High and dry? Germany mulls delaying the legal drinking age

In Germany, the legal drinking age for beer, wine and sparkling wine is only 16. The country’s new drugs commissioner wants to raise it to 18, in line with the views of health experts.

Berlin (dpa) – German teenagers can legally drink beer, wine and sparkling wine from the age of 16.

They can start sipping even sooner, at age 14, with adult supervision.

But that may change, if government drugs commissioner Burkhard Blienert has his way.

“For me, there are many medical arguments in favour of raising the age of purchase for beer, wine and sparkling wine to 18,” he told a local newspaper. While he said it was unclear how much political support there was for a change, he wants to see an end to supervised drinking.

“We need to gradually move from a free wild growth to a regulated, controlled approach to tobacco and alcohol,” Blienert says.

Germany’s new government, elected last September, is shaking up the country’s drug laws.

The new coalition plans to legalise recreational use of cannabis, among a slew of other changes.

At the same time, lawmakers want a later drinking age, a step that may seem counterintuitive to some.

For many years, British health professionals worried about the problem of binge-drinking among the young tended to look to Germany where the gradual, supervised approach to alcohol appeared something of an antidote. However, concerns have been growing in Germany, too, about binge-drinking in recent years.

Blienert wants to see a whole new focus when it comes to drugs policy, with emphasis on “health, not criminal law.”

His proposal reflects the prevailing consensus among doctors, addiction support facilities, experts and scientists, he told dpa.

What is less clear is whether politics is ready to make these changes, says Blienert. After all, it’s the Ministry of Family Affairs who’s responsible for any changes of the Youth Protection Act, not the Health Ministry, where he is based.

There are currently no plans to increase the minimum drinking age to 18, he says.

But his ideas have already been welcomed, including by the German Centre for Addiction Issues (DHS). “Adolescents in particular are still developing and are especially susceptible to the harm alcohol causes,” says Christine Kreider, a prevention officer at the DHS. “So if people are drinking alcohol, it should be consumed as late in life as possible.”

Age limits, higher prices and bans on advertising are all ways to protect children and young people from the harms of alcohol, but they need to be adhered to, says the DHS.

Blienert’s ideas are supported across the political spectrum. Reforming the alcohol and tobacco prevention strategy “is a good idea from my point of view,” according to Kristine Lütke, health policy expert for the pro-business FDP. “Far too often the health consequences of alcohol consumption are played down.”

However, opposition Christian Democrat health policy spokesperson Tino Sorge has his doubts.

The drug commissioner’s plans to ditch supervised drinking are “not very effective,” Sorge told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

He said the tradition of young people learning about alcohol consumption within the protected environment of their families had proved effective.

Rather than raising the minimum age for beer and wine, Sorge called for more consistent controls on the purchase of beverages.

He also suggested greater preventative efforts to educate people about alcohol consumption, saying the fact that alcohol is harmful and should only be enjoyed in moderation, if at all, is the message to convey in schools, sports clubs and on social media.

Around 14,500 children and adolescents aged 10 to 17 were hospitalized for alcohol abuse in Germany in 2019, official data shows. By comparison, there were 8,800 cases in the age group 20 to under 25 in the same period.

The problem seems to be affecting the youngest people worst. Some 22% of children and adolescents who had to be treated as inpatients for alcohol abuse were below the age of 15.