Berlin rolls out record police presence for New Year’s Eve

Berlin is gearing up for its biggest police operation in decades on Sunday as fears grow of a repeat of widescale rioting last New Year’s Eve that prompted conservatives to brand the capital a “city of chaos”.

The streets of the German capital will see twice as many officers deployed as on the night of December 31 last year which saw running battles between police and youths who attacked them with firecrackers and rockets.

That violence was a key factor in the shock victory of conservatives in citywide elections in February that brought an end to 22 years of rule by the left-of-centre Social Democrats (SPD), the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The city government led by the Christian Democrats (CDU) will be under intense pressure to demonstrate it has turned the page and can do a better job of upholding law and order than the SPD-led administration it replaced.

To that end, it has drafted in 3,500 policemen from Berlin itself and from the nearby federal states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt to maintain order in the capital. 

“It is the biggest New Year’s Eve deployment we’ve seen in decades,” said Barbara Slowik, Berlin’s police chief.

Yet many officials fear the potential for violence has grown significantly in the past few months following Hamas’s rampage through Israel on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent bombardment and invasion of Gaza.

Berlin has seen a wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations since then, often in areas that were the scenes of violence on last New Year’s Eve.

“We’re aware of the fact that the security situation in our city is more tense since October 7 than it was previously,” said Kai Wegner, Berlin’s mayor.

New Year’s Eve in Germany is frequently an excuse for young people to set off rounds of fireworks in densely populated residential areas that within hours can look and sound like war zones, with frequent ear-splitting explosions, plumes of black smoke and ambulance sirens.

But last year’s celebrations in the capital quickly descended into alcohol-fuelled violence, as bands of young men set fire to cars and buses, aimed fireworks directly at policemen and fire engines and ambushed and attacked emergency services. 

The fact that many of the attackers were from immigrant backgrounds triggered a nationwide bout of soul-searching that continued for months. Conservative commentators said the violence proved Germany had failed to integrate the many refugees that arrived in the big migrant influx of 2015-16. Markus Söder, the prime minister of Bavaria, said that Berlin was fast becoming a “city of chaos”.

Authorities have turned to social media to try to prevent a repetition of last year’s lawlessness. In one video posted on X, two police officers and a firefighter implore people not to attack them with firecrackers, “give us space” to work and to “follow our orders”.

Those who ignore the warnings “will be liable to prosecution and risk several years in jail”, the three say. “Don’t ruin your future. And have some respect for us — the people who are there for you and your families.”

Police have also been holding meetings with local youths in “problem” neighbourhoods such as Wedding and Neukölln, to inform them about their work and push for a more respectful attitude to police and firefighters.

In addition, security measures are being beefed up, with more officers equipped with bodycams and tasers. Police say that those suspected of violent behaviour will be brought to a central assembly point where emergency prosecutors can apply for arrest warrants and remand them in custody for up to 48 hours if they are seen as representing a danger to public order and security.

To forestall the danger of clashes, authorities have also created three “firework-free” zones in the city, one of which, the area round Sonnenallee, was one of the biggest flashpoints of last year’s riots and a focus of many of the pro-Palestinians protests of recent weeks.

But some officials question the effectiveness of such measures.

Martin Hikel, mayor of Neukölln, where much of the violence a year ago was concentrated, said such zones tie down police. He has called instead for a nationwide ban on the sale of fireworks, coupled with limited displays at a few central locations. 

“Better to set off a few nice rockets at Neukölln City Hall than let every Tom, Dick or Harry set off firecrackers wherever they like,” he told the Berliner Morgenpost.

Manuel Barth of the firefighters’ union said the weather could potentially provide the best deterrence. “One to two degrees [Celsius] and horizontal rain would be perfect,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “In such conditions no one wants to hang about on the streets.”