Overview
- Shops reported long queues from midnight as the three-day legal sales window began, with border stores bracing for heavy Dutch demand ahead of a national restriction planned there.
- Police in Leipzig continued removing more than 100 kilograms of unlicensed, high-explosive pyrotechnics from a warehouse, with a 53-year-old suspect under investigation for explosives-law violations.
- Berlin’s fire service urged tighter sales rules and highlighted city exclusion zones, while municipalities such as Wolfratshausen expanded local bans and warned of fines up to €5,000.
- Hand-surgery teams in Berlin expect dozens of operations on New Year’s night and describe severe injuries linked to illegal devices, as recent black ice in Potsdam forced a mass-casualty response that strained emergency care.
- The season also brought thefts and seizures tied to pyrotechnics, including container break-ins in NRW, a Berlin Steglitz case with two arrests and recovered stock, and a Delmenhorst stop of a driver carrying 13 illegal sprengkörper.