The Berlin police union GdP on Friday issued another call for politicians to ban the use of private fireworks on New Year’s Eve, after celebrations in the country were once again marred by deaths and injuries.
“We need a ban on pyrotechnics for private use,” Benjamin Jendro, GdP spokesman, told local radio station Rbb-Inforadio.
He called for changes to regulations governing fireworks, saying that otherwise history would repeat itself in a year.
In Germany, it is legal to set off fireworks in a private setting on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, though restrictions apply.
Each year, this results in harrowing injuries and even deaths, reigniting a debate on whether pyrotechnics should be banned.
As the nation rung in 2026, two men were killed in the city of Bielefeld and countless people were injured elsewhere, while revellers threw fireworks at the police and emergency services in some places.
In Potsdam just outside Berlin, a child was severely injured by the explosion of a powerful type of firework known as a “ball bomb” on New Year’s Day, a spokesman for the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin hospital said on Friday.
These fireworks are not authorized for private use and may only be handled by professionals. The 12-year-old boy lost his thumb and sustained serious injuries to his abdomen, lower body and face, the spokesman said.
In Berlin alone, where 4,300 police officers were on duty, there were more than 400 arrests by 1 am on Thursday.
While Berlin police have said that New Year’s celebrations were calmer this time around than in the past, union spokesman Jendro stressed that conditions on New Year’s Eve were still unacceptable from a police perspective, noting countless attacks on officers.
“This must never become normal,” he said.
Police officers working on New Year’s Eve were being fired at from every direction, he said, noting that many offenders never face charges.
