Overview

• The ordinance bars all weapons and knives on buses, trams, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, station buildings and platforms with violations punishable by fines up to €10,000.
• Under the new rule, officers may stop and search passengers without needing concrete suspicion of wrongdoing.
• Exemptions apply for professional users such as police, firefighters and hospitality workers who require knives for their duties.
• The measure was fast-tracked after a fatal U-Bahn stabbing in April and follows 3,412 knife incidents in Berlin last year, more than half occurring in public.
• The Green Party has denounced the expansion as symbolic action and warned that random stops risk racial profiling.