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Berlin (dpa / bb) - If you care about your health, you were well advised to avoid some streets in Berlin on New Year's Eve of past years: rockets and firecrackers were hissing and pounding uncontrollably from all sides in the bright hours of the day.
Frightened passers-by zigzagged their way through the alleys and growled something of war-like conditions.
The later the evening, the worse it got.
In the days before, no one could really believe that things would be different this year.
But the efforts to keep the Berlin New Year's Eve night in the pandemic year 2020 as quiet as possible seem to have worked.
In Neukölln, Kreuzberg, Wedding and many other neighborhoods, many firecrackers and rockets cracked in the evening hours and at midnight the streets in many places were almost as loud as in normal years.
The accident hospital also tweeted about 8 p.m. from the first patient with “# Böllerschmerz”.
More reports of injuries followed.
But the assessment of the police did not change after midnight: "The situation cannot be compared with previous years," said police spokeswoman Patricia Brämer.
"We would like to thank the many Berliners who have adhered to the regulations."
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Due to the Corona crisis, there had been a few of them this year: The Berlin Senate had determined more than 50 restricted areas in which one was not allowed to linger or bark on New Year's Eve.
In supermarkets and late night shops there was a ban on the sale of alcohol from the early afternoon and the trade in fireworks was also banned that year.
The goal: to avoid crowds in the Corona crisis and above all to keep the stress in the emergency rooms as low as possible.
Fears remained that in a city like Berlin hardly anyone would adhere to the measures.
The head of the police union (GdP), Norbert Cioma, called the construct with dozens of firecrackers prohibition zones the day before "madness" and warned of attacks and attacks on the emergency services.
In addition, there were concerns of the Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik about illegal demonstrations by self-proclaimed "lateral thinkers" or left-wing extremists.
As usual, the police and fire brigade had prepared for New Year's Eve with numerous additional workers.
2900 police officers were on duty, a police helicopter circled over the districts in order to be able to better oversee the situation.
The fire brigade was on the road with around 850 members of the professional fire brigade and more than 520 volunteers from the volunteer fire brigades.
Around three and a half hours after the start of the mission at 7 p.m., the emergency services reported almost 135 rescue missions and around 30 fires.
Serious injuries caused by firecrackers were also included, which had occurred in at least one case in a firefighting zone, as the fire department announced.
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But the usual hotspots of the past few years - for example at Hermannplatz in Neukölln, Innsbrucker Platz in Schöneberg or Alexanderplatz, were in part as if swept empty.
Not even a trace of prohibited demonstrations.
Still, the police had plenty to do.
In many places the officials had to break up smaller groups of people again and again.
More than 80 people were temporarily detained by the police for violating the Infection Protection Act, a spokesman said.
At least three officers were slightly injured in action, but were able to continue the service.
«Igniting pyro, firing alarm guns, consuming alcohol - those from our college.
The recorded personal data fill several advertisements », the police announced on Twitter in the early evening.
Most Berliners, however, celebrated the New Year calmly and in small groups.
The measures met with understanding from many.
Some, like 49-year-old Stefan, who was walking with a friend in Neukölln, even thought it was “very good that there is less shooting”.
Two 25-year-old women were also able to “fully understand” the ban, but were also a little happy about the civil disobedience they saw on the street.
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Hardly anyone got lost at the Brandenburg Gate, where the largest New Year's Eve party in the country was traditionally celebrated in previous years.
Now pop star Jürgen Drews or the band Karat played for the live broadcast of the ZDF New Year's Eve show - but without an audience on site.
The station canceled the traditional fireworks display.
The Berlin fire brigade christened its nightly mission "State of emergency New Year's Eve".
Berlin was in a state of emergency on New Year's Eve in the 2020 pandemic year.
But mainly because that night had nothing to do with the usual chaos, the many tourists, the noise and the parties.
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