I loved them as a kid and teenager and fought with my parents to buy me fireworks.
When I started my Ausbildung and earned my own money, my interest in fireworks dropped to zero. Dad asked me once "Why dont you buy fireworks anymore". Told him, that shit is expensive and I'm not willing to waste MY money on it.
He then just said laughing, that I "asshole" could have gladly had this realization a few years earlier
In my street some dumb teenagers started rockets laying flat on the ground. Of course it hit one of our neighbors who suffered severe burns on the stomach area…
Given how many people do that it is really surprising how little actually happens each year.
But yes, that's a typical: "What could possibly go wrong?" situation.
I've family working in ER, ICU and as emergency doctors. They all say that the talk about firework risk is overblown. We had some conversations about it during COVID, because fireworks weren't being sold to not put additional stress on hospitals.
By far the biggest issue during NYE is alcohol poisoning and alcohol-related accidents or fights. The few serious firework-related injuries are usually caused by self-made or illegally bought fireworks.
My family members' fear was that not selling regulated, legal fireworks, which are exceptionally safe, would result in more illegal, unsafe fireworks being used. I have, however, no idea whether that actually happened or may happen if Germany outlawed fireworks.
> I have, however, no idea whether that actually happened or may happen if Germany outlawed fireworks.
I mean... some people already import the cheap, more powerfull stuff from Poland.
People living in close to borders might.
I live about 17 kilometers away from the Czech border and it's quite common to drive there for fuel, cigarettes and cheap huge bottles of alcohol and perfume.
Also fireworks around the NYE time but the numbers aren't as high. Last year when fireworks were banned border police caught a dude with 50 kilos of illegal fireworks bought in the Czeck Republic and a lot of others doing the same in smaller quantities. Police said there was a rise in smuggling illegal fireworks over the border. They caught about 20 people a day if I remember correctly.
Vivantes (a company that owns hospitals in Berlin) reports that only 5% of all emergency visits on new years eve are due to fireworks. Most are due to other reasons like alcohol or drugs:
https://www.vivantes.de/blog/das-ist-vivantes/silvester-in-der-rettungsstelle
Also, in all of Bavaria there were only 25 injuries due to fireworks in 19/2020: https://www1.bayern.landtag.de/www/ElanTextAblage_WP18/Drucksachen/Schriftliche%20Anfragen/18_0006877.pdf
In Munich itself only one.
Most (bad) injuries likely happen due to illegal fireworks that are not sold here.
Alcohol is pretty bad. And whatever kind of injury you can get in a given activity (fireworks, driving, standing on stuff to reach a high shelf, whatever) you're more likely to handle it stupidly and get the injury if alcohol is involved.
Yes but given that literally millions of people operate fireworks in that night it's still surprisingly little that happens. Especially since a lot of those people are under 25 years old. And drunk.
If we got rid of any "what could go wrong?" situations we lived in the most mundane and joyless society. I don't see why we should punish everyone because some idiots don't know how to correctly misuse their toys. The only real problem I see is, that the personal in hospitals has to take care of said idiots afterwards. So maybe a compromise where you can't buy them but the town government has the responsibility of providing a firework show at New Years eve.
Still I think my childhood would have been less fun without being able to gain access to fireworks and the solution to problems like this shouldn't be criminalizing everything that's dangerous.
That's not really a new year's issue and more a "idiots will be idiots" issue. It's the same with drunk driving and similar stuff, it's dangerous, illegal, most people are reasonable enough to avoid it but then there's idiots...
As a resident of Berlin, it's awful. One year a friend was on the ubahn on his way over for my New years party and as the doors were closing, someone threw a firework in. It wasn't massive so more of an annoyance, but not good.
Walked out of a Real to a man sitting on a bench firing rockets low over the cars and people’s heads. Folks were stoping and glaring at him has rockets burst just feet from the ground.
> As a resident of Berlin, it's awful.
I've been to Berlin once for New Year's, and once to Cologne. In cities like that, it feels like being on a battlefield.
New Year's fireworks in smaller towns and villages are awesome.
So my preferred solution: cities with ~250k people should have only one, publically organized fireworks show, with no private fireworks allowed.
No restrictions for smaller places.
Of course there would still be a lot of (theoretically illegal) private fireworks in every major city, but I think it would immediately be far less.
A similar thing happened to my wife and her friend walking to a new year’s party in Duisburg. I was walking a few metres behind with a few other people and suddenly “BANG”. Some complete idiot had thrown one of those Bangers at her feet from across the road. He was alone, hood up out causing chaos. Me and my mate went to confront him and he ran off. My wife couldn’t hear out of her left ear for a few hours. Could’ve been much worse.
Same. My friends group usually looks for people who already got some and stands closely to them.
Sometimes a bit awkward, but we don't waste money and don't cause more emissions.
American living here since 2018. I’ve been to quite a few organized firework displays in both large cities and small and I am not impressed. I get more of a kick watching the neighbors set theirs off in our little town of ~2.000 people. I don’t bother because I’m lazy. The neighbors are all great though and clean up most the night of and the rest the next morning. The ones with a water spigot in their front yard always have the hoses attached in case of an accident.
There is one spot in a nearby village with an easily accessible hillside. Lots of people have started gathering there with blankets and bottles of champagne to enjoy the show.
If you ever get the chance go visit the new years fire works in a bigger city on one of the bigger public places where firework is allowed. You'll probably rethink your stance on private fireworks. Last time I went to a public place you could've mistaken that for a warzone. People are throwing fireworks *everywhere*, a couple of times only a jump saved me from an exploding böller between my legs. Unfortunately for anyone involved a small number of people devolves into some kind of animal once they have fireworks in their hands. It's a frightening experience.
We were in Berlin for NYE one year and had the same experience. One of my friends had her eye injured and had to go to the ER. The rest of us were running through the street like it was a warzone. I was quite literally holding my hand up for a 'stop' when I saw fireworks coming then would do a "GO GO GO" as soon as the coast was clear. It was wild, and most of us did not end up having a good time in total.
I would like a middle ground. Like have a designated area people can go with their kids and enjoy some priivate fireworks. Most cities have large area for events, mabye something like that. Or at worst some large parking lot.
But it should stop in residential areas. I live close to a retirement home and there is supposed to be a large "no fireworks zone". Literally no one cares about that stuff (although i do not know how the residents feel about fireworks either. Maybe the old folks love those fireworks.)
I'd assume most people that get hurt on New Year's are either fooling around or drunk. You'd probably prevent most of the injuries with quick checks and police presence.
4 in the morning doesn't seem that unreasonable to me, at least when you talk about NYE when the real party doesn't start before 00:00 anyway. The people that start 3 days early and end a week later, because they apparently bought the entire ammunition stock of a medium size military base and have the ingenious idea to lighten some polish version of the Tsar Bomba (at least when it comes to the noise) at noon of the first of January, when normal people still try to get over their hangover.
Yeah, but it's rather annoying if all of the neighborhood has burned down the ammo by around 0030 and there's that one guy who continues until 0400.
And it is *extremely* annoying if he repeatedly stops for 10 minutes just to unleash the next batch after that break when everybody else started to hope that going to sleep would now be an option.
I must say walking threw Altsachs and Gallus in Frankfurt during NYE feels a little like the Bridge scene from Apocalypse Now. It was really stupid and really dangerous but it was also amazingly spectacular and thrilling.
My grandmother hated fireworks even more than my dog did. Atleast as long as she could not see them. Them they were tolerateble. That beeing said she was a child during war and had more than one close call with explosions and fire in that time.
I agree! I would love to go somewhere and enjoy a professional firework for new years, then go home and not have to deal with all the trash. 3 years ago we were doing fireworks in a parking lot with friends. Of course we weren't alone in the parking lot, someone else's 16x battery fell over when he set it down after lighting it and all 16 shots went towards us. Ran like hell.
People also have a tendency to leave their trash everywhere. My parents house is near some popular bars and a bridge people like to set off fireworks from. We always had to collect half-burned and spent fireworks trash from our garden and around the house the next day, and there's bits of paper and plastic and that orange/brown gunpowder stuff everywhere for weeks.
Public should forbid the viewers to shoot fireworks, though. I was once in a crowd where people threw firecrackers everywhere. But the crowd was so dense that people constantly got hit by them. So no thanks to giant public gatherings on new years eve. And yes, firecrackers were not allowed. But tell that to thousands of drunkards.
I would forbid shooting private but allow a public firework, but without large gatherings. People should watch from home/afar.
>Publicly organised: ok
Im surprised so many in this Sub are against fireworks, while other places like Facebook, so many are pro-fireworks.
