Germany to ban 14- and 15-year-olds from drinking alcohol with adults

The German government has passed a draft law which would ban 14- and 15-year-olds from drinking alcohol while supervised by an adult.

Gov’t approves draft to scrap “accompanied drinking”

According to Germany’s Youth Protection Act, 14- and 15-year-olds are currently permitted to drink beer, wine or sparkling wine if supervised by their parent or another adult with parental responsibility.

Now, the cabinet has passed a draft law which would abolish this legislation. Family Minister Karin Prien (CDU), who submitted the proposal, has argued that the current law doesn’t sufficiently protect young people’s health and contradicts the government’s overall goal of addiction prevention.

The laws allowing teens to independently purchase and drink beer, wine, and sparkling wine from age 16, and spirits from age 18, will remain unchanged. In neighbouring countries, such as France, the Netherlands and Poland, teens can only purchase alcohol - whether beer, wine or spirits - from the age of 18. The draft law will now face a vote in the Bundestag and Bundesrat.

Young Germans are drinking less

While the German government is determined to tighten the rules on teenage drinking, young Germans are drinking less than they used to. 

According to a 2024 study by the Federal Institute for Public Health, just 6,9 percent of girls and just 12,4 percent of boys aged between 12 and 17 reported drinking alcohol at least once per week. This is less than half of the amount the same group reported drinking in 2004.

Alcohol consumption among adults has also been falling for the past 40 years. In 1980, Germans aged 15 drank an average of 15,1 litres of alcohol per month, compared to 10,5 litres per month in 2024.