Overview
- Berlin is deploying about 4,300 police officers and more than 2,000 firefighters for the night, with firefighters wearing bodycams citywide for the first time to document attacks.
- Police report roughly 147,000 illegal fireworks seized ahead of the holiday, including a 6.5‑kilogram explosive cache, and have issued dozens of risk warnings with the option of preventive custody.
- Berlin has enlarged fireworks ban zones at hotspots such as Alexanderplatz, Kreuzberg, Neukölln and Schöneberg, while Bavarian cities report 29 local ban areas, including a new zone around Munich’s Hellabrunn zoo.
- Serious incidents ahead of the celebrations include a Leipzig 16‑year‑old losing parts of two fingers to an unapproved device, a Reutlingen balcony fire, and a Bochum apartment blast under investigation for a suspected illicit pyrotechnics workshop linked to a later death.
- Medical, police, child‑protection, environmental and animal‑welfare groups renew calls for a nationwide private‑fireworks ban, as data cite about 2,050 tonnes of annual fine particulate emissions and roughly €200 million in yearly spending.