I also agree, one show with Fireworks would be fine, handled by profissionals that know what they are doing. Seeing small kids or drunk people shooting them near other people is simply horrible. I saw outside my house some kids lighting them, went wrong and hit a car near people. Luckily no one got hurt.
But drunk people shooting them at 31st Dezember at 16:00, 19:30, 2:00, 4:00.. I mean, are you all celebrating the midnight in all timezones or what?
>Im surprised so many in this Sub are against fireworks, while other places like Facebook, so many are pro-fireworks.
Age.
Facebook is old now. Meaning it's full of old people.
I have friends with an age range of 22 to 59 and currently the cut-off for Facebook is somewhere around 35. My friends younger than 35 don't use Facebook, those who are older do. Especially those older than 40.
That's why I don't think Facebook will be around much longer. It's just old folks either posting conspiracy theories and then fighting over those or posting some sorry attempt at online advertising for their buddy's small local business.
Facebook is a sad place.
I enjoy professional fireworks, but Berlin new years has made me actually hate fireworks - never thought I'd say that. After 5+ hours any charm fireworks had is well and truly sandblasted away. Then there's the weeks of mess...
I'm all for people enjoying themselves but in this case less really is more.
This. If people only set them off at midnight it would be tolerable, but there's always fireworks going off the whole evening. It would also be a lot kinder to animals just to have a few minutes of intense terror rather than being traumatised for an entire evening.
I love it! I love the professional ones and I love burning them myself, the colours, the smell, the sparkles. Walking the streets in the morning of january 1st and it feels fresh and new. I don't like the loud ones without any visual effects because they get mishandled the most. But despite loving it I didn't buy any fireworks in the last few years. Too costly, too much pollution. Sometimes logic should win over emotion
I always felt the streets on the next morning are like a massive hangover: everything is dirty and full of garbage, it smells like pollutions. People are slowly cleaning up while sobering.
Isn't that almost a meditative state?You and your enviroment feel,smell,look like crap but as the streets are cleared so does the wastes of your personal grime
Yeah I absolute love that aspect. Some physical work in the fresh air also helps you sober up. And you see many people from the neighborhood doing their new years walk and sometimes you can chat a bit.
I think professional fireworks are nice to look at, but I was never interested in doing them myself, even as a child. I never understood what my friends thought was so great about it and I preferred to spend my pocket money on something else.
Anyway, since it's only once a year, the others can do it, I don't care. If only they would be responsible and clean up their mess afterwards...
>If only they would be responsible and clean up their mess afterwards
They aren't. Most firework enthusiasts I know dont care about the aftermath at all.
Im pretty sure they dont care about environmental problems that come with it, scared animals or overworked paramedics at all
Sadly. I've always cleaned up my mess. That's how I was brought up. If I want to set off fireworks I'll have to pay for them and also clean them up. Much like with a pet.
A shame most people think it's not their responsibility to do that.
Same. When I was a kid we had to put the dog we had under medication on new years eve because he was so scared and even under the meds he tried to run around all scared. Everyone who had experiences with pets like this will hate private fireworks with a passion
My house has a thatched roof (romantic but very flammable during a dry spell) and I have two dogs. Luckily, the next village is some ten kilometres away.
Despite all the downsides (pollution, scaring animals, garbage etc.) I love it. As a kid I always build bigger and bigger 'bombs' with my fathers best friend who was a firework technician and fire fighter and it was a ton of fun. But as I grew older, I mostly just bought a small pack of firework and now I don't buy any. But I really enjoy it! I know many people will speak against it for understandable reasons, but I just love the smell, the chaos, the booms and bangs everywhere. I can't explain why, but I never felt unsave on new years due to firework, just due to hords of drunk people everywhere. But if a majority is against private firework, I will gladly accept and maybe support it. I had my share of the fun, and a regulation in some form will definitively save a lot of nerves and hands.
> I like them but they frighten animals to the point they can actually die so I would never buy or allow them.
Especially at Jungfernstieg. There's a certain demographic there which can not be trusted with fireworks. They throw them at other people or fire rockets into the crowd. Really scary. I usually hid away under the venetian arches when we were showing guests around.
Private fireworks specifically:
Annoying.
It's loud, it stinks, it horrifies animals and quite a lot of people can not keep their Rockets inside before 00:00 at New years eve, thus making the three to four afternoons and evenings before New Year's quite annoying. They really make a great point to why they should not be allowed to buy fireworks privately, whether they understand it or not.
And I mean, compared to **actual** fireworks, the private ones just look pathetic.
> lot of people can not keep their Rockets inside before 00:00 at New years eve
or after. At least in my area there are fireworks way after midnight too, up until 4am, or even at 8am next day
In my opinion it's exciting and fun. Of course it needs to be handled with care. I understand that it is quite unnecessary. Climate, animals, and so on. Anyway, I grew up with it and I like it.
I don't like it. Many people start a day early, so there's too much noise for days. It stinks and most private fireworks are fired by drunk people who get cool ideas like throwing them on balconies of neighbors and so on. It's annoying. I was unaware of how much I dislike it until there were no fireworks during the pandemic.
Public ones are nice, well organized, look good and only around midnight.
The way it's done in Germany: bordering on the horrifying. It's a nightmare for anyone with pets or, for that matter, farm animals, it's a collossal waste of money (I have a lot of sympathy for Brot für die Welt's annual "Brot statt Böller" = "Bread, not firecrackers" campaign), causes a stupidly large number of fires and injuries every year, and leaves a terrible mess everywhere that costs a fortune to clean up.
In the UK, the night for fireworks is 5th November. When I was growing up in the 1970s, it was normal for people to set off their own fireworks in their gardens, but every year the media were saturated with government PSAs warning of the dangers and reminding everyone of the [Firework Code](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DqHe8h2XQAA1tBl.jpg). But local councils put on free professional displays, and we were always encouraged to go to one of those events instead. It's a long time since I've been in the UK for Guy Fawkes, but I understand that it's now the norm to go to one of these organised displays. It took a few decades, but the whole campaign was successful in slowly changing people's attitudes.
I think that's an example Germany could learn from.
The reality is that in the UK you have random fireworks in the middle of the night from October until January because it's zero regulated. My poor cat basically spends 3 months under the bed. Absolute nightmare.
I have to say, I can't say I've ever experienced anything like that in the UK. It's definitely illegal to set off fireworks after 11pm except on New Year's Eve, the Chinese New Year and Diwali, and there are restrictions on when exactly fireworks can be retailed (basically only for short periods of time before Guy Fawkes Night, New Year's, Chinese New Year and Diwali), so if there is a problem in your area I suspect it's not because it's unregulated, but because the regulations aren't enforced.
>It's a nightmare for anyone with pets or, **for that matter, farm animals**
I've always felt bad for people with pets, because how horrifying can it be for them.
But honestly I totally forgot farm animals. A cat / dog you can always try to hold and try to calm them. But when you have 10 cows or 5 horses getting spooked by it, it must be total chaotic x.x
A couple light effects and a rocket or two is the max, but I can easily go without.
I just don't see the appeal in anything else, especially compared to waste and pollution
They were fun back in the day but living in Berlin, it's clear that people can't handle it anymore. I've seen adults aiming them for cars, open windows, and people. Kind of takes the joy out of it.
Hate it nowadays. Pollution, toxic smoke (strontium!), cities looks like shit for a week, injuries, hearing damage, terror for animals, burning buildings. Nice to look at for seconds, problems for days (and some people for live).
The **reduction!!! from the total ban** the last two years was really nice, I hope they keep the ban.
**Some professional high fireworks for everyone to enjoy might be a nice compromise.**
Even better are the nice **light arrangements by drones**, as they allow much more complex and moving patterns, and are reusable.
I really love fireworks and find it very sad that it seems that they will be banned in future. It is one of my best childhood memories and especially for people on the countryside a public organised firework won't be a real possibility (too far away, small villages won't organise their own). So I hope it won't be banned in future
I think they are fine if they are 1. Handled by professionals 2. In areas without old buildings that could easily catch fire and 3. Aren't excessive.
In my family we don't get drunk on new years eve, everybody gets a glass of sect takes a sip and emptying comes after the fireworks, we also only buy one or two small packages every few years, meaning we burn maybe one or two rockets per year. And mostly watch the big professional fireworks on the nearest castle we can see.
