By Stephen Peter
Bang, bang, police! There are three no-gun zones in Berlin on New Year’s Eve. Pyrotechnics may neither be burned nor carried there. Otherwise the police will intervene.
“Restriction of the common use of public areas”, it says in sober bureaucratic German. In the official gazette, the Senate announces three areas in which no gunfire is allowed at the turn of the year. The regulation applies from 6 p.m. on New Year’s Eve to 6 a.m. on New Year’s Day.
Specifically, it is about these three areas
Alexanderplatz (centre) around the “Berolinahaus” (house number 1), the “Alexanderhaus” (house number 2), the address Alexanderplatz 3 and around the construction site in this area up to Alexanderplatz 9.
Steinmetzkiez (Schoeneberg): At the eastern beginning of Winterfeldtstrasse, in Alvenslebenstrasse, in Steinmetzstrasse (between Goebenstrasse and Bülowstrasse) and at the eastern beginning of Pallasstrasse. Potsdam street.
Moabit: On Rathenower Straße to Seydlitzstraße (also in the adjacent green area), as well as on parts of Otto-Dix-Straße, on Alt-Moabit street next to the prison, as well as on the northern sections of Paulstraße, Spenerstraße and Calvinstraße.
Justification of the Senate for this measure: In these areas, at the turn of the year, there is always “property damage, breaches of the peace, dangerous interventions in road traffic, dangerous physical injuries and violations of the Weapons and Explosives Act through the use of pyrotechnics”. Emergency services have also been injured in the past, mainly by “bullet bombs”. In addition, stops of the BVG were destroyed.
At Moabit JVA, the ban zone is used to avoid dozens of false alarms that used to be triggered by pyrotechnics. And: “In the past, the accumulation of alarms on New Year’s Eve not only
confusion, but also led to an actual attempt to escape.”
Anyone who is caught with pyrotechnics in the three prohibited zones will have firecrackers and crackers taken away (will later be destroyed by the police). However, there is no threat of a fine, which would take “too much time”, according to the Official Journal.
Support from the opposition for this measure: “It is correct that the Senate has only set very few prohibited zones, and only where there is actually a concern that criminal offenses could occur,” says interior expert Björn Jotzo (47 ) to the BZ
He is optimistic: “The vast majority of citizens who would like to set off fireworks will do so again this year responsibly with approved and tested fireworks. It is right not to take away this freedom from them either.”