Beware of Germany’s dancing ban

For one weekend each year, Germany is transformed into the fictional town of Bomont from the movie “Footloose.”

Starting on Holy Thursday, the beginning of Germany’s Easter weekend, it becomes illegal to dance in public in 13 out of the 16 states. The remaining three states enforce a partial ban during the day.

In “Footloose,” this law spawned career-defining scenes with Kevin Bacon and a musical dance number so good that it changed the entire town council’s and the preacher’s minds. Germany has not yet found its own version of Kevin Bacon, and things are a bit more complicated.

Known as “Tanzverbot,” this ban falls under the Law for the Protection of Sundays and Public Holidays in Rheinland-Pfalz. The law has been on the books in some form since the Middle Ages.

Sandra Janik-Sawetzki, a spokesperson for the city of Kaiserslautern, said that the state’s law explicitly bans all public dancing from 4 a.m. on Holy Thursday until 4 p.m. on Easter Sunday.

But if you forget about the law and spontaneously boogie down in the middle of the street, you won’t be hauled off in handcuffs.

Christiane Lautenschlaeger, of the Westpfalz Police Press Office, said that the enforcement of the law falls entirely to the city administration. The police do not enforce it at all, she said.

The law focuses primarily on establishments and party organizers, not individuals grooving to the beat.

If the ban is broken, it is considered a misdemeanor offense and city officials can levy a fine up to €1,000. The punishment is directed toward the organizers of the public dance event, not participants, Janik-Sawetzki said.

Nightclubs that have dance floors in Rheinland-Pfalz can still be open for business over Easter weekend, Janik-Sawetzki said, but “the operator must ensure through appropriate measures that guests do not dance.”

Germany’s Easter dance ban was created out of respect for Christians, but in an increasingly secular society, the law has faced some pushback.

The anti-establishment Pirate Party, a small political party with factions across Europe, has taken on the Tanzverbot as a major issue, launching dancing protests on Good Friday for the past several years.

According to the Wall Street Journal, one year the party organized a group of 150 dancers wearing headphones in Cologne to silently conga together. In Frankfurt, they called together a couple dozen who danced and held up signs proclaiming, “I’ll let you pray — you let me dance.”

“We as Piratenpartei, Pirate Party, feel that nearly all parameters that gave rise to the Tanzverbot have changed substantially,” said Klaus Brand, spokesperson for the Pirate Party Rheinland-Pfalz. “We live in large communities, often with personal ties across the country, even the world. Our communities are very heterogeneous in almost every respect, including the religious. We like to express our respect for solemn causes in other ways than strict bans.

“Now if we argue the abolition of Tanzverbot, we believe there is no disrespect inherent in holding a celebration with dancing on the evening of a holiday, which itself incidentally does not carry the weight and importance it once did when Christian religion pervaded life much more thoroughly than these days,” Brand continued.

But the Catholic church stands by the ban and what it represents.

“From a Christian point of view, these days (are) the highlight of the culmination of the entire liturgical year,” said Markus Herr, spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer. “Parties with loud music and jubilant celebrations contradict the basic nature of these holidays, as silent days, as a time of mourning, and religious recess.

“Therefore, the Catholic Church welcomes that the legislature provides the holidays as days of religious edification and rest from work under special protection,” Herr continued. “This protection is also reflected in the ban on public dancing events.”

As such, residents of Germany just have to wait until Easter Monday to cut footloose.