Locking period - apply for reduction or cancellation

A general closing time is set for restaurants and public entertainment venues. During this time, the restaurants must cease their operations.

Start of the closing time:

during the week: 3 a.m
during the week in health resorts and recreational areas: 2 a.m
at weekends on Saturday and Sunday nights: 5 a.m
for amusement arcades: 24 hrs

General end of the curfew is 6 a.m.

Notice: On the night of 1 January, the curfew is lifted. On Shrove Tuesday night and 1 May it starts at 5 am. This does not apply to gambling halls.

Under certain conditions, the authorities may extend the curfew in individual cases for the benefit of individual establishments

extend,
limit it,
revocably shorten or
revoked.

Note: The authority may impose conditions at any time when shortening or lifting the closing time.

Under certain conditions, the authorities may also generally extend, shorten or abolish the curfew by ordinance. Such ordinances shall be issued by the municipalities, the district officesthe regional councils or the Ministry of the Interior.

Related forms and processes

Prerequisite

Prerequisites for a reduction of the curfew are:

Existence of a public need
Existence of special local conditions

Responsible department

for reductions of curfew times in individual cases: the municipality in whose district the business premises for which a reduction of curfew times is requested is located
for a general reduction of the curfew: the municipalities and districts, large district towns as well as the municipalities and administrative communities with their own responsibility for building law. Enter the location of your business premises in the location selection.

Standard port

Enter the location of your business premises in the location selection.

Procedure

You can informally apply for a reduction of the closing time for your business to the municipality in whose district the business premises are located. Indicate,

in what form and
reasons why you want to shorten the closing time.

Depending on what the municipality offers, an application form is available or you can download it from the internet.

Deadlines

There is no legal deadline. Apply for the reduction of the blocking period as early as possible.

Required documents

None

Costs

Find out from the responsible office what costs you should expect.

Miscellaneous

none

Appeal

Please refer to your notification for the legal remedy.

Legal basis

Gaststättenverordnung (GastVO)

§ 1 GastVO (Sachliche Zuständigkeit)
§ 9 GastVO (Allgemeine Sperrzeit)
§ 11 GastVO (Allgemeine Ausnahmen)
§ 12 GastVO (Ausnahmen für einzelne Betriebe)

§ 18 Gaststättengesetz (GaststättenG) (Sperrzeitverkürzung)

Release note

machine generated, based on the German release by: Innenministerium Baden-Württemberg, 16.07.2024