A NEW era has begun for children in Berlin after the city government sealed their right to be heard as well as seen.
Until now, Berliners could – and did – complain in their thousands to local authorities about the noisy children at home or in playgrounds.
The complainers had the law on their side: children’s noise was in the same category as loud music or rubbish trucks – noise to be tolerated only in legally limited doses.
Successful complaints from grumpy neighbours forced many city kindergartens into a nomadic existence, moving on every time an injunction was lodged against them.
After lobbying by parent groups, the city government has reclassified noise by children as “an essential part of a child’s development” and put it in the same “tolerable” noise category as church bells and street-cleaning machines.
“We wanted to make the inner-city more attractive for families, and children are a part of that,” said Holger Thärichen of Berlin’s ruling Social Democrats (SPD). “That children’s noise is increasingly a source of conflict is an ominous sign for our society.”
Berlin is the first of Germany’s 16 federal states to regulate children’s noise in this way, creating pressure on the others to follow. The city’s opposition parties are not pleased with the development.
“Germany has to become more child-friendly in general but Berlin’s solo run sends the wrong signal,” said the liberal Free Democrats (FDP). “Instead we need this to be dealt with at federal level to prevent the division of the country into child-friendly and child-unfriendly federal states.” Berlin parents have welcomed the move.
“As a parent I’m aware of the need to keep the children’s noise in check, particularly in public spaces,” said Felix Nibbes, a 38-year-old father of two. “But I think this sends an important signal for those who live in the city but don’t want to have to put up with this kind of noise. Nobody would sue an autobahn for the noise it creates. It’s absurd we even needed anything like this.”
On Tuesday, a 35-year-old man in Frankfurt tried to push his way into the apartment of a neighbour, where two children were reportedly screaming. Wielding a penknife, he tried to stab the children’s father, who fended him off with an umbrella before calling the police.