Meeting; Notice

The Bavarian Assembly Act grants everyone the right to organize public assemblies and to participate in such assemblies. Therefore, no permit from a government authority is required either to organize an assembly or to participate in one. 

Only outdoor assemblies within the security zone surrounding the Bavarian State Parliament require a separate permit, which may be granted by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, Sports, and Integration in consultation with the President of the State Parliament. Applications for such authorization must be submitted to the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, Sports, and Integration no later than seven days before the assembly is announced. The requirement to notify the City of Munich of the assembly remains unaffected by this provision.

Public open-air assemblies take place on streets, squares, and paths that are generally accessible to the public; therefore, the competent authority reserves the right to establish regulations, for example, to protect assembly participants and other road users.

A prerequisite for this is providing notice that a public outdoor assembly is to take place as either a stationary or a moving assembly. Therefore, you must notify the competent authority (generally the local district office or the independent municipality; and, in the case of last-minute gatherings, also the police) in a timely manner—regardless of the expected number of participants—that an open-air gathering is planned and provide the following information:

• Location of the gathering (for moving gatherings, the route),
• Time (intended start and expected end of the gathering),
• Topic,
• organizer and leader, including personal information (last name, first name, maiden name, address).

You will then generally receive a confirmation of notification from the authorities, which may be subject to restrictions depending on the circumstances of the individual case.

However, there is no requirement to file a notice for gatherings held indoors.

Please note the ban on weapons and uniforms at gatherings.

 if

• it is public, i.e., if anyone has the opportunity to participate in it,
• it is to take place outside enclosed spaces (it is irrelevant whether at a fixed location or in the form of a procession moving from location A to location B), and
• two or more people are to gather for a joint discussion or demonstration that is primarily aimed at contributing to the formation of public opinion.

As a general rule, cultural, scientific, sporting, or commercial public events—such as theater performances, concerts, street festivals, flea markets, and many others—are not subject to the notification requirement. Different provisions apply to so-called public entertainment events.

You must file a notice of the assembly with the district administration office or the independent city in whose jurisdiction the assembly is to take place.

Under the Bavarian Assembly Act, such an open-air assembly must be notified 48 hours before its public announcement—not to be confused with the start of the assembly. “Public announcement of a gathering” refers to the organizer’s notification of the location, time, and topic of the gathering to a specific or unspecified group of people, e.g., through an announcement on a website or in a newspaper. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays are not included in the calculation of this deadline.

Special regulations apply to so-called urgent and spontaneous assemblies. In the case of an urgent assembly, the reason for the assembly arises at short notice. In this case, the notice must be submitted to the competent authority no later than the time the assembly is announced. There is no notification requirement for a spontaneous assembly. However, an assembly is considered spontaneous only if it arises unplanned and without an organizer, resulting from a situation or an immediate cause.

• Notice of Meeting
  Contents: Organizer, person in charge, date, time, location, topic, expected number of participants, planned agenda for the meeting, items brought for the event or technical equipment

As a general rule, no administrative fees are charged under the law governing assemblies. A fee is only required if, in justified individual cases, an exception to the ban on weapons at assemblies (e.g., for bodyguards) is requested. For these cases, a fee range of 15.00 to 200.00 euros is provided for.

Administrative Court Action
If applicable, granting of preliminary relief prior to a gathering