View of the German capital: The powder keg of Berlin is barely under control

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Berlin-Neukölln, 1:30 am on New Year’s morning. We Blick reporters keep our feet on the ground. A few meters in front of us is a fireworks rocket pointing straight in our direction. The thing bursts into the entrance of a house – a deafening bang makes your ears ring.

Such scenes, which may seem completely bizarre to relaxing visitors from Switzerland, are everyday life in Berlin at the turn of the year. Nerves are constantly fluttering on the street. And unlike Switzerland, the thunderstorms here are different. Illegally imported “Poland fireworks” sound like hand grenades. Even on the touristy Alexanderplatz there is activity almost every second from early New Year’s Eve to New Year’s morning. “This is Berlin,” they say here.

However, the bursts from blank pistols are incomparable. Men, even in old age, stand on the sidewalks, raise their armed hands to the sky and pull the trigger until the magazine is empty. These weapons are banned in Germany. And: Nobody knows whether they are really just blank weapons.

Legal vacuums eradicated

A year ago the chaos here was much worse. Emergency services, including ambulances and fire trucks, were shot at, pelted and injured with fireworks. The police couldn’t keep up and were overwhelmed. Lawless spaces emerged on the streets. Problem child Berlin was once again in the international news.

To deal with the wild scenes a year ago, the police deployed a huge contingent in the capital this year. 4,000 police officers, about a quarter of all police forces in Switzerland and twice as many as at the turn of the year, had to ensure order and put the chaotic people in their place.

In the New Year’s Eve report from the Berlin police on Monday, they also reported: “Operational concept successful.”

More injured emergency services

As expected, the fire brigade, ambulance and police were also attacked this year. Berlin police reported Monday morning that 54 police officers were injured on New Year’s Eve, 30 of them by fireworks. That’s a handful more than last year. A police officer remains in hospital with serious injuries. Nearly 400 people were arrested.

Bright spot: neither the fire brigade nor the ambulance were injured.

“They only want to do harm”

Blick could talk to bawling young adults. “I don’t want to endanger other people. “I’ll be careful,” says Eko* (22), shortly before his dog shoots a rocket from his hand into the air.

A taxi driver and father is specific about the chaotic people: “They only want to do harm.” But they also receive too much media attention, he notes. After all, the chaotic people only make up a small percentage of the metropolis of 4 million inhabitants.

In a conversation with Blick it becomes clear: Berliners do not want to simply accept that blue light organizations suddenly end up in the hail of missiles.

“Please don’t attack us”

But now, a few hours after New Year’s Eve, the outlook is mixed. With almost twice as many emergency services, the Berlin powder keg is barely under control. You don’t want to imagine what firecracker gangs could do if they organized themselves a little better.

Preventive measures and the way in which the Berlin emergency services advised the chaotic population not to attack them in the run-up to New Year’s Eve were hardly heard.

The police cannot solve the problem

Lots of police in riot gear and fully occupied vans speeding through the city with flashing lights – that’s the language the firecracker chaos will probably understand.

The solution to the problem does not lie in the power of the Berlin police, but in politics and society. If the problem areas in Berlin are further downplayed and the formation of parallel societies is accepted, New Year’s Eve with fewer than 4,000 police officers will probably become a thing of the past in the future.

*Name known

Source: Blick