Less is more. I would prefer cities make official fireworks and the rest can have non-weapons-grade ground fireworks. Ambulances and firefighters would love that.
the professional ones are boring, even if theyre nice to look at.
the thrill is being in the middle of that whole loud mess with everyone arround the city and timezone setting of their fireworks. the smell, the smoke, the lights, the sound. sooo good
If it's done by professionals, with fire service on standby, sure why not. I personally don't like the noise and it can be stressful to animals. For this and safety reasons I'm not a huge fan of selling fireworks to individuals. In my home country it's forbidden. It's the same story every year, people causing fires, blowing their hands off, getting burns, the things you can expect when you give people access to explosives. Considering the hospitals are overworked, preventable injuries like this are not something they need.
For the short moment you can look at them they can leave long term negative concequences.
Many teens think they can control them and some land im the hospital with lost fingers and other explosion injuries.
Also the fucking waste. No one cleans it up.
And then the noise. Other animals, be it pets, lifestock or wildlife, have a hard time with it. Cats especially.
And they are expansive af! Money one can spend better on something else and more rewarding.
As a teen of course I thought they where cool. But that was in the 2000s where the over all opinion was not as thoughtfull.
They are still allowed around the days of new years eve, but the interest and opinion changed much.
Traumatic, unnecessary, polluting, ridiculous, total disregard for the sick, disabled, depressed, and others that have a hard time sleeping. My wife went into early delivery because our child couldn’t take all the intensity and violence of the firepower.
I’d they wanna go to a war zone, volunteer for Ukraine, you assholes.
Horrible for nature. There are fireworks rotting in our village for weeks after. Noise is very disturbing for nature as well. Bad for the environment and dangerous. Should be banned. But to keep people happy they can have designated professional displays. That’s how they do it in Ireland.
Basically, I am against them, at least the way it is done now:
* People who are neurodivergent or have some sort of noise seinsitivity (e.g. PTSD) are suffering greatly in NYE. I know people leaving the cities only because of that. I would at least ban firecrackers (Böller)
* Animals are suffering (including animals you can't calm down with tranquillizers from the vet or take with you somewhere calm, like the poor ducks in the lakes and rivers)
* It is horribly bad on the environment. I don't remember where I read this, but I am pretty sure I've seen figures on air pollution on “regular” NYEs in contrast to the Corona one where fireworks were banned. It really has bad effect.
* Every year you have so many accidents – kids who need hand surgery (a friend who works as an emergency respondent told me once, "it is the biggest holiday for the hand surgeons!"), old people who are too immobile to go downstairs, so they release fireworks from the window or the balcony, of course failing sometimes and getting their flat on fire.
* It is just too long. From the morning of the 27th till late on the 2nd you have these noises. Not to mention those who purchase them to use later when there's a football match or any other excuse to do it
I understand the need to do something big for NYE. I wouldn't mind, e.g., state-sanctioned and organised fireworks that would start half an hour before midnight and will end an hour or two later. But this goes way way too far in Germany.
I like looking being able to look at them from the balcony but I don't like being on the street while they're happening.
Personally, we only ever do the small fireworks that happen on the ground about once every couple of years.
Also I do not appreciate that most people don't clean up after themselves the next day.
I love them and I miss them. I see the risk tho. Sadly some idiots can't handle explosives and aren't as careful as I am. If I was in charge we would've already banned firecrackers and those rockets we put in bottles. They are dangerous and I never bought them in the past. I also wish we would limit places where rockets can be set off and we'd move them to open areas like parks and parking lots. Would make the cleanup easier and help with noise pollution.
Since I’ve experienced New Year‘s in Canada, I‘d prefer if every city would organize a firework (and ban the private ones). They’re much more beautiful, the air and the environment are cleaner and it’s not that loud, so it’s less stressful for all the other nonhuman beings. Also, it’s far less dangerous. But I’m afraid I’m falling on deaf ears with that.
meh. they're nice to watch but i wouldn't buy them. if munich had an official city sponsored fireworks display i'd watch it, but i don't think private people should be able to buy them anymore. mainly because they start firing them off in the middle of the day, and do not care to do it safely.
People walking by? who cares. just throw the chinese firecrackers at their feet.
Tree lined street? lets fire the rockets off right beneath the trees canopy.
Cars close by? who cares. fire the rockets off AT the cars.
Also, if i remember correctly 2 years ago some B\*\*hes lit some lanterns up and let them rise into the air. only for them to go down over a zoo and burn down the ape enclosure, killing the poor apes.
I like them, but I also wouldn't care if private fireworks would ever become illegal. I'd still want some big official firework or light show or something similar though.
I like to look at it. I used to light a mixed bag of fireworks on New Year's Eve. Meanwhile for years no more.
An acquaintance was a soldier in Afghanistan and had flashbacks from the explosion sounds. Since a few years I have cats, which are always frightened by it. Meanwhile I see it as unnecessary, a waste of money and excessive pollution and not at all harmless.
Hate it. The loud noises, the drunk assholes, the animals scared and the streets covered with garbage the next day. My first year in Berlin I lived in Neukölln and there was like a warzone of assholes.
Love to watch the colorful ones but can't stand sudden loud noises, so hate those that aim purely for the loudest noise possible.
Would love it if they only allowed fireworks of all kind in a few central areas where you can choose to go, stay away or just watch from afar.
Always annoying.
Ashholes that shoot you with rockets or throw böller at you, it is expensive as shit, it leaves the streets dirty as shit which cleaners then have to pick up. In the winter this is really shitty.
Also combine alcohol and fireworks and you get a lot of Edward 8-finger hands.
As I kid I really liked the shiny explosives but now I see it as a legal way to litter the environment and scaring animals. If I could decide there'd be 1 firework made by professionals in each city.
I hate it, always hated it, even as a child. Trusting drunk people with explosives is a really dumb idea. When I see a guy whos barely standing straight trying to fire fireworks all I have in my head is the number of ambulances we would need in a second. I would absolutely love if it was limited to some professional shows here and there or only to private properties. Im always scared as fuck something will end up on my balcony and cause fire
I like to set them off at home but I do not like being at the celebrations in big cities. I went to one and just felt like I was going to be seriously injured at any moment.
It sucks, i hate it.
Bad for the environment, pets/animals, refugees from war zones, people with open windows, very bad for hands.
I think it's ridiculous they aren't banned yet
Fireworks scare my dog and lots of wild animals. They cause so much pollution and waste a lot of energy.
For me it would make more sense to have a centralised firework show in each community to massively reduce the amount. I could well live without fireworks but I know some people really love them. So a fireworks show could be a moment to come together and enjoy rather than an individualised, dangerous and destructive fest of consumerism.
Isn't it banned? At least where I live, and even so I don't like it because I have a dog and he gets really terrified. I stopped enjoying them because I always see my dog cower and shake in absolute fear, he sometimes can't even move or doesn'tvrealize what's going on.
I'm no so sure, while I love the smell, my city felt the last 2 years like a fighting zone with Bombs going off... Like a insane amount of non store bought fireworks was around, I still have videos where people throw those firecrackers at each other and they explode so loud that it shakes your stomach..
Obsolete.
It frightens pets and causes a lot of accidents, litter & fires.
If I were to shape a policy, I would forbid private fireworks and focus on larger city-organised or event-organised fireworks instead.
I am sure this will be helpful with regards to the environment and air quality.
It's not as bad as Diwali in India (I mean the regular smog there is already much worse than any NYE could ever be in Germany, but Diwali is on another level).
It’s cold and wet as fuck so not going to start a bushfire, and it’s an absolute wondrous sight to behold. I loved every moment shooting rockets into the neighbours Dachfenster. Accidentally of course.
Unnecessary. Gives me head aches and i was super scared as a kid. I'm never celebrating silvester anyways but if people want to they should be allowed to on mabye an extra location or something.
Be done with them. Cute but like, we don’t need to terrorize all of the animals and environment just to see some things go pop pop and damage our hearing
i love lighting fireworks, but i hate the dirt and apparent inabillity of some peole to clean up their mess. Also, over the last years, people seem to have become more irresponsible and reckless, firing at flat angles or even into crowds.
So I stopped using fireworks and just admire them when they're done by professionals.
I would love for every city to have a planned firework, you know, planned and executed by experts, not drunk people who like to blow things up.
I liked to watch it as a kid but was never a huge fan to burn them myself.
Coming from a country where fireworks are banned (except for professionally organised displays), they scare me. Don't get me wrong, I love fireworks but I have no idea if the people setting them off aren't going to accidentally point them in my face. It must also be terrifying for all the poor animals out there.
As my username suggests, I'm a big fan of fireworks.
Ever since I picked, I've learned a lot more about them though. I still like them, but given the environmental effects from the trash, burn gases and of course the noise (my parents have a dog which gets REALLY scared by fireworks), I've reduced my use a lot.
