New Year's balance sheets from the police and fire brigade: "quarrels, fights

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Fireworks in Berlin on New Year's Day: the police had more to do than in 2020 and 2021

Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa

For the first time since 2019, people in Germany celebrated the turn of the year largely without restrictions caused by the pandemic.

Exactly what that meant for the police and fire departments varied from region to region and city to city.

For example, while the police headquarters in southern Hesse ended the first half of New Year's Eve "without any major anomalies", the Berlin police reported "significantly" more operations than in the past two years.

According to a spokesman for the Berlin police, the return of permitted pyrotechnics was noticeable in the capital.

Many of the missions involved fires in apartments and vehicles, it said.

Both police officers and firefighters were injured during operations by fireworks.

The Berlin police reported extensively on Twitter about their operations.

Accordingly, in several parts of the city, vehicles and buildings, but also people, were shot at with fireworks.

The Berlin fire brigade wrote on Twitter that a fire engine had been massively damaged by the "fire from pyrotechnics".

The Berlin fire brigade announced that 674 emergency calls had been received by their control center by midnight.

On her Twitter account on Sunday morning there was also talk of a "burning street barricade" and hooded people who had thrown stones and iron bars at the emergency services.

In Hamburg, a fire brigade spokesman said on Sunday morning: "There were many, many operations, but no major ones." Above all, it was about burning balconies and garbage cans.

A spokesman for the Hamburg police also spoke of numerous operations: "quarrels, fights - the usual," as he put it.

“Significantly more injuries from fireworks”

In other federal states, too, things initially remained largely calm.

The Saxony police spoke of “smaller fires due to misdirected pyrotechnics”.

According to the police headquarters in southern Hesse, the number of operations due to "riots, fights and other disputes" was "on the usual weekend level" until midnight.

The Rhineland-Palatinate police reported burning garbage cans in Worms and a fire in a garden shed in Linz am Rhein.

In Düsseldorf, the police moved out on New Year's Eve because of "various rioters and people hitting themselves".

According to the fire department, there were “significantly more injuries from fireworks” in Bochum than in previous years.

Overall, the turn of the year was "very busy" because of the elimination of the restriction on firecrackers.

A police spokesman from Lower Franconia described the number of operations at the turn of the year this year by speaking of a "typical New Year's Eve before Corona".

According to the police, there were no serious incidents in Stuttgart, where a fireworks ban zone had been set up within the city ring.

Hundreds of people greeted the New Year on the banks of the Main in Frankfurt am Main.

At 11 p.m., however, the police blocked the "Eiserner Steg" pedestrian bridge, where many revelers traditionally watch the New Year's Eve fireworks in front of the Frankfurt skyline.

"It would just be too dangerous to let more people onto the bridge," said a police spokesman.

Rockets and firecrackers were allowed again

After a two-year break due to the corona pandemic, rockets and firecrackers were allowed to be fired again this year on New Year's Eve in Germany.

At the start of sales on Thursday, there were already long queues in front of some shops in the morning.

Clubs and discotheques were also open again this time after the corona restrictions of previous years.

On Hamburg's Reeperbahn, for example, a few thousand revelers crowded together and, due to the mild temperatures of around 15 degrees, some even wore t-shirts.

In Berlin, ZDF celebrated its New Year's Eve party at the Brandenburg Gate.

However, the celebration was much smaller than in previous years.

The approximately 2,500 tickets for the show were all sold out.

According to the police, only around 1,300 people came in the end, who swayed and clapped peacefully and exuberantly to the songs of artists such as the Scorpions and Sasha for hours.

Long before midnight, the music was drowned out by countless firecrackers and rockets fired on the Straße des 17. Juni behind the Brandenburg Gate.

There shouldn't be any official fireworks there this year.

But thousands of people who couldn't make it into the cordoned off area in front of the gate had brought their own rockets.

There have always been incidents and conflicts with emergency services, said a police spokesman.

According to the police, a 17-year-old died in Leipzig

How many major accidents involving fireworks and bangers there were around the turn of the year cannot yet be said exactly on Sunday morning.

In Leipzig, however, according to the police, a 17-year-old was so badly injured when using pyrotechnics that he later died in the hospital.

The police ruled out third-party fault, but initially could not provide any further information on the incident.

In Friemar, Thuringia, a 42-year-old was so badly injured while handling firecrackers ordered online that, according to the police, both forearms had to be amputated.

In Schleiz-Crispendorf, which is also in Thuringia, an illegal ball bomb exploded when it was lit and tore off the hand of a 21-year-old.

In Saxony-Anhalt, a drunk driver hit a man with his car who was lighting fireworks on the street.

The 42-year-old was thrown several meters across the road and died at the scene of the accident in Schönebeck (Elbe).

In Baden-Württemberg, a 39-year-old was seriously injured by a self-ignited firecracker that hit the right side of his face.

mboe/AFP/dpa