Berlin has long maintained strict environmental regulations under the Berlin Nature Conservation Act (Berliner Naturschutzgesetz), which generally prohibits the use of de-icing salts (Streusalz or Tausalz) and other chemical melting agents on sidewalks, stairs, pedestrian paths, and private properties.

The primary reason is to protect urban trees, vegetation, soil, groundwater, and infrastructure from salt damage- salt is only allowed on certain major roads and specific high-traffic areas managed by the city sanitation service (BSR).

Due to repeated snowfall, freezing rain, and persistent black ice since early January 2026, sidewalks and stairs across the city became extremely hazardous.

This led to a significant surge in slip-and-fall injuries:

• Hospitals, including the Charité (a major university hospital) and specialized trauma centers like the BG Klinikum Unfallkrankenhaus, reported being overwhelmed.
• Daily figures included 30–40+ patients per day at some facilities with injuries such as wrist fractures (distal radius), shoulder injuries, ankle fractures, hip/femoral neck fractures (especially in older people), head injuries, and in severe cases, risks of permanent damage like paralysis.
• Emergency rooms faced long wait times, “full house” conditions, and extra staffing needs to handle the influx, with some accounts describing hundreds of cases overall amid the prolonged freeze.

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From eugyppius: a plague chronicle

By Eugyppius

A hospital spokeswoman has urged Berliners to attach spikes to their shoes and try “walking like penguins” to avoid falling in the treacherous conditions that have plagued the city for weeks.

Repeated snowfall and freezing rain have coated the open-air insane asylum known as Berlin in a thin sheet of slippery ice since the beginning of January. To spare plants, city environmental laws have long forbidden using salt on pedestrian paths and stairways, and so residents have been falling and injuring themselves at such high rates that emergency rooms have had trouble keeping up:

Berlin’s emergency rooms are working flat out due to the icy conditions. At the BG Accident Hospital in Berlin, staff are “close to the limit,” press spokeswoman Angela Kijewski told Apollo News. On Thursday alone, there were 100 injuries due to slippery sidewalks and roads. These included bruises, broken bones and traumatic brain injuries. One patient has even suffered paraplegia.

As the press spokeswoman reported … in the last few days since the ice storm, staff have typically had to treat 50 to 70 patients a day who have been injured due to the slippery conditions. The hospital is responsible for work-related accidents and accidents on the way to work and is therefore prepared for large-scale emergencies – with the appropriate equipment and personnel. But even there, the slippery conditions are pushing them to their limits.

“Our surgeons are operating into the night,” Kijewski said …. Many of the patients require immediate surgery, while in other cases, fractures must first be immobilized with a cast and allowed to heal before further treatment can be given.

Kijewski urged Berliners to “attach spikes to their shoes for better grip,” because everybody has a few pairs of crampons just lying around, and she also amazingly suggested that residents try “walking like penguins” to avoid slipping.

For weeks, politicians have resisted relaxing their salt prohibition, despite the danger to life and limb. SPD “environmental expert” Linda Vierecke, for example, pronounced herself “sceptical” about any changes because the salt is bad for the trees. Somehow the extensive salt that the city already uses to de-ice motorways, other public transit routes and bike paths is okay though.

This morning, Berlin’s hapless Governing Mayor, Kai Wegner, appealed to the House of Representatives “to allow the use of de-icing salt in exceptional cases” to “alleviate the dangerous situation.” After everybody had a good laugh at Wegner for his impotent social media appeals, the man discovered that he is actually in charge of the whole executive and that he can just do things:

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner has … commented in a press release: “The safety of Berliners is my top priority. That is why I have instructed the Senator for Transport today to issue a general ruling without delay, allowing private individuals and the VSR to use road salt on sidewalks to remove the ice cover.” Wegner further emphasized that he was aware that this decision was “associated with legal uncertainties.” Nevertheless, he considered it appropriate due to the “special situation.” “There is still a need for the fastest possible legal regulation to create legal certainty for the future. We will continue to discuss this in the coalition in the near future.”

Of course, Wegner could’ve waived these retarded rules weeks ago before all those elderly people ended up with grievous injuries in overflowing emergency rooms. At least the harm to Berlin’s trees has been minimised, I guess.

This article originally appeared on Eugyppius’s Substack newsletter. You can subscribe here.