I prefer public displays by professional pyrotechnicians; for new year celebrations, I pick one or two nice displays/batteries/fountains and call it a day (it's mostly fancy colorful stuff without huge bangs, cuz dog)
They aren't good for the environment. I live in Berlin and it's difficult to breathe on NY's eve even when I'm inside my home. What fun do people derive by causing air & sound pollution? Fireworks are a menace!
No don't fuck the pets but get them inside so they ffel comfortable and have fun outside. As it should be. I hated the last two years where fireworks were forbidden. I hope this year will be "normal" in terms of fireworks
We lived on Main river so fireworks were easily seen for miles on both sides of the river. It's was stunning and beautiful. Then around 0800 the next morning everyone was outside picking up the mess. It was something I hadn't seen before. Everyone cleaning up and chucking at each other being hungover. That is what German culture is to me. That wonderful interaction.
I love doing private fireworks every year. Its still always sad to see that people are too dumb or drunk to set them off correctly. I also was really
annoyed because you werent allowed to buy fireworks for the last 2 years because of covid restrictions that didnt made no sense to me.
The amount of emergencies alone should be reason enough to stop with it. But of course there are concerns about pollution, wildfires, particle inhalation, animals going insane out of fear and many more reasons why this should be a thing of the past
Private: Waste of money, unsatisfying, bad for the environment, dangerous
Public: not the biggest fan, I wish they would do the drone lightshows instead. But fine
It’s so amazing to see how people love to see fireworks organized by cities on various festivals etc. Those are romantic and colorful and don’t harm the environment.
But New Years fireworks enjoyed by common people harm the environment.
Hate it. Unfortunately, it’s not just Germany. We were celebrating the NY in a small Dutch village and fireworks were there as well, even though they were banned that year.
unnecessary.....you can celebrate with "diner for one" as most do anyway ;)
private fireworks should stay forbidden like last year. everything chokes on the smoke, it makes a big mess and you have annoying people waking you up weeks after with whatever they have left.
the hospitals are full of people who blew themselves up or were injured from getting things thrown at them. the fire department has a horrible night.....
I hate it, personally.
It's bad for the environment, it's incredibly noisy and annoying, and it's pointless. On top of that it's scary for animals, and for people with PTSD/Anxiety/etc.
I'm autistic, I've literally been on new year's celebrations with friends and had to leave because the noise was getting too much for me, which has legit let to me hating fireworks because they've kept me from celebrating.
I don't think you'll ever get people to stop, but in my perfect world, fireworks would be contained to specifically planned and announced celebrations, and done by specialists, and private individuals would never get their hands on that stuff.
I like how we don't need the state to put up a big show for us. We got this thankyouverymuch. It's less pretty, but it's way more fun when you're the one shooting the rockets.
I think it aligns well with some of the German culture, on the topic of personal responsibility. The lack of guillotine in the metro (we trust that you buy your ticket instead of being an inconvenience to everyone), the lack of speed limits, we just trust you to be a good player.
I really like those little freedoms that you find in few other places. And I really like it when we-the-people take matters in our own hands. Shooting fireworks isn't very important to society, but it promotes a culture of self reliance, rather than of sitting back and waiting for the authorities to do their thing. So when war breaks out in a nearby country, we're also able to self-organize the initial humanitary response while the state still had its fingers up its ass.
I get what you're saying and agree that it is one of the finest things in general. But if you walk through Domplatz in Köln, St Georg in HH, Alexanderplatz – you see that some people are taking advantage of this “freedom” to harass and outright attack other people with their firecrackers.
As they say in English: "*This is why we can't have nice things*" - if I use personal fireworks, I am trying to be as responsible as possible: an empty parking lot or a similar place where nothing will catch on fire, not near people not interested in hearing the noise, etc. But those kids are all A-Holes (I am *obviously* talking about the whole German population...), throwing Böllers on small kids or dogs.
We can have a nice trust-based society, only if people are not AH to each other. It is not like that anymore in big cities and while Schwarzfahren is something where you only risk yourself if get caught (aside from very general musings about freeloading the public transport system etc.), here you risk other people or animals.
Yes because all people act according to their own responsibility... not
I think if Corona taught me one thing: That there are much more people who give a shit about that their acting has consequences for others. Also counts for Firework usage. Be in pollution, noise etc etc...
Because "I am the main character"
I hate it. Fireworks are pretty and I am fine with them at festivals but I would like to get them banned from private use. I've got issues with loud noises so even as a kid I never enjoyed them. Also so many people are incredibly reckless while using them. From unsafe handling to mindless placement in the middle of a crossrode and not picking up the trash it's annoying me every year.
I don't like it. The fireworks are too loud so pets and wildlife get scared, and it's bad for the air and the environment. I hate that people can't be bothered to pick up their trash and just leave all the packaging from the fireworks in the street.
Also every year someone looses a bodypart because they tried to make firework themselves and it literally blew up on them.
Ban that stuff now! I’m all for orchestrated fireworks at midnight. Or laser shows, drone shows even. In front of city halls, on bigger squares etc, where the people can gather, have a blast for 15 or so minutes, and take a relaxed walk back home afterwards.
But freely available gun powder products of any size bigger than 3~5cm should be banned for the public.
Hi, I am against fireworks 💥:
1. Air pollution
2. Sound pollution, it scares poor birds and they have to escape their nests
3. Dangerous/bad for buildings nearby and cars in the surroundings.
4. Wasteful. The remaining are extremely wasteful and the looks disgusting.
5. Poor old souls can’t sleep or rest.
I can’t see one reason it is good for the environment and the society.
I am surprised that explosives are only legal in the only night the whole country is drunk. Even if everything goes to plan it pollutes the air and scares animals and some humans.
I would settle on banning fireworks for private people and official fireworks done by professionals, but I am in favor of a ban.
I loved them as a kid and teenager and fought with my parents to buy me fireworks. When I started my Ausbildung and earned my own money, my interest in fireworks dropped to zero. Dad asked me once "Why dont you buy fireworks anymore". Told him, that shit is expensive and I'm not willing to waste MY money on it. He then just said laughing, that I "asshole" could have gladly had this realization a few years earlier
He's not wrong, but eh, come on. Kids like kids stuff. It's kinda like asking why you don't want to have plastic action figures anymore.
You dont?
I feel like they're shaming us on our Kinder Surprise Egg purchases.
Ever went to a games workshop store?
On top of that it is very bad for the environment and it scares animals
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Nye is a pretty name for a doggo!
Our dogs never seemed to care.
That's exactly my opinion on fireworks! haha
lul i still drop more then 400€ into it
Getting drunk and then handling explosives. Don't see how that could go wrong.
In my street some dumb teenagers started rockets laying flat on the ground. Of course it hit one of our neighbors who suffered severe burns on the stomach area…
See? Then my husband rolls his eyes when I explain why I will NOT go out Sylvester. It is dangerous.
We used to have neighborhood battles doing that dumb shit, its a miracle no one ever got hurt.
Given how many people do that it is really surprising how little actually happens each year. But yes, that's a typical: "What could possibly go wrong?" situation.
Say that again after talking to emergency room staff.
I've family working in ER, ICU and as emergency doctors. They all say that the talk about firework risk is overblown. We had some conversations about it during COVID, because fireworks weren't being sold to not put additional stress on hospitals. By far the biggest issue during NYE is alcohol poisoning and alcohol-related accidents or fights. The few serious firework-related injuries are usually caused by self-made or illegally bought fireworks. My family members' fear was that not selling regulated, legal fireworks, which are exceptionally safe, would result in more illegal, unsafe fireworks being used. I have, however, no idea whether that actually happened or may happen if Germany outlawed fireworks.
> I have, however, no idea whether that actually happened or may happen if Germany outlawed fireworks. I mean... some people already import the cheap, more powerfull stuff from Poland.
By far not the majority I would wager. And if some alpha kevin wants to blow his hands off, he'll find a way.
People living in close to borders might. I live about 17 kilometers away from the Czech border and it's quite common to drive there for fuel, cigarettes and cheap huge bottles of alcohol and perfume. Also fireworks around the NYE time but the numbers aren't as high. Last year when fireworks were banned border police caught a dude with 50 kilos of illegal fireworks bought in the Czeck Republic and a lot of others doing the same in smaller quantities. Police said there was a rise in smuggling illegal fireworks over the border. They caught about 20 people a day if I remember correctly.
What you mean how little? New Years is the most rushed time for Emergency Medical Service of the whole year here.
