SAFETY FIRST

Berlin Sets Up ‘Safe Zone’ for Women Celebrating New Year’s Eve

After hundreds of women were groped, robbed, or sexually assaulted during festivities in Cologne two years ago.

Germany’s biggest New Year’s Eve party will feature a special “safety zone” for women who feel threatened at the public event, authorities said Saturday. Organizers of the party at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, which is traditionally attended by hundreds of thousands of revelers, said trained psychologists would also be on hand in a special tented area. The move comes two years after hundreds of women were groped, robbed, or sexually assaulted during public festivities in Cologne. “We are doing this for the first time. The police requested it after they did it at the Munich Oktoberfest this year and it worked out well,” Anja Marx, a spokeswoman for the event, told Reuters.