Knife Laws in Germany: § 42a WaffG, Blade Limits and the 2024 Sicherheitspaket Rules

German knife law is not a single rule with a single number attached to it. It is a stack of separate prohibitions that answer different questions, and almost every confused account of it comes from flattening that stack into one sentence.

At the bottom sits a small category of knives that are prohibited weapons in themselves. Above that sits § 42a WaffG, the general restriction on carrying certain knives in public. Above that sit the rules added by the 2024 Sicherheitspaket, which are three distinct provisions with three different scopes rather than one blanket ban on knives in transport.

The order of the layers matters, because the answer changes at each layer, and at the top layer it can also change at a Land border. A statement that is accurate for a long distance train is not automatically accurate for a city tram.

This page works through the layers in sequence, explains the statutory term Führen that the whole structure depends on, states which of the widely reported 2024 proposals became law and which did not, and sets out the penalty framework.

Information last verified on 20 July 2026. This page provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

Führen: the term the whole structure depends on

The WaffG does not use the word carrying loosely. Anlage 1 Abschnitt 2 Nr. 4 defines it: a person führt a weapon if they exercise actual control over it outside their own dwelling, their business premises, their own befriedetes Besitztum or a shooting range.

Two consequences follow. Owning a knife and keeping it at home is not Führen, so § 42a has nothing to say about it. And once the item is outside those places under a person's control, the carrying provisions engage on their own terms, because § 42a Abs. 1 is not drafted around the purpose of the journey.

The counterpart concept is Zugriffsbereitschaft. Anlage 1 Abschnitt 2 Nr. 13 WaffG treats a knife as not ready to hand where it can only be reached with more than three Handgriffe, and treats an item carried in a closed container as not ready to hand. Several of the transport exceptions elsewhere in the statute are built on that concept.

What § 42a WaffG actually prohibits

§ 42a WaffG was not amended by the 2024 Sicherheitspaket. Its wording, including the 12 cm threshold and the Einhandmesser rule, predates that package and is unchanged by it. Absatz 1 prohibits the Führen of three categories of object.

The first is Anscheinswaffen, meaning objects that resemble real firearms, as defined in Anlage 1 to the statute. The second is the Hieb- und Stoßwaffen named in Anlage 1. The third is knives, and it has two limbs: Messer mit einhändig feststellbarer Klinge, known as Einhandmesser, and feststehende Messer mit einer Klingenlänge über 12 cm.

Two details are missed constantly. The Einhandmesser limb carries no length figure at all, so a small one handed locking knife is within it while a longer knife of a different construction may not be. And the 12 cm figure attaches to feststehende Messer, fixed blades, rather than to knives in general.

Knives that are prohibited weapons in themselves

This layer sits below § 42a and is often skipped. § 2 Abs. 3 WaffG provides that the Umgang with the weapons named in Anlage 2 Abschnitt 1 is prohibited, and that list includes several knife types by name: Spring- und Fallmesser, Faustmesser and Butterflymesser.

The Anlage attaches a narrow carve out for certain Springmesser whose blade springs out at the side and is no longer than 8,5 cm, with further conditions set out in the Anlage itself. Outside that carve out the listed types are prohibited weapons.

The practical difference between this layer and § 42a is fundamental. § 42a is about where an object is carried. Anlage 2 Abschnitt 1 is about the object, so the question of location does not arise, and the consequences sit in the criminal provisions in § 52 WaffG rather than in the Bußgeld provision in § 53 WaffG.

The berechtigtes Interesse exception

§ 42a Abs. 2 lists three exceptions. The first covers Foto-, Film- oder Fernsehaufnahmen and theatre performances. The second covers transport in a verschlossenes Behältnis. The third applies to the objects in Absatz 1 Nummern 2 und 3 where a berechtigtes Interesse exists.

§ 42a Abs. 3 then says that a berechtigtes Interesse exists in particular in the case of Berufsausübung, Brauchtumspflege, Sport, or an allgemein anerkannter Zweck. The list is expressly open rather than exhaustive.

Two structural points are worth stating flatly. The berechtigtes Interesse exception is limited by its own wording to Nummern 2 und 3, so it does not reach Anscheinswaffen at all. And because the statute gives categories rather than a checklist, whether a particular claimed purpose counts is assessed on the facts by the competent authority and, on challenge, by the administrative courts. No general page can resolve that for an individual set of facts.

What the 2024 Sicherheitspaket changed, provision by provision

The common summary is that knives were banned on buses and trains. That is not what the statute does, and the inaccuracy matters because the three provisions have different geographic reach and different legal authors.

Public events: § 42 Abs. 4a WaffG

§ 42 Abs. 1 WaffG prohibits carrying weapons within the meaning of § 1 Abs. 2 by anyone taking part in öffentliche Vergnügungen, Volksfeste, Sportveranstaltungen, Messen, Ausstellungen, Märkte or similar public events. § 42 Abs. 4a extends that prohibition to the Führen of Messer.

Absatz 4a carries its own catalogue of ten exceptions. They cover, among other cases, delivery traffic, business operators and their staff and authorised representatives acting in the exercise of their occupation, carriage between places in a state that is not ready to hand, carriage with the consent of the person entitled to the premises, commercial display at markets and exhibitions, emergency and civil protection personnel on duty, participants in film, theatre and historical reenactment, hunting, sporting and Brauchtum contexts, hospitality businesses together with their staff and customers, and carriage for a generally recognised purpose.

