There is alarm in the German mountain bike community. The reason: a "consultant draft" of the new Federal Forest Act has been leaked, which does not bode well for the future of mountain biking in Germany.

Heiko Mittelstädt, who is responsible for political work at the German Mountain Bike Initiative DIMB, has his hands full. The draft surprised him too. "We've been part of the discussion since around 2015, we've submitted statements and taken part in conferences. We have been waiting for the next official step in the parliamentary process to take place at the end of 2024: the association hearing," he says, describing the process. "And then suddenly this happens!"

Who published the unfinished draft and for what reasons is a matter of speculation. What is certain is that there is loud opposition from the forestry industry and forest owners due to additional restrictions imposed by nature conservation. It was also a forestry website on which the document appeared. "It is possible that the widespread rejection of the draft by forest owners will also provoke broader opposition to the law in this form," explains Mittelstädt, "because it is also about the issue of access rights and suddenly all forest visitors could be personally affected."

Federal states receive the license to ban

"The current draft contains three main points that are not good for forest visitors in Germany," Mittelstädt explains. These are: The wording that bicycles may only be ridden on "suitable paths". That sounds familiar to Swiss women, but more on that later. Another unfortunate factor is that the federal states have been given the option of restricting cycling to designated paths without having to cite "important reasons", as is still necessary in the current law for the enactment of cycling restrictions. And finally, there is the "Komoot paragraph". This states that it is forbidden to digitally mark and designate new trails. The latter must be observed by all forest visitors, with or without a bike.

On the first point: "No suitable paths are fine access routes, such as back roads, access to forestry and hunting infrastructure, game trails and stalking trails" is stated in the draft law. Mittelstadt asks rhetorically: "Does this mean that a forest road with a high seat on it may not be used? What if a hunter says that a certain path is his stalking trail?" As is so often the case, supposedly objective definitions raise more questions in practice than they clarify the situation. "Such formulations will not contribute to legal peace," he is convinced.

According to Mittelstädt, it is very worrying that the federal states could now issue restrictive regulations much more easily than before, as there no longer needs to be an "important reason" for the restriction. "In extreme cases, this could lead to a solution like in Austria, where cycling in the forest is prohibited except on individual designated paths." Hopefully it won't come to that. Nevertheless, the far-reaching "state authorization" is a danger for sport and contradicts the originally formulated idea of bringing about a uniform regulation in all federal states.The Komoot paragraph

The §33, which is currently doing the rounds as the Komoot paragraph,

appears to have been formulated in obvious ignorance of the subject matter and creates more problems than it solves, says Mittelstädt. "The intention is recognizable, but the way it is formulated, anyone can actually violate the law very quickly, even if they are roaming through the forest on foot with a GPS watch, which is also permitted off the beaten track in Germany. Anyone who publishes such tracking data, or even just a photo whose metadata contains the position at which it was taken, falls under the prohibition."

There are fears that such rules could also be transferred internationally in the long term, Mittelstädt points out. Otherwise, it would make no sense if you know how platforms like Open Street Map or Komoot work. In other words: What use is an article like this if it is not illegal in Switzerland to publish unofficial trails in Germany on an online platform?

The battle is more likely to be won behind the scenes

What is the DIMB doing now to prevent the law in this form? Mittelstädt doesn't want to say much about this for the time being. Although the circulating draft is probably actually the current version of the law, the ministry responsible does not want to confirm this. "We are in discussion with our partner associations about how to deal with the draft. Unfortunately, the premature publication does not reflect well on the current political approach. We would have liked everyone involved to play by the rules and hope for a much better first official draft."

Of course, hoping that restrictive rules against cycling are missing from a new draft is not enough. Heiko Mittelstädt and the DIMB have a lot of tricky lobbying work ahead of them, "which everyone is welcome to support by becoming a member of the DIMB", he adds.