Dystopian nightmare, we’re all in it. And it comes in the most moronic, idiotic form.
Heard some rumours of nastiness in Berlin at Silvester, but couldn’t find much online about it. Then yesterday, a friend (F 60+) told us that fireworks were fired at her as she was cycling home. She said there was a really hostile atmosphere.
It’s always been chaotic, but seems to have got out of hand recently.
Can anyone confirm that?
I saw quite a bit of footage on Tagesschau, but my son sent me some phone footage of fireworks (rockets etc) being let off in Bremen next to the tram station. By let off, I mean rockets aimed at objects and, presumably, people for shits and giggles.
This was the Tagesschau report, specifically about the Kugelbomben:
Thanks RW 
Yeah, firing rockets at people is clearly unacceptable, but elderly ladies on bicycles? Wtf?!
Sorry I’m a bit late with this, but it takes a while for news to filter down here.
I’ve gotta say, they do it much better in Sydney. There is the famous organised display on the harbour and smaller displays in the suburbs and no private fireworks at all. Everything is much safer and more enjoyable. There are crowds around Circular Quay, of course, but the display is visible from a large area. Berlin could do something similar on Tempelhofer Feld.
If it is possible to have a total ban here, why not in Germany? I’m surprised that the CDU are against it as they are usually for law and order.
There’s an election coming up, so they probably don’t want to alienate any of the demographic (I’m assuming that the more conservative voters that would be in favour of it would vote for them anyway)
I could see a restriction on the more extreme fireworks, but these seem to come from dubious sources anyway. They don’t sell that kind of thing in Lidl.
Nah, firework bans are seen as snowflake, woke lefty pussy stuff. The CDU attitude towards it is more akin to Republicans and guns. It’s not the fireworks, it’s the people using them. Which usually means certain demographics.
Scholz being a tone deaf dick. For non German speakers, he calls the idea of banning private fireworks after yet another deadly New Year ‘somehow strange’.
For once, I agree with Scholz. In Norway, we are only allowed to fire up batteries in private, no longer rockets with stearing sticks and New Year’s Eve is not the same. I deeply, deeply miss firing up real rockets and the chaos in the night sky when they come left, right, from all directions; instead of this sterile boring syncronised and dead nonsense that is fireworks in the sky these days.
I really, really miss the days before the rocket ban (and yes, I know all the reasons behind it, thank you very much, we were all bombarded with eye damage/alcohol/irresponsible type blah blah propaganda for years prior to the hated ban). if the state banned the batteries too, I for one would break the law. There is a limit to how much authoritarianism I accept and fireworks is a very old pet peeve for me. I deeply, deeply resent the ban. Again, batteries are boring. The sky, the joy of old, everything is inferior these days and the child in me rages against it.
These days, I am a grown man, getting older, so i suppose it is the “Old Man Yelling at Sky” thing going on (yes, I have self irony), but I am 100 percent inflexible in this matter. The various arguments people peddle today (usually involves pets) has zero effect on me (cats and dogs survived fine getting scared a single day in the year during the 80s and 90s, when we had real rockets everywhere and the argument does not move me the slightest, as we alwyas had several cats, none of which were damaged by it).
So yes, I am that childish and yes, this topic gets up during family dinners at New Year’s Eve and January the 1st, every single year since the ban and I get worked up in anger every single year ! 
It’s an infamous topic in our family, I am afraid.
It’s not about pets, it’s about people firing rockets at passers by and injury and death.
It may be fun in a village in Norway, but in the centre of Berlin it’s a war zone.
It’s no more authoritarian than a speed limit.
But don’t you have zones in cities where it is allowed to fire it up and where it is not ? I mean, we had that before the ban in cities and towns and no one (that I know of) got angry due to such a limitation. It is the blanket ban I annually rage against, not what you are talking about. Just to clarify.
Anyway, it was one of the primary reasons why the countryside was so much greater during New Year’s Eve than in say, Oslo. We could fire it up anywhere, our night sky was awesome, they were penned inside their zones in their cities and towns, with their much more expensive firework show, but it was sterile compared to our lovely chaos. But these days, there are only batteries even in the country side due to the many voices who worked for years to get a ban (primarily doctors, and it’s not that I don’t have sympathy for it, I just strongly disagree since it took the life out of the celebration for many).
Bah, I get grumpy just thinking about this. And wistful. The good old days. poor kids growing up these days, they have no idea what they are missing out on…
Grumbles and goes off to bed, shaking fist
Guess what, I get grumpy too.
Yes, I’m talking about a blanket ban. It works beautifully here in Sydney and you still get to see one of the greatest firework displays on Earth. No one here is complaining that they didn’t celebrate the New Year with incendiary devices whistling past their ears.
I want a city where me and my friends can go out in the street without fear of physical harm. Firing rockets at people is assault. It has nothing to do with having fun and everything to do with antisocial violence.
Your arguments are selfish and entitled.
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In Cologne it slowly started to get bad with the fireworks about 20 yrs ago. Used to go to the Rhine bridges on midnight, but around that time it turned into a battle zone, where people were firing into the crowd, people fleeing on the staircases so they shot at them. Loads of illegal stuff that will blow your ears out and make the whole street shake, people throwing firework stuff in subway trains before the door closes. Mate of mine had severe burns when someone fired into a crowd and it got stuck in his hoodie.
They have ban areas now, but then people just move right outside the area and it’s hellish there then.
That being said, for some reason, this year seemed quieter and slightly less aggressive here, but maybe that was just my impression.
Oh fuck off !
Let’s change subject instead.
Knowledge of a foreign language is apparently a reason for deportation 
https://x.com/Der_Postillon/status/1879808329943282029
where do I go now?
Please don´t ask me about the source