German Factsheet

Model rocketry in Germany is available, but in some cases less developed than in comparable Western European and North American countries. Very strict laws prevents rocketeers from flying Mid-Power rockets which cause many rocketeers to terminate the hobby too soon.

However, Germany could be an attractive place for rocketry in the future if some infrastructure issues could be solved. Germany, as a country, is one of the most attractive places for any business worldwide with high income and perfect infrastructure data. The hobby industry is very strong in this country, there are lots of hobby shops around and model aviation (not rocketry) is very well known here.

Rocketry business development

Organizations in Germany

There are some local clubs in different German cities and regions devoted to model rocketry, high power and semi-professional/amateur rocketry and other projects. In 2003, along with the IMR the first real nationwide head organization was founded. However, different to the United States or other countries, the club szene is still divided into many smaller clubs. Some of them acting as nationwide organizations but, in reality, serve only parts of the country.

This makes it difficult to coordinate local clubs and promotion activities. Some model aviation clubs have small groups of rocketeers interested in competition flying. However, since they are basically focused on competition flying only, they cannot be considered as a nationwide model rocketry body, too.

German laws

Due to long-time lack of a powerful nationwide organization, Germany still has  very strict laws regulation rocketry. Free purchase of engines is restricted to 20 g of pyrotechnical mass (around C-size) and is combined with an age limit of 18 years. Some sale restrictions apply as well such as special storage limitations.

So it is not possible, for example, to sell standard engines to the large core market of 12-15 year old students as in the States, makes it uneconomical for the hobby industry to sell such products. Due to this limitations, shops often refuses to carry rocketry products. For engine sizes D and above or clustered and multi-staging models, the situation is even more worse. Special permissions are necessary to import, sell, buy and fly those engines.

For the near future, the European Union will regulate model rocketry. However, thanks to strong German influence, it may turn out that the strict German laws will be adopted to the whole European Union.