Smoking bans in Germany – update

After having been a bit silent on this blog recently, it is high time to update you on the situation in Germany. The decision of the Constitutional Court in the summer of 2008 has not lead to many total bans for the hospitality sector so far. Most states have opted for more flexible bans for the time being. Only two of the sixteen German states have enacted such bans by now.
In a very small state called Saarland it became law because the Green Party (major nannies) had obtained a pivotal position in the state legislature after their elections last year. That law has not been introduced yet, though. The State Constitutional Court postponed it in a preliminary decision as the rights of bar and restaurant owners might have been violated: the transitional period might have been too short, and financial compensations by the state might be necessary.
In Bavaria, a much larger and internationally more well-known state, a total ban for the hospitality sector went into effect on August 1, 2010. There is a separate entry about Bavaria.
In other states, there is some pressure by the antis and their political allies to impose harsher bans. So there will be an ongoing struggle with Tobacco Control in Germany, with regard to smoking bans as well as their other measures, proposed tobacco tax hikes and so forth.