Overview
- Consumer sales began on December 29 with long queues and retailers reporting stronger demand than last year.
- Berlin will field about 4,300 officers on New Year’s Eve, equip police and fire crews with 3,000 bodycams, and enlarge pyrotechnics ban zones at Alexanderplatz, Sonnenallee, Admiralsbrücke and the Steinmetzkiez.
- Authorities report major pre-holiday seizures, including roughly 147,000 illegal pyrotechnic items in Berlin, a separate 330‑kilogram cache, and border stops of higher‑category fireworks.
- Private fireworks remain legal nationwide on December 31 and January 1 for adults using approved F1/F2 products, with city-specific no‑fireworks areas and coastal bans such as on Sylt and St. Peter‑Ording.
- Medical and environmental groups warn of preventable injuries, animal stress and about 2,050 tonnes of annual fine particulate emissions, while petitions and NGO coalitions push for a federal ban that the interior ministry is only reviewing.