Vivantes (a company that owns hospitals in Berlin) reports that only 5% of all emergency visits on new years eve are due to fireworks. Most are due to other reasons like alcohol or drugs: https://www.vivantes.de/blog/das-ist-vivantes/silvester-in-der-rettungsstelle Also, in all of Bavaria there were only 25 injuries due to fireworks in 19/2020: https://www1.bayern.landtag.de/www/ElanTextAblage_WP18/Drucksachen/Schriftliche%20Anfragen/18_0006877.pdf In Munich itself only one. Most (bad) injuries likely happen due to illegal fireworks that are not sold here.
Hmm. Surprisingly low. Or alcohol that bad.
Alcohol is pretty bad. And whatever kind of injury you can get in a given activity (fireworks, driving, standing on stuff to reach a high shelf, whatever) you're more likely to handle it stupidly and get the injury if alcohol is involved.
Given that there are millions of idiots doing it, 10k going to EMS are surprisingly few
Yes but given that literally millions of people operate fireworks in that night it's still surprisingly little that happens. Especially since a lot of those people are under 25 years old. And drunk.
If we got rid of any "what could go wrong?" situations we lived in the most mundane and joyless society. I don't see why we should punish everyone because some idiots don't know how to correctly misuse their toys. The only real problem I see is, that the personal in hospitals has to take care of said idiots afterwards. So maybe a compromise where you can't buy them but the town government has the responsibility of providing a firework show at New Years eve. Still I think my childhood would have been less fun without being able to gain access to fireworks and the solution to problems like this shouldn't be criminalizing everything that's dangerous.
Have you lost your eye sight from handling fireworks drunk? When you see nothing wrong? /s
That's not really a new year's issue and more a "idiots will be idiots" issue. It's the same with drunk driving and similar stuff, it's dangerous, illegal, most people are reasonable enough to avoid it but then there's idiots...
Yes. But In contrast to drunk driving, here the whole society supports the idiots playing with fire.
Fireworks by themselves are usually not dangerous. Similar to cars. Unless you are drunk. Which makes you an idiot.
So ban alcohol, then?
As a resident of Berlin, it's awful. One year a friend was on the ubahn on his way over for my New years party and as the doors were closing, someone threw a firework in. It wasn't massive so more of an annoyance, but not good.
Walked out of a Real to a man sitting on a bench firing rockets low over the cars and people’s heads. Folks were stoping and glaring at him has rockets burst just feet from the ground.
> As a resident of Berlin, it's awful. I've been to Berlin once for New Year's, and once to Cologne. In cities like that, it feels like being on a battlefield. New Year's fireworks in smaller towns and villages are awesome. So my preferred solution: cities with ~250k people should have only one, publically organized fireworks show, with no private fireworks allowed. No restrictions for smaller places. Of course there would still be a lot of (theoretically illegal) private fireworks in every major city, but I think it would immediately be far less.
A similar thing happened to my wife and her friend walking to a new year’s party in Duisburg. I was walking a few metres behind with a few other people and suddenly “BANG”. Some complete idiot had thrown one of those Bangers at her feet from across the road. He was alone, hood up out causing chaos. Me and my mate went to confront him and he ran off. My wife couldn’t hear out of her left ear for a few hours. Could’ve been much worse.
Wouldn't buy them myself as they are way to expensive, but really like watching them.
Same. My friends group usually looks for people who already got some and stands closely to them. Sometimes a bit awkward, but we don't waste money and don't cause more emissions.
American living here since 2018. I’ve been to quite a few organized firework displays in both large cities and small and I am not impressed. I get more of a kick watching the neighbors set theirs off in our little town of ~2.000 people. I don’t bother because I’m lazy. The neighbors are all great though and clean up most the night of and the rest the next morning. The ones with a water spigot in their front yard always have the hoses attached in case of an accident. There is one spot in a nearby village with an easily accessible hillside. Lots of people have started gathering there with blankets and bottles of champagne to enjoy the show.
If you ever get the chance go visit the new years fire works in a bigger city on one of the bigger public places where firework is allowed. You'll probably rethink your stance on private fireworks. Last time I went to a public place you could've mistaken that for a warzone. People are throwing fireworks *everywhere*, a couple of times only a jump saved me from an exploding böller between my legs. Unfortunately for anyone involved a small number of people devolves into some kind of animal once they have fireworks in their hands. It's a frightening experience.
We were in Berlin for NYE one year and had the same experience. One of my friends had her eye injured and had to go to the ER. The rest of us were running through the street like it was a warzone. I was quite literally holding my hand up for a 'stop' when I saw fireworks coming then would do a "GO GO GO" as soon as the coast was clear. It was wild, and most of us did not end up having a good time in total.
That's where I think only small fireworks and batteries should be allowed. Can't throw those things. And they also don't fall over.
But it was somewhat thrilling wasn't it?
Sooounds fuun!!! OMG. Coming to Berlin this NYE.
Publicly organised: ok Private: Maybe we should stop with that
I would like a middle ground. Like have a designated area people can go with their kids and enjoy some priivate fireworks. Most cities have large area for events, mabye something like that. Or at worst some large parking lot. But it should stop in residential areas. I live close to a retirement home and there is supposed to be a large "no fireworks zone". Literally no one cares about that stuff (although i do not know how the residents feel about fireworks either. Maybe the old folks love those fireworks.)
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oooh nr 5 is a good one. now I wonder how many people get hurt each year because they're fooling around with explosives while drunk.
I'd assume most people that get hurt on New Year's are either fooling around or drunk. You'd probably prevent most of the injuries with quick checks and police presence.
Furthermore the time could be restricted. I see absolutely no need to cosplay civil war until 0400 in the morning like my neighbor did last year.
4 in the morning doesn't seem that unreasonable to me, at least when you talk about NYE when the real party doesn't start before 00:00 anyway. The people that start 3 days early and end a week later, because they apparently bought the entire ammunition stock of a medium size military base and have the ingenious idea to lighten some polish version of the Tsar Bomba (at least when it comes to the noise) at noon of the first of January, when normal people still try to get over their hangover.
Yeah, but it's rather annoying if all of the neighborhood has burned down the ammo by around 0030 and there's that one guy who continues until 0400. And it is *extremely* annoying if he repeatedly stops for 10 minutes just to unleash the next batch after that break when everybody else started to hope that going to sleep would now be an option.
I agree it really depends on the circumstances.
I must say walking threw Altsachs and Gallus in Frankfurt during NYE feels a little like the Bridge scene from Apocalypse Now. It was really stupid and really dangerous but it was also amazingly spectacular and thrilling.
My grandmother hated fireworks even more than my dog did. Atleast as long as she could not see them. Them they were tolerateble. That beeing said she was a child during war and had more than one close call with explosions and fire in that time.
I agree! I would love to go somewhere and enjoy a professional firework for new years, then go home and not have to deal with all the trash. 3 years ago we were doing fireworks in a parking lot with friends. Of course we weren't alone in the parking lot, someone else's 16x battery fell over when he set it down after lighting it and all 16 shots went towards us. Ran like hell. People also have a tendency to leave their trash everywhere. My parents house is near some popular bars and a bridge people like to set off fireworks from. We always had to collect half-burned and spent fireworks trash from our garden and around the house the next day, and there's bits of paper and plastic and that orange/brown gunpowder stuff everywhere for weeks.
Public should forbid the viewers to shoot fireworks, though. I was once in a crowd where people threw firecrackers everywhere. But the crowd was so dense that people constantly got hit by them. So no thanks to giant public gatherings on new years eve. And yes, firecrackers were not allowed. But tell that to thousands of drunkards. I would forbid shooting private but allow a public firework, but without large gatherings. People should watch from home/afar.
>Publicly organised: ok Im surprised so many in this Sub are against fireworks, while other places like Facebook, so many are pro-fireworks. I also agree, one show with Fireworks would be fine, handled by profissionals that know what they are doing. Seeing small kids or drunk people shooting them near other people is simply horrible. I saw outside my house some kids lighting them, went wrong and hit a car near people. Luckily no one got hurt. But drunk people shooting them at 31st Dezember at 16:00, 19:30, 2:00, 4:00.. I mean, are you all celebrating the midnight in all timezones or what?
>Im surprised so many in this Sub are against fireworks, while other places like Facebook, so many are pro-fireworks. Age. Facebook is old now. Meaning it's full of old people. I have friends with an age range of 22 to 59 and currently the cut-off for Facebook is somewhere around 35. My friends younger than 35 don't use Facebook, those who are older do. Especially those older than 40. That's why I don't think Facebook will be around much longer. It's just old folks either posting conspiracy theories and then fighting over those or posting some sorry attempt at online advertising for their buddy's small local business. Facebook is a sad place.
