Two teenagers have died in Germany due to fireworks during New Year’s celebrations. Four other fire-related deaths are under investigation. In Berlin alone, 420 people were arrested for throwing rockets and firecrackers into prohibited areas or at police. The results are, however, lower than in 2025, when the debate on the ban on private fireworks on New Year’s Eve gained momentum in the country.
The new year has been particularly violent in parts of Europe. In addition to the fire in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, which killed at least 40 people and which could have been started by fireworks inside a bar, Amsterdam and several Dutch cities experienced a night of chaos.
It was the last New Year celebration with fireworks in the country, banned by decision of the Dutch Parliament from next year. Fires, injuries and arrests were recorded. At least two people died.
A historic church, Vondelkerk, lost one of its towers to the flames. The 19th century building in the center of the Dutch capital is in danger of collapsing. Authorities are investigating whether the fire was caused by fireworks.
Almost everything in the new year revolved around them. Near the Belgian border, police were greeted with Molotov cocktails and stones torn from the sidewalk.
Perhaps not to this extent, we expected confusion. The looming ban forced the Dutch to spend 128 million euros (812.4 million reais) on fireworks for New Year’s Eve, compared to 119 million euros for the previous celebration. Illegal imports have also skyrocketed, with 112 tonnes of material seized through last month.
The indirect encouragement of clandestine trade is one of the central points of the debate in Germany, where the purchase and use of fireworks is already quite limited. Purchase is only authorized from December 29, which causes a real rush in stores and at the borders: the temporary trade in fireworks is a profitable activity in Polish and Czech localities near the border.
The launching of fireworks is only allowed during hours, from the 31st to the early morning of the 1st, transforming certain regions of the country into veritable war zones. Rival groups clash with firecrackers and rockets; police officers and firefighters, normally called to intervene in the event of an incident, are also in the line of fire.
Last New Year, 30 officers walked away with minor injuries from the operation in Berlin, which brought together 3,800 police officers. Iris Spranger, senator of the interior of the city-state, a position equivalent to a state secretariat, praised the work of the security forces.
“The combination of prevention, comprehensive preliminary measures such as stops and searches and the decisive intervention of the Berlin police on New Year’s Eve proved to be the right approach,” the senator said this Thursday morning (1st).
According to the operation report, 220,000 fireworks were seized, almost half of which belonged to dangerous categories, such as spherical bombs and rockets. An artifact of this type caused a sensation last year. An influencer of Palestinian origin published a video on social networks in which he appears launching a rocket and causing a building to burn down.
The post sparked outrage and the influencer ended up being arrested a few days later at Berlin airport while trying to fly abroad. In total, the transition from 2024 to 2025 resulted in five deaths and dozens of injuries linked to fireworks.
Last New Year’s Eve, for which there is no official number of victims yet, collected reports. In one Berlin hospital alone, 30 people were treated for serious hand injuries; eight were children or adolescents. Eleven firefighters were attacked with fireworks. Ambulances were called 970 times. A tram station caught fire. Seven individuals were arrested for aggravated assault.
And of course, calls for a total ban have been renewed. Following the German Medical Association’s recommendation made last weekend, the union representing police officers, Germany’s largest and oldest environmental association and 64 other entities demanded a permanent ban on fireworks in the country on Thursday.
In addition to concerns about public safety, there are potential effects on vulnerable people, animals, nature and air pollution. There is no debate about silent fires, as there is in Brazil.
The spokesperson for the police union, in an interview with the newspaper Bild, also demanded more flexibility from the judiciary in sanctions. The responsibility of those who set off the fireworks is not easy to determine, which reinforces the challenge to the law, which is federal.
Spranger, the senator, defended at least more autonomy in this matter for the States. This would make it easier, for example, to demarcate areas in which the throwing of objects is permitted. In Berlin, the ban on rockets at Alexanderplatz, one of the capital’s busiest tourist attractions, was celebrated by locals and tourists.
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