PLANNING FOUNDATIONS
2.1.3 Civil Code, Criminal Code and Administrative Offences Act

Noise can also have civil law implications, especially in the context of disputes between neighbours. §§ 906 and 1004 of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch/BGB) contain information on that. The German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch/StGB) also provides for offences against the environment (§§ 325, 325a), which can be punished with imprisonment of up to five years.

In the case of noise as a consequence of individual behaviour, § 117 (Inadmissible noise) of the Administrative Offences Act (Gesetz über Ordnungswidrigkeiten/OWiG) is to be applied. Such offences are punished with a fine.

These acts have city planning implications insofar as various legal rulings on the reasonableness of noise, which may have a similar impact like an inverse condemnation, had a major influence on the regulations on traffic noise protection (see section 3.1).

For the selection of the administrative treatment of remedial measures, it is also important to make a distinction between noise caused by an installation and noise caused by individual behaviour as the ordinances of the Federal Immission Control Act are to be applied in the first case and those of the Administrative Offences Act in the second. In the context of noise from sports and leisure facilities, restaurants and amusement parks for example, it is hardly possible to separate purely technical operational noise from the visitors' activities, cheers and roars (see chapter 5 and section 7.4). This is why city planning must not neglect the social aspects determined by individual behaviour in connection with intended uses.