principal implementing regulation. He added that the ministry remained in active consultation with the states as it reviewed the legal feasibility and operational implications of these changes.
Meanwhile, to strengthen public safety on New Year’s Eve and provide municipalities with clearer legal authority, the Green Party’s parliamentary group have urged Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt to revise the explosives regulation. Deputy floor leaders Julia Verlinden and Konstantin von Notz argued that local governments should not be prevented from ensuring celebrations free from excessive noise, pollution, and preventable injuries. They referenced a ruling by the Schleswig Higher Administrative Court, which, siding with a manufacturer’s urgent petition, prohibited the municipalities of Amrum and Föhr from implementing long-standing local firework bans. The decision, they contended, demonstrated the legal uncertainty that currently hampers municipal efforts to regulate pyrotechnic risks. The Green group concluded that more stringent national regulations were needed to prevent the misuse of fireworks, insisting that dangerous categories of pyrotechnic devices should no longer be freely available to the general public and must instead be subject to robust, legally enforceable restrictions.
