Smoking in Germany

Smoking in Germany is at one of Europe's highest smoking rates; Germany's patchwork of smoking bans continue to be contested.

Historical development in the German states

In Berlin, the non-smoking law came into effect on 1 January 2007. The Federal Constitutional Court ruled on the legislation at the end of July and decided that small bars (often called corner bars) were at a disadvantage in the legislation, as they could not provide a separate smoking area. The senate must now submit a new law by the end of 2009. In the transition period, smoking is permitted in bars under certain conditions (provided it is not larger than 75 square metres and has only one guest room). In addition, the bar may not serve meals (only snacks), may not allow minors to enter and must post a sign saying that the bar is for smokers. In practice, the smoking ban is generally observed in cafés, theatres and restaurants (where food is served), but not in bars. Clubs and discos must, officially, have a separate smoking room, but as controllers do not work past 10pm, these laws are not enforced.

In August 2007, the states of Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony banned smoking in restaurants, bars and clubs. In October 2007 Hesse also passed a law with similar regulations. Most of the other German states followed in January 2008, though many of these bans still allow smoking in separate ventilated rooms.

Certain states, North Rhine-Westphalia being one, were given a reprieve, and the imposition of the ban was extended to 1 July 2008. However since then, many bars are attempting to make themselves smoking "clubs", whereby the members sign up, and are allowed to smoke. Whether this tactic will succeed long term remains to be seen.

Bavaria pretended to have the strictest non-smoker rules, however there was a loophole allowing for smoking in "private clubs" and the subsequent changing of thousands of bars into "private clubs" made the law ineffective. Nevertheless, discontent against the new rules was blamed for the disappointing electoral results of the long-time leading party - CSU - in the 2008 election. Using this pretext, new rules allowing for more smoking in bars and restaurants have been introduced. However, a call for a referendum by opposition parties and NGOs succeeded in collecting the necessary signatures for launching the Bavarian referendum procedure. This procedure consists of three steps: private collection of signatures in the streets (validated), official collection of signatures in townhalls (from 19 November 2009 to 2 December 2009) and eventually the referendum proper. The referendum called for a smoking ban in all bars and restaurants, without the previous loopholes. On the 4th of July, the referendum was held and passed by a majority of 61% to 39%. From 1 August 2010, all loopholes will be closed and there should, theoretically, be no smoking at all indoors. Previous lack of enforcement means however that smoke free bars and restaurants might still not be universal in the state.

After the 2009 election in the state of Saarland, the Green party became indispensable for both possible coalitions (either SPD-The Left-Greens or CDU-FDP-Greens). The Green party made a ban in all bars and restaurants on the conditions for negotiations with any party and eventually the coalition treaty of the now governing CDU-FDP-Greens coalition stipulates that the smoking ban shall be extended to all bars and restaurants.

In the city-state of Hamburg negotiations within the governing CDU-Greens coalition are still going on.

Smoking is banned on public transport, hospitals, airports and in public and federal buildings, including the parliament.

In February, 2009, Der Spiegel reported that the smoking bans in bars are being very weakly controlled by the authorities, and in many places the ban is not observed at all.

Smoking prevention in schools

The German Cancer Aid is the leading supporter of the “Smokefree Class Competition”, the largest school-based smoking prevention program in Europe. The goal of this organization, founded by the late German First Lady Mildred Scheel is, to create a class climate that denormalizes smoking. The German slogan for the campaign is: Be smart - don't start.

The idea of the Smokefree Class Competition was first established in Finland in 1989. In the school-year 1997/1998 the Smokefree Class Competition was carried out on a European level for the first time. World-wide, Algeria, Canada, Israel, Russia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates have noticed the project.

The managing director of German Cancer Aid, Gerd Nettekoven, said: In the school-year 2009/2010 the competition was carried out in the following countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom(Wales). According to the statistics Germany had the highest success.

See also

• Anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany