The new year 2023 has begun. At midnight, people all over Germany celebrated the turn of the year more exuberantly than the last two times – now without corona restrictions for parties.
It was exceptionally mild at night and during the day, with double-digit temperatures in many places. In four places, the German weather service even measured 20 degrees and more – it was warmest on New Year’s Eve in Wielenbach in Upper Bavaria with 20.8 degrees around 2 p.m. Up to 20 degrees are also expected in the southwest on New Year’s Day.
Unlike in the past two years, when there was a ban on the sale of fireworks due to the pandemic and to relieve hospitals of additional patients, this time firecrackers were available to buy again before New Year’s Eve. Therefore, more emergencies were expected.
Light show instead of fireworks in Berlin
The traditional party at the Brandenburg Gate was smaller than before – with an audience of a few thousand people. At midnight there was no fireworks, but a light show. Shortly before, the Scorpions played a new version of their anthem “Wind of Change”. Because of Russia’s war against Ukraine, they slightly adjusted the text in the spring.
The celebration, which was broadcast on ZDF and also featured performances by Sasha, Malik Harris and DJ Bobo, also took place on Pariser Platz, i.e. on the east side of the gate. Before Corona, tens of thousands celebrated the turn of the year between the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column, which was described as the largest New Year’s Eve party in Germany.
In many cities, people fired rockets again. In Frankfurt am Main, hundreds of people gathered on the banks of the Main to welcome the new year. At 11 p.m., the police blocked the “Eiserner Steg” pedestrian bridge, where many revelers traditionally watch the New Year’s Eve fireworks in front of the Frankfurt skyline. “It would just be too dangerous to let more people onto the bridge,” said a police spokesman.
Ukrainians welcome the New Year
The new year in Ukraine, which was ravaged by the Russian war of aggression, began an hour before Germany. Despite the war, many Ukrainians insisted on receiving New Year’s presents and feasts.
In Germany, before New Year’s Eve, the debate about the sense and nonsense of firecrackers in the light of climate protection, noise, air pollution and aggression as well as animal welfare flared up again.
Fire brigade and police deployed nationwide to a large number of operations. Already on Friday and during the day there had been reports from several regions of Germany about injuries, fires and riots.
Injuries caused by pyrotechnics
In general, the lighting of pyrotechnics is only allowed on New Year’s Eve, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on New Year’s morning.
In Frankfurt/Main, a New Year’s Eve rocket ignited in front of a high-rise building set fire to a sixth-floor balcony and then the apartment. A woman suffered smoke inhalation.
Two men were injured in an explosion in the basement of a residential building in Teupitz, Brandenburg. Fire broke out. The police said pyrotechnics had been used.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, eleven-year-olds in Ellerstadt and Wörth am Rhein suffered burns from fireworks that others threw at them.
In other countries, people have to be a little more patient than in Germany: parts of Brazil and Argentina can only welcome the New Year at 4:00 a.m. CET, followed by New York at 6:00 a.m. and Honolulu in Hawaii at 11:00 a.m.
The residents of the South Sea island of Kiritimati were the first in the world to start the new year on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. German time. Samoa, which abolished daylight saving time this year, followed for the first time an hour later – at the same time as New Zealand and Tonga. At 2 p.m. German time, the traditional giant fireworks were ignited in Sydney, Australia, at the turn of the year. Later, for example, there were fireworks at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world.
