Oktoberfest to be smoke free as voters back ban

MUNICH’S OKTOBERFEST is heading for a showdown after Bavarian voters backed an outright ban on smoking in public places.

Some 61 per cent of voters supported a complete ban in a weekend referendum, imposing Germany’s toughest anti-smoking laws. Turnout was 39 per cent.

The result reinstates a complete ban imposed in 2008 but loosened by the state government last year. The milder law permitted smoking in small, one-room bars, nightclubs and discos, as well as the vast tents of the beer festival.

Oktoberfest managers have appealed for an exemption, claiming that it would be impossible to monitor the ban in tents holding thousands of revellers. The unspoken concern is that inebriated guests could turn violent if requested by staff to stop smoking.

“We had hoped that sense would prevail and that we could retain our tradition,” said Toni Roiderer, spokesman for the festival brewers, “but if the majority sees it otherwise, then we won’t permit smoking any more in the beer tents.”

An unrepresentative survey on the Oktoberfest website found 70 per cent opposed to the ban. The Bavarian state government has insisted this year’s Oktoberfest will be exempt from the ban.

Meanwhile, Bavaria’s Green Party, which supported the referendum, has called for the new law to be imposed nationally.

Germany’s smoking ban was struck out by its highest court two years ago because it found that the law – permitting smoking in pubs with separate, sealed rooms – discriminated against smaller, one-room establishments.

Berlin police have found the body of a leading juvenile judge a week after she went missing.

Kerstin Heisig’s body was found in a forest north of Berlin, where she reportedly took her own life.

Ms Heisig (48), a separated mother of two, had attracted huge media attention for her zero-tolerance approach to juvenile crime. She had just completed a book on the subject, due out this summer.