Legal basis for the use of drones in Germany

Geographical zones:
Over and within a lateral distance of 1,500 metres from the boundaries of aerodromes that are not airports

Conditions for operation:
Operations in the ‘specific’ category or with consent from the aviation supervision office, aerodrome flight information service or operator at the aerodrome

In the case of heliports, the responsibility