Home » News » The cities and the noise – Freiburg

The cities and the noise – Freiburg

Loudspeaker boxes fill popular meeting places at night – Heidelberg has banned this.

. The noise problem caused by jukeboxes is a concern for many municipalities. What the city administration likes to call the “Freiburg Way” is common practice: addressing, lecturing and finally threatening to confiscate the loudspeakers. Apparently, this rarely happens, as a BZ survey suggests. A ban on using the boxes outdoors at night is considered legally difficult in many cities. Heidelberg, however, has just issued such a ban.

Almost every city has its hotspots, where mainly young people meet in the evenings as soon as it gets warm. In Freiburg, these are the square of the old synagogue in the center, recently the Moosweiher in Landwasser and, above all, the Seepark in Betzenhausen (BZ reported).

In Heidelberg this is the Neckarwiese. There have been many complaints about loud music there in recent years. In 2021, the statutes for the so-called Neckar foreland were tightened: Between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., neither instruments may be played nor jukeboxes operated. According to Timm Herre from the Public Relations Office, no one has challenged this legally. Most visitors obeyed the ban. The other cities, like Freiburg, leave it at the usual wording in the police ordinance, according to which “electro-acoustic devices for generating sounds” may only be used in such a way that they “do not significantly annoy others”. A ban can hardly be implemented legally, says the regulatory department of the city of Augsburg.

A spokesman for the Kassel city administration announced that neither a ban nor a special police ordinance was required to counter misconduct. How often residents complain is not recorded in Kassel.

However, it is counted how many Bluetooth boxes were confiscated after unsuccessful addressing and instruction: ten last year in combination with a fine of 100 euros. There were 22 devices in Heidelberg, where a fine was only due once.

Spokesman Martin Thronberens announced that the state capital of Stuttgart managed last year without any confiscation or buoy proceedings. There are no figures for complaints about loud jukeboxes. There are no special hotspots. Augsburg can also be happy about this. The regulatory department speaks of a “low number of complaints or hardly any problems”. Despite this, a fine of 55 euros was issued 72 times last year for violating the noise protection ordinance.

The situation in Krefeld on the Lower Rhine is relaxed: city spokesman Sebastian Peters reports that “so far this year there has only been one report of noise pollution from Bluetooth boxes”.

Halle an der Saale follows the same principle as most cities. In the event of violations, the city intervenes together with the police “as appropriate and as best as possible,” says spokesman Drago Bock. Evictions, penalty procedures – and “in individual cases” boxes would also be secured. However, close-meshed controls only trigger crowding-out effects. Halle is therefore starting a new offer in June: until August, part of the Ziegelwiese will be a youth meeting place with lighting and toilets every Saturday from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

This is reminiscent of last year’s attempt to establish Eschholzpark as an overflow valve in Freiburg. Incidentally, unlike in Freiburg, Halle has had its prison service on duty around the clock since June 1st, together with the police, every day.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.