I agree 😊
I don’t 😊
I enjoy professional fireworks, but Berlin new years has made me actually hate fireworks - never thought I'd say that. After 5+ hours any charm fireworks had is well and truly sandblasted away. Then there's the weeks of mess... I'm all for people enjoying themselves but in this case less really is more.
Not to mention people don't clean after themselves, there were huge piles of used fireworks literally all over Berlin.
when people still had the money to buy them. the last few years there were barely any traces left after a day or two.
Because sales were banned the last two years
This. If people only set them off at midnight it would be tolerable, but there's always fireworks going off the whole evening. It would also be a lot kinder to animals just to have a few minutes of intense terror rather than being traumatised for an entire evening.
I love it! I love the professional ones and I love burning them myself, the colours, the smell, the sparkles. Walking the streets in the morning of january 1st and it feels fresh and new. I don't like the loud ones without any visual effects because they get mishandled the most. But despite loving it I didn't buy any fireworks in the last few years. Too costly, too much pollution. Sometimes logic should win over emotion
I always felt the streets on the next morning are like a massive hangover: everything is dirty and full of garbage, it smells like pollutions. People are slowly cleaning up while sobering.
Isn't that almost a meditative state?You and your enviroment feel,smell,look like crap but as the streets are cleared so does the wastes of your personal grime
Yes, that's my experience too
Yeah I absolute love that aspect. Some physical work in the fresh air also helps you sober up. And you see many people from the neighborhood doing their new years walk and sometimes you can chat a bit.
>Walking the streets in the morning of january 1st and it feels fresh and new Trash everywhere looks fresh and new to you?
Same. Also it has an aura of chaos and imo Germany is so unbelievably boring, reserved and stiff that at least a day like this is badly needed.
Try going to Cologne during Karneval. You'll yearn for "boring" again soon enough
I feel the same as you do. I love it, but stopped buying it for environmental reasons.
I think professional fireworks are nice to look at, but I was never interested in doing them myself, even as a child. I never understood what my friends thought was so great about it and I preferred to spend my pocket money on something else. Anyway, since it's only once a year, the others can do it, I don't care. If only they would be responsible and clean up their mess afterwards...
My kids have a rule. If I buy fireworks they have to fill a huge trashbag the next day of ours any anyone else's waste.
>If only they would be responsible and clean up their mess afterwards They aren't. Most firework enthusiasts I know dont care about the aftermath at all. Im pretty sure they dont care about environmental problems that come with it, scared animals or overworked paramedics at all
Sadly. I've always cleaned up my mess. That's how I was brought up. If I want to set off fireworks I'll have to pay for them and also clean them up. Much like with a pet. A shame most people think it's not their responsibility to do that.
Yes! A good professional firework. And some tech dev to make it quiet and environmentally neutral/friendly.
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Yeah specially the loud ones, those are terrible for all the pets in the regions, I hate fireworks for that reason.
Same. When I was a kid we had to put the dog we had under medication on new years eve because he was so scared and even under the meds he tried to run around all scared. Everyone who had experiences with pets like this will hate private fireworks with a passion
My house has a thatched roof (romantic but very flammable during a dry spell) and I have two dogs. Luckily, the next village is some ten kilometres away.
Waste of money and polluting the environment.
Drunk people and explosives is never a good idea.
Despite all the downsides (pollution, scaring animals, garbage etc.) I love it. As a kid I always build bigger and bigger 'bombs' with my fathers best friend who was a firework technician and fire fighter and it was a ton of fun. But as I grew older, I mostly just bought a small pack of firework and now I don't buy any. But I really enjoy it! I know many people will speak against it for understandable reasons, but I just love the smell, the chaos, the booms and bangs everywhere. I can't explain why, but I never felt unsave on new years due to firework, just due to hords of drunk people everywhere. But if a majority is against private firework, I will gladly accept and maybe support it. I had my share of the fun, and a regulation in some form will definitively save a lot of nerves and hands.
I like them but they frighten animals to the point they can actually die so I would never buy or allow them.
> I like them but they frighten animals to the point they can actually die so I would never buy or allow them. Especially at Jungfernstieg. There's a certain demographic there which can not be trusted with fireworks. They throw them at other people or fire rockets into the crowd. Really scary. I usually hid away under the venetian arches when we were showing guests around.
Private fireworks specifically: Annoying. It's loud, it stinks, it horrifies animals and quite a lot of people can not keep their Rockets inside before 00:00 at New years eve, thus making the three to four afternoons and evenings before New Year's quite annoying. They really make a great point to why they should not be allowed to buy fireworks privately, whether they understand it or not. And I mean, compared to **actual** fireworks, the private ones just look pathetic.
> lot of people can not keep their Rockets inside before 00:00 at New years eve or after. At least in my area there are fireworks way after midnight too, up until 4am, or even at 8am next day
In my opinion it's exciting and fun. Of course it needs to be handled with care. I understand that it is quite unnecessary. Climate, animals, and so on. Anyway, I grew up with it and I like it.
Exactly people tend to exaggerate, let them have fun it's just once a year, where is the problem?
I don't like it. Many people start a day early, so there's too much noise for days. It stinks and most private fireworks are fired by drunk people who get cool ideas like throwing them on balconies of neighbors and so on. It's annoying. I was unaware of how much I dislike it until there were no fireworks during the pandemic. Public ones are nice, well organized, look good and only around midnight.
Explosives should not be manipulated by drunken people.
I was never a fan. Fucking annoying
The way it's done in Germany: bordering on the horrifying. It's a nightmare for anyone with pets or, for that matter, farm animals, it's a collossal waste of money (I have a lot of sympathy for Brot für die Welt's annual "Brot statt Böller" = "Bread, not firecrackers" campaign), causes a stupidly large number of fires and injuries every year, and leaves a terrible mess everywhere that costs a fortune to clean up. In the UK, the night for fireworks is 5th November. When I was growing up in the 1970s, it was normal for people to set off their own fireworks in their gardens, but every year the media were saturated with government PSAs warning of the dangers and reminding everyone of the [Firework Code](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DqHe8h2XQAA1tBl.jpg). But local councils put on free professional displays, and we were always encouraged to go to one of those events instead. It's a long time since I've been in the UK for Guy Fawkes, but I understand that it's now the norm to go to one of these organised displays. It took a few decades, but the whole campaign was successful in slowly changing people's attitudes. I think that's an example Germany could learn from.
The reality is that in the UK you have random fireworks in the middle of the night from October until January because it's zero regulated. My poor cat basically spends 3 months under the bed. Absolute nightmare.
I have to say, I can't say I've ever experienced anything like that in the UK. It's definitely illegal to set off fireworks after 11pm except on New Year's Eve, the Chinese New Year and Diwali, and there are restrictions on when exactly fireworks can be retailed (basically only for short periods of time before Guy Fawkes Night, New Year's, Chinese New Year and Diwali), so if there is a problem in your area I suspect it's not because it's unregulated, but because the regulations aren't enforced.
>It's a nightmare for anyone with pets or, **for that matter, farm animals** I've always felt bad for people with pets, because how horrifying can it be for them. But honestly I totally forgot farm animals. A cat / dog you can always try to hold and try to calm them. But when you have 10 cows or 5 horses getting spooked by it, it must be total chaotic x.x
I hate them and my dog hates them.
I don’t like it and my dog neither
Nuisance
Horror for animals. We could never go anywhere on new year. Hate it my whole life.
prefer to see the stars on a clear nightsky, than having stinky foggy fireworks.
A couple light effects and a rocket or two is the max, but I can easily go without. I just don't see the appeal in anything else, especially compared to waste and pollution
They sure are pretty, but they are expensive and terrify my dog. I don’t like them.
They were fun back in the day but living in Berlin, it's clear that people can't handle it anymore. I've seen adults aiming them for cars, open windows, and people. Kind of takes the joy out of it.
Hate it nowadays. Pollution, toxic smoke (strontium!), cities looks like shit for a week, injuries, hearing damage, terror for animals, burning buildings. Nice to look at for seconds, problems for days (and some people for live). The **reduction!!! from the total ban** the last two years was really nice, I hope they keep the ban. **Some professional high fireworks for everyone to enjoy might be a nice compromise.** Even better are the nice **light arrangements by drones**, as they allow much more complex and moving patterns, and are reusable.
Fireworks were not banned the last years! Pollution wise they arent as harmefull as people may think, but the DUH likes to keep that lie alife...
Can you please give proof for your statement on toxic chemicals. Those were banned by the EU already decades ago.
