Knife laws in Germany and Switzerland?

bquinlan

bquinlan

Joined
Jan 5, 2001
Messages
2,726
Can anyone tell me about the knife laws in Germany and Switzerland? A friend of mine will be visiting in a few months and would like to know what he can carry. (His normal carry includes a Kershaw Boa, a Spyderco SpyderCard, and a Victorinox Tinker.) I know he will be spending some time in Dusseldorf, but I'm not sure what other cities he'll be in.

Can anyone from that part of the world help me out with some info? It would be helpful to know both what is legal and what is socially acceptible.

Thanks!

--Bob Q
 
I can only speak for Germany. Balisongs, pushdaggers, automatics with a blade length exceeding 8.5 cm, and all OTFs are forbidden. None of the knives of your friend should be a problem, they are all sold openly here. Knives "intended as weapons"(daggers, and whatever else that means) are generally OK as long as one is over eighteen; they may not be carried on public festivities and demonstrations, though.

I would not expect many metal-detectors other than those at the airport and in court houses. Personally, I have never been searched anywhere but the airport.

As for what is socially acceptable, I doubt a general answer can be given to this. I would think we have the same proportions of reasonable people and sheeple here as anywhere else.
 
I made a search about laws in Germany regarding knife carrying and I found that would be a good occasion to bring back this post to the front. I have another question about what you can/cannot carry in Germany: what are the constraints on fixed blades? I'm not talking about bayonnets nor anything that would be considered as a weapon de facto of course, but hunting or utility blades ?

thanks for any useful input!

Xavier.

__________________
If you Talk to the Animals, They will talk with you
And you will know each other
If you do not talk to them, You will not know them,
And what you do not know You will fear,
What one fears, one destroys.

Chief Dan George.
 
Hello,

I live in Germany so I can tell you that it is allowed to carry these three knives in Germany. One-hand-folders, Victorinox knives and Sydercard are allowed.

greets from Ger
swift
 
Germany is a great source for Boker automatics. Just buy 'em in shops!
'course--you don't want those customs guys finding them in your suitcase :D
 
I was in Switzerland twice in August and asked the man I was working with if my one-hand opening large Victorinox was legal. He said yes. To the best of his knowledge the law was the blade of your folder could not be wider than your hand (about 4 inches) and that automatics were not legal.
 
John A. Larsen said:
To the best of his knowledge the law was the blade of your folder could not be wider than your hand (about 4 inches) ...
Click to expand...
This always seems to be a good indicator that the person does not really know what the law says. Why would a legislature impose a variable standard?
 
French Kiss said:
I have another question about what you can/cannot carry in Germany: what are the constraints on fixed blades? .
Click to expand...

Strangely enough, apart from the already mentioned restrictions, there are none.
 
I lived near Frankfurt for awhile in 2002 - 2003. Every kind of knife one can buy here was for sale there, and then some. Notably, I saw automatic knives for sale. Perhaps there was a blade length limit, but automatic knives were widely available.

On the other hand, if you want to buy any knives there other than those made in the EU, brace yourself for very high prices. Also, the exchange rate is pretty unfavorable for the dollar right now.

One thing you won't need a knife for in Germany is self-defense. There is virtually no crime there, at least compared to the US. The worst I heard of were pick-pockets in some tourist areas. And unlike in the U.S., you won't have to worry about wandering into a bad neighborhood. Germany doesn't have any.
 
WT Beck - You're right there. I was there in the early 80s, and for a while I lived in what was considered one of the worst neighborhoods in Koeln (Keupstrasse in Muelheim). When I would tell locals where I lived, they would be shocked, wondering why I would think of living there. But I never felt any danger on the street at night. Completely different from walking down the street in a similar-sized city in the US.
 
W.T. Beck said:
One thing you won't need a knife for in Germany is self-defense. There is virtually no crime there, at least compared to the US. The worst I heard of were pick-pockets in some tourist areas. And unlike in the U.S., you won't have to worry about wandering into a bad neighborhood. Germany doesn't have any.
Click to expand...

Even though this is a very nice thing to say about Germany, it is not entirely true, even though it certainly comes close. In the major cities (as anywhere around the globe) it is only prudent to avoid dark parks and corners at night, especially if you are female. It is also possible to get on the bad side of a group of aggressive "youngsters" or get into a brawl. I would advise against taunting a bunch of drunken soccer fans who's team just lost....;)

But having said that, a little common sense should eliminate the necessity to carry a knife as SD. There is no such place as Washington Heights, NYC. Also guns are pretty much unknown on the streets.
 
I've heard that certain parts of germany are being over-run with Gypsies and Turks, so I wouldn't count on crime staying low for much longer...
 
In Switzerland it is not everywhere allowed to carry a one-hand folder. There are several "Kantons" means districts and in some of them one hand folders are not allowed. So be careful.

swift
 
Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, but I consider myself pretty informed on the subject of German weapon laws (I sometimes even lectured law students whom I worked with on Germany's weapon legislation).

As long as you keep your weapons away from public events like the German equivalent of county fairs or demonstrations and such, you don't have to worry about regular fixed blades and manual folders, regardless of blade length.

If you're 18+, even knives that are designed to be weapons (daggers, bayonets) can be carried in public (except for the above-mentioned places), concealed or in plain view, doesn't matter. But you have to keep them out of reach of children, even lock them away when you store them somewhere.

Exceptions are balisongs, pushdaggers, automatic knives with a blade length of 8.5 cm or longer (3 1/4" is fine, but don't own or carry any autos with a longer blade) and gravity knives. You're not even allowed to own these items in Germany and punishment may be severe. I personally stay away from automatic knives in general, because there are other complicated and blurry laws defining which ones are legal and which ain't.

Also don't buy a sword cane, weapons that are disguised as household items or anything else are completely banned over here.

W.T. Beck said:
And unlike in the U.S., you won't have to worry about wandering into a bad neighborhood. Germany doesn't have any.
Click to expand...

Oh, Germany does have bad neighborhoods, trust me.
 
Thirteenth Star - the neighborhood I lived in was all Turk. Of course, that was over 20 years ago, things may have changed since then. But at the time, I found it interesting that I did not have any qualms about walking down a street at night in a "bad" neighborhood in a city of almost 1,000,000. I could never say that about American cities of that size.
 
Hello Quiet Storm,

Perhaps from a German perspective you consider some neighborhoods there bad, but I never saw anything like an American slum, nor did I encounter any people who were as threatening as American gang members. There are neighborhoods in this country where people have wandered into by mistake, and were attacked and murdered by gang members. There are big areas of Atlanta which I would not dare go into on foot, and I try to avoid even driving through them in my car.

As for the Turks, I lived in Raunheim outside Frankfurt, which had a large Turkish population. I never felt threatened by the Turks.
 
Thanks for your inputs Quiet Storm! knife laws (BTW, like most other laws as it seems) here in Germany are really much nicer than in France, but maybe the reason for it, is that the goverment/state/lawmakers keep on relying on people's sense of responsability and square logics, instead of imposing laws just like if people were stupid, or laws based on paranoia...

Well, that is just my perception ;)
 
Well, it's my understanding that many of the Turks entering Germany tend to be the anti-Semitic sort. Now and then I've heard of them attacking people and sometimes vandalizing synagogues, though I'm not certain how often that happens, nor of what percentage of the Muslim population takes part in these acts. Obviously, not every Muslim is involved in that sort of thing; however, there may be enough where that Germany could follow in the path of modern France.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top