Long distance rail and bus: § 42b WaffG

This is the only direct federal transport ban, and it is a new section rather than an amendment to § 42a. § 42b Abs. 1 prohibits carrying weapons within the meaning of § 1 Abs. 2 WaffG or Messer both in vehicles of the öffentlicher Personenfernverkehr and in laterally enclosed facilities of it, expressly including buildings and Haltepunkte, so a long distance station is inside the federal ban and not outside it, subject to the exception catalogues referenced from § 42 and to consent given by the transport undertaking.

§ 42b Abs. 2 empowers the Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat to prohibit or restrict carrying further by Rechtsverordnung without the consent of the Bundesrat, allows that power to be delegated to the Bundespolizeipräsidium, and preserves the power of the Bundespolizei authorities to act by Allgemeinverfügung.

The operative word in Absatz 1 is Fernverkehr. Long distance services fall inside the federal prohibition directly, by force of the section itself.

Everything else, including local transport: § 42 Abs. 5 WaffG

§ 42 Abs. 5 prohibits nothing by itself. It empowers the Landesregierungen to prohibit or restrict the carrying of weapons and knives by Rechtsverordnung at listed categories of place: specified public streets, paths and squares with a record of repeated weapons offences or serious crime, places where people gather, public buildings and transport facilities where people gather, youth and education facilities, and adjoining public areas.

The empowerment is conditional. Facts must justify a concern about future offences or a danger to public safety, and the Rechtsverordnung must itself provide exceptions for legitimate interests, with the statute naming categories such as holders of the relevant weapons authorisations, carriage in a state that is not ready to hand, carriage with the consent of the person entitled to the premises, and emergency personnel.

The limb that matters for everyday travel is the one covering public transport facilities where people gather. Because it is an empowerment rather than a prohibition, local and regional public transport is not banned at federal level. Whether a knife may be carried on a U-Bahn, a tram or a regional service is a question of the law of that Land, and the answer is not uniform across Germany.

Messerverbotszonen

The same § 42 Abs. 5 power, alongside the general police law of the Länder, is the basis on which Waffen- und Messerverbotszonen are designated. A zone is created by a Land or municipal instrument covering a defined area, often a station forecourt, a nightlife quarter or a stretch of a city centre.

Because those instruments are issued at Land and municipal level, there is no single federal register of them and no nationwide map that can be treated as authoritative. The designating Land or municipality is the source that governs, and a zone can be created, redrawn or allowed to lapse without any change to the federal statute.

The 6 cm proposal that did not become law

During 2024 there was heavy reporting of a proposal to reduce the fixed blade threshold in § 42a from 12 cm to 6 cm. That proposal was not enacted.

As at 20 July 2026 the text of § 42a Abs. 1 Nr. 3 WaffG still reads über 12 cm for fixed blades, and the Einhandmesser limb is unchanged. Any page describing a 6 cm limit as current German law is describing a draft that did not pass, not the statute. This is the single most common factual error in English language coverage of German knife rules.

Penalties

Carrying contrary to § 42a Abs. 1 is an Ordnungswidrigkeit under § 53 Abs. 1 Nr. 21b WaffG. Carrying contrary to § 42b Abs. 1 is an Ordnungswidrigkeit under § 53 Abs. 1 Nr. 21c WaffG.

§ 53 Abs. 2 WaffG sets the maximum Geldbuße for these cases at 10.000 Euro. That figure is a statutory ceiling rather than a tariff, and the amount actually imposed is set by the competent authority on the facts of the individual case.

There is a second consequence that is easy to overlook. Waffenrechtliche Zuverlässigkeit under § 5 WaffG is assessed on a person's record, so a recorded breach of the carrying rules can matter later to anyone dealing with the permit system described on the page about the Waffenschein and kleiner Waffenschein.

How the layers stack: a worked illustration

Rather than following a journey, follow a single object through the four layers.

Take a fixed blade kitchen knife with a 20 cm blade. Layer one: it is not named in Anlage 2 Abschnitt 1, so it is not a verbotene Waffe. Layer two: 20 cm exceeds 12 cm, so § 42a Abs. 1 Nr. 3 engages whenever the knife is under someone's control outside the places named in Anlage 1 Abschnitt 2 Nr. 4, and the exceptions in § 42a Abs. 2 are then the provisions in play. Layer three: at a Volksfest, § 42 Abs. 4a applies with its own ten exceptions. Layer four: on an ICE, § 42b applies directly, while on a city bus it does not, and the question moves to whether that Land has legislated under § 42 Abs. 5.

Now run a 9 cm folding knife that does not lock one handed through the same four layers. Layer one: not a verbotene Waffe. Layer two: neither limb of § 42a Abs. 1 Nr. 3 is met, since it is not an Einhandmesser and not a fixed blade, so § 42a does not restrict it. Layers three and four: unchanged, because § 42 Abs. 4a and § 42b speak of Messer without any length or construction qualifier.

That contrast is the most useful thing on this page. The 2024 provisions are not tied to the § 42a thresholds, so a knife that sits entirely outside § 42a can still fall within the event rule and the long distance transport rule. Reading the 12 cm figure as a general German knife limit gets the 2024 layer wrong every time.

Where this sits in the wider picture

Knife rules are one part of the WaffG, and the firearms side of the same statute runs on a different logic built around the Bedürfnis test in § 8 WaffG, which is set out on the page about gun licences in Germany. For the separate possession framework introduced by the KCanG, see cannabis law in Germany.

For the other topics in this area see the German criminal law overview, and for the wider guide to German law see Germany.