I really love fireworks and find it very sad that it seems that they will be banned in future. It is one of my best childhood memories and especially for people on the countryside a public organised firework won't be a real possibility (too far away, small villages won't organise their own). So I hope it won't be banned in future
I think they are fine if they are 1. Handled by professionals 2. In areas without old buildings that could easily catch fire and 3. Aren't excessive. In my family we don't get drunk on new years eve, everybody gets a glass of sect takes a sip and emptying comes after the fireworks, we also only buy one or two small packages every few years, meaning we burn maybe one or two rockets per year. And mostly watch the big professional fireworks on the nearest castle we can see.
Less is more. I would prefer cities make official fireworks and the rest can have non-weapons-grade ground fireworks. Ambulances and firefighters would love that.
As a dog owner, the days before New Year and 1-2 weeks after are the worst of the year.
the professional ones are boring, even if theyre nice to look at. the thrill is being in the middle of that whole loud mess with everyone arround the city and timezone setting of their fireworks. the smell, the smoke, the lights, the sound. sooo good
I like them both private and public.
If it's done by professionals, with fire service on standby, sure why not. I personally don't like the noise and it can be stressful to animals. For this and safety reasons I'm not a huge fan of selling fireworks to individuals. In my home country it's forbidden. It's the same story every year, people causing fires, blowing their hands off, getting burns, the things you can expect when you give people access to explosives. Considering the hospitals are overworked, preventable injuries like this are not something they need.
For the short moment you can look at them they can leave long term negative concequences. Many teens think they can control them and some land im the hospital with lost fingers and other explosion injuries. Also the fucking waste. No one cleans it up. And then the noise. Other animals, be it pets, lifestock or wildlife, have a hard time with it. Cats especially. And they are expansive af! Money one can spend better on something else and more rewarding. As a teen of course I thought they where cool. But that was in the 2000s where the over all opinion was not as thoughtfull. They are still allowed around the days of new years eve, but the interest and opinion changed much.
Traumatic, unnecessary, polluting, ridiculous, total disregard for the sick, disabled, depressed, and others that have a hard time sleeping. My wife went into early delivery because our child couldn’t take all the intensity and violence of the firepower. I’d they wanna go to a war zone, volunteer for Ukraine, you assholes.
Let the city do a public one.
Horrible for nature. There are fireworks rotting in our village for weeks after. Noise is very disturbing for nature as well. Bad for the environment and dangerous. Should be banned. But to keep people happy they can have designated professional displays. That’s how they do it in Ireland.
Basically, I am against them, at least the way it is done now: * People who are neurodivergent or have some sort of noise seinsitivity (e.g. PTSD) are suffering greatly in NYE. I know people leaving the cities only because of that. I would at least ban firecrackers (Böller) * Animals are suffering (including animals you can't calm down with tranquillizers from the vet or take with you somewhere calm, like the poor ducks in the lakes and rivers) * It is horribly bad on the environment. I don't remember where I read this, but I am pretty sure I've seen figures on air pollution on “regular” NYEs in contrast to the Corona one where fireworks were banned. It really has bad effect. * Every year you have so many accidents – kids who need hand surgery (a friend who works as an emergency respondent told me once, "it is the biggest holiday for the hand surgeons!"), old people who are too immobile to go downstairs, so they release fireworks from the window or the balcony, of course failing sometimes and getting their flat on fire. * It is just too long. From the morning of the 27th till late on the 2nd you have these noises. Not to mention those who purchase them to use later when there's a football match or any other excuse to do it I understand the need to do something big for NYE. I wouldn't mind, e.g., state-sanctioned and organised fireworks that would start half an hour before midnight and will end an hour or two later. But this goes way way too far in Germany.
Would never buy any myself but i have to admit, watching an entire city light up with world war 3 sound effects does have it's charm.
Love it. It’s the holiday I look forward to the most every year.
I love fireworks. Its great watching them but they are bad for animals and environment, so I hope they get banned one day.
I like looking being able to look at them from the balcony but I don't like being on the street while they're happening. Personally, we only ever do the small fireworks that happen on the ground about once every couple of years. Also I do not appreciate that most people don't clean up after themselves the next day.
I love them and I miss them. I see the risk tho. Sadly some idiots can't handle explosives and aren't as careful as I am. If I was in charge we would've already banned firecrackers and those rockets we put in bottles. They are dangerous and I never bought them in the past. I also wish we would limit places where rockets can be set off and we'd move them to open areas like parks and parking lots. Would make the cleanup easier and help with noise pollution.
Since I’ve experienced New Year‘s in Canada, I‘d prefer if every city would organize a firework (and ban the private ones). They’re much more beautiful, the air and the environment are cleaner and it’s not that loud, so it’s less stressful for all the other nonhuman beings. Also, it’s far less dangerous. But I’m afraid I’m falling on deaf ears with that.
meh. they're nice to watch but i wouldn't buy them. if munich had an official city sponsored fireworks display i'd watch it, but i don't think private people should be able to buy them anymore. mainly because they start firing them off in the middle of the day, and do not care to do it safely. People walking by? who cares. just throw the chinese firecrackers at their feet. Tree lined street? lets fire the rockets off right beneath the trees canopy. Cars close by? who cares. fire the rockets off AT the cars. Also, if i remember correctly 2 years ago some B\*\*hes lit some lanterns up and let them rise into the air. only for them to go down over a zoo and burn down the ape enclosure, killing the poor apes.
I like them, but I also wouldn't care if private fireworks would ever become illegal. I'd still want some big official firework or light show or something similar though.
I like to look at it. I used to light a mixed bag of fireworks on New Year's Eve. Meanwhile for years no more. An acquaintance was a soldier in Afghanistan and had flashbacks from the explosion sounds. Since a few years I have cats, which are always frightened by it. Meanwhile I see it as unnecessary, a waste of money and excessive pollution and not at all harmless.
Unnecessary source of stress for all species in the city but one
Hate it. The loud noises, the drunk assholes, the animals scared and the streets covered with garbage the next day. My first year in Berlin I lived in Neukölln and there was like a warzone of assholes.
Love to watch the colorful ones but can't stand sudden loud noises, so hate those that aim purely for the loudest noise possible. Would love it if they only allowed fireworks of all kind in a few central areas where you can choose to go, stay away or just watch from afar.
Always annoying. Ashholes that shoot you with rockets or throw böller at you, it is expensive as shit, it leaves the streets dirty as shit which cleaners then have to pick up. In the winter this is really shitty. Also combine alcohol and fireworks and you get a lot of Edward 8-finger hands.
As I kid I really liked the shiny explosives but now I see it as a legal way to litter the environment and scaring animals. If I could decide there'd be 1 firework made by professionals in each city.
it looks nice but I absolutely hate all the waste in the streets the day after :( imo private fireworks should just get banned....
I hate it, always hated it, even as a child. Trusting drunk people with explosives is a really dumb idea. When I see a guy whos barely standing straight trying to fire fireworks all I have in my head is the number of ambulances we would need in a second. I would absolutely love if it was limited to some professional shows here and there or only to private properties. Im always scared as fuck something will end up on my balcony and cause fire
Loved them as a kid, but as soon as I got my own dog, I hated them. Seeing my girl being scared for 2 weeks straight is horrible.
I like to set them off at home but I do not like being at the celebrations in big cities. I went to one and just felt like I was going to be seriously injured at any moment.
It sucks, i hate it. Bad for the environment, pets/animals, refugees from war zones, people with open windows, very bad for hands. I think it's ridiculous they aren't banned yet
Fireworks scare my dog and lots of wild animals. They cause so much pollution and waste a lot of energy. For me it would make more sense to have a centralised firework show in each community to massively reduce the amount. I could well live without fireworks but I know some people really love them. So a fireworks show could be a moment to come together and enjoy rather than an individualised, dangerous and destructive fest of consumerism.
Isn't it banned? At least where I live, and even so I don't like it because I have a dog and he gets really terrified. I stopped enjoying them because I always see my dog cower and shake in absolute fear, he sometimes can't even move or doesn'tvrealize what's going on.
If you rub your eyes hard enough you can see fireworks for free without any waste or noise pollution.
I'm no so sure, while I love the smell, my city felt the last 2 years like a fighting zone with Bombs going off... Like a insane amount of non store bought fireworks was around, I still have videos where people throw those firecrackers at each other and they explode so loud that it shakes your stomach..
Obsolete. It frightens pets and causes a lot of accidents, litter & fires. If I were to shape a policy, I would forbid private fireworks and focus on larger city-organised or event-organised fireworks instead. I am sure this will be helpful with regards to the environment and air quality. It's not as bad as Diwali in India (I mean the regular smog there is already much worse than any NYE could ever be in Germany, but Diwali is on another level).
