Four-week ban on weapons at Berlin train stations

For four weeks, a number of weapons are banned at certain train stations in Berlin. (symbolic image)

The Federal Police once again impose a ban on knives, axes, baseball bats and other dangerous objects at some Berlin train stations.

It therefore applies from next Monday and ends at 4 a.m. on June 30. The ban is limited to the period from 2 p.m. to 4 a.m. the following day.

Twelve stations affected

According to the Federal Police, the stations affected are Hauptbahnhof, Zoologischer Garten, Friedrichstraße, Alexanderplatz, Gesundbrunnen, Spandau, Ostbahnhof, Warschauer Straße, Ostkreuz, Lichtenberg, Neukölln and Südkreuz. According to a spokesperson, the list of prohibited items is constantly being updated. Currently, firearms of all kinds, such as pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, air, spring and pellet guns and rifles are also banned. Scissors with a blade length of more than six centimetres, hatchets and cleavers, swords and sabres, ice axes and ice picks, baseball and softball bats, clubs and batons such as deadly clubs and crowbars are also prohibited. Bows, crossbows and arrows, slingshots and catapults may also not be taken onto the stations.

Ban is intended to prevent violent punishments

According to the Federal Police, violence at train stations has increased. The ban is intended to prevent violent crimes and protect fellow passengers and police officers. Federal police officers will monitor and control compliance with the ban. In the event of violations, the items can be seized and a fine threatened or imposed. There have already been similar bans in the past, even over several weeks, said a Federal Police spokesperson. "The period is appropriate because the outdoor season is now starting," he explained with regard to the current ban.

Gun and knife ban planned for public transport

The Senate Interior Administration is planning a ban on weapons and knives on all local public transport in the capital. When exactly the ban will come is still open. The police in Berlin register an average of ten knife attacks per day. Since February, there have been three no-knife zones designated by the Senate at the crime hotspots Leopoldplatz, Görlitzer Park and Kottbusser Tor. The police can carry out checks here regardless of concrete suspicions. There had been discussions throughout the city, including in the black-red Senate, about extending this for some time. A serious knife attack, as a result of which two people died, had recently accelerated the political process.