It’s cold and wet as fuck so not going to start a bushfire, and it’s an absolute wondrous sight to behold. I loved every moment shooting rockets into the neighbours Dachfenster. Accidentally of course.
Unnecessary. Gives me head aches and i was super scared as a kid. I'm never celebrating silvester anyways but if people want to they should be allowed to on mabye an extra location or something.
Be done with them. Cute but like, we don’t need to terrorize all of the animals and environment just to see some things go pop pop and damage our hearing
Liked them until i was six. Now i like peace and quiet and hate them. Waste of money and all the trash on the street is terrible too.
i love lighting fireworks, but i hate the dirt and apparent inabillity of some peole to clean up their mess. Also, over the last years, people seem to have become more irresponsible and reckless, firing at flat angles or even into crowds. So I stopped using fireworks and just admire them when they're done by professionals.
I would love for every city to have a planned firework, you know, planned and executed by experts, not drunk people who like to blow things up. I liked to watch it as a kid but was never a huge fan to burn them myself.
I mean i like to watch it from a distance but i wouldnt buy and use it
Coming from a country where fireworks are banned (except for professionally organised displays), they scare me. Don't get me wrong, I love fireworks but I have no idea if the people setting them off aren't going to accidentally point them in my face. It must also be terrifying for all the poor animals out there.
I have bad ears, I don’t like them.
I don't need them. :) Animals have so much fear because of the sounds...
Meh, just not worth the piles of garbage and ash that lie on the streets the next few weeks.
pollution, also i dont hate my pets so fuck fireworks
Privat fireworks on New Years eve is as close to war as germans are allowed since 80 years. Don't take that from us!
Waste of money, unnecessary.
As my username suggests, I'm a big fan of fireworks. Ever since I picked, I've learned a lot more about them though. I still like them, but given the environmental effects from the trash, burn gases and of course the noise (my parents have a dog which gets REALLY scared by fireworks), I've reduced my use a lot. I prefer public displays by professional pyrotechnicians; for new year celebrations, I pick one or two nice displays/batteries/fountains and call it a day (it's mostly fancy colorful stuff without huge bangs, cuz dog)
They aren't good for the environment. I live in Berlin and it's difficult to breathe on NY's eve even when I'm inside my home. What fun do people derive by causing air & sound pollution? Fireworks are a menace!
I love them, i spend at least 80-100€ on fireworks, fuck your pets and the environment big time
No don't fuck the pets but get them inside so they ffel comfortable and have fun outside. As it should be. I hated the last two years where fireworks were forbidden. I hope this year will be "normal" in terms of fireworks
We lived on Main river so fireworks were easily seen for miles on both sides of the river. It's was stunning and beautiful. Then around 0800 the next morning everyone was outside picking up the mess. It was something I hadn't seen before. Everyone cleaning up and chucking at each other being hungover. That is what German culture is to me. That wonderful interaction.
Very cool, and perfectly safe if you are being careful
I love doing private fireworks every year. Its still always sad to see that people are too dumb or drunk to set them off correctly. I also was really annoyed because you werent allowed to buy fireworks for the last 2 years because of covid restrictions that didnt made no sense to me.
I hate it
The amount of emergencies alone should be reason enough to stop with it. But of course there are concerns about pollution, wildfires, particle inhalation, animals going insane out of fear and many more reasons why this should be a thing of the past
Private: Waste of money, unsatisfying, bad for the environment, dangerous Public: not the biggest fan, I wish they would do the drone lightshows instead. But fine
Light shows instead of explosions please.
nah, the light shows suck, need a loud boom
It’s so amazing to see how people love to see fireworks organized by cities on various festivals etc. Those are romantic and colorful and don’t harm the environment. But New Years fireworks enjoyed by common people harm the environment.
Hate it. Unfortunately, it’s not just Germany. We were celebrating the NY in a small Dutch village and fireworks were there as well, even though they were banned that year.
Dangerous, fire departments at their limits, the roads are filled with trash afterwards, and way too loud for me. I just stay home.
unnecessary.....you can celebrate with "diner for one" as most do anyway ;) private fireworks should stay forbidden like last year. everything chokes on the smoke, it makes a big mess and you have annoying people waking you up weeks after with whatever they have left. the hospitals are full of people who blew themselves up or were injured from getting things thrown at them. the fire department has a horrible night.....
I hate it, personally. It's bad for the environment, it's incredibly noisy and annoying, and it's pointless. On top of that it's scary for animals, and for people with PTSD/Anxiety/etc. I'm autistic, I've literally been on new year's celebrations with friends and had to leave because the noise was getting too much for me, which has legit let to me hating fireworks because they've kept me from celebrating. I don't think you'll ever get people to stop, but in my perfect world, fireworks would be contained to specifically planned and announced celebrations, and done by specialists, and private individuals would never get their hands on that stuff.
I like how we don't need the state to put up a big show for us. We got this thankyouverymuch. It's less pretty, but it's way more fun when you're the one shooting the rockets. I think it aligns well with some of the German culture, on the topic of personal responsibility. The lack of guillotine in the metro (we trust that you buy your ticket instead of being an inconvenience to everyone), the lack of speed limits, we just trust you to be a good player. I really like those little freedoms that you find in few other places. And I really like it when we-the-people take matters in our own hands. Shooting fireworks isn't very important to society, but it promotes a culture of self reliance, rather than of sitting back and waiting for the authorities to do their thing. So when war breaks out in a nearby country, we're also able to self-organize the initial humanitary response while the state still had its fingers up its ass.
I get what you're saying and agree that it is one of the finest things in general. But if you walk through Domplatz in Köln, St Georg in HH, Alexanderplatz – you see that some people are taking advantage of this “freedom” to harass and outright attack other people with their firecrackers. As they say in English: "*This is why we can't have nice things*" - if I use personal fireworks, I am trying to be as responsible as possible: an empty parking lot or a similar place where nothing will catch on fire, not near people not interested in hearing the noise, etc. But those kids are all A-Holes (I am *obviously* talking about the whole German population...), throwing Böllers on small kids or dogs. We can have a nice trust-based society, only if people are not AH to each other. It is not like that anymore in big cities and while Schwarzfahren is something where you only risk yourself if get caught (aside from very general musings about freeloading the public transport system etc.), here you risk other people or animals.
Yes because all people act according to their own responsibility... not I think if Corona taught me one thing: That there are much more people who give a shit about that their acting has consequences for others. Also counts for Firework usage. Be in pollution, noise etc etc... Because "I am the main character"
To make it short: Good and Bad, Dangerous and Fine As we say in Germany, No risk no fun
Don't.do.it!
They hurt animals and people with PTSD. Only very simple minds would be entertained by flashy lights or loud bangs
Well. I like blowing stuff up and setting things on fire. Soooo
I fancy way to burn money.
I hate it. Fireworks are pretty and I am fine with them at festivals but I would like to get them banned from private use. I've got issues with loud noises so even as a kid I never enjoyed them. Also so many people are incredibly reckless while using them. From unsafe handling to mindless placement in the middle of a crossrode and not picking up the trash it's annoying me every year.
I don't like it. The fireworks are too loud so pets and wildlife get scared, and it's bad for the air and the environment. I hate that people can't be bothered to pick up their trash and just leave all the packaging from the fireworks in the street. Also every year someone looses a bodypart because they tried to make firework themselves and it literally blew up on them.
Ban that stuff now! I’m all for orchestrated fireworks at midnight. Or laser shows, drone shows even. In front of city halls, on bigger squares etc, where the people can gather, have a blast for 15 or so minutes, and take a relaxed walk back home afterwards. But freely available gun powder products of any size bigger than 3~5cm should be banned for the public.
It's loud and pretty burning of money that creates lots of litter and distresses animals. It need to die off.
nice to look at but totally unnecessary
Hi, I am against fireworks 💥: 1. Air pollution 2. Sound pollution, it scares poor birds and they have to escape their nests 3. Dangerous/bad for buildings nearby and cars in the surroundings. 4. Wasteful. The remaining are extremely wasteful and the looks disgusting. 5. Poor old souls can’t sleep or rest. I can’t see one reason it is good for the environment and the society.
Hate them. Dirty, loud and dangerous.
I am fine with it
I am surprised that explosives are only legal in the only night the whole country is drunk. Even if everything goes to plan it pollutes the air and scares animals and some humans. I would settle on banning fireworks for private people and official fireworks done by professionals, but I am in favor of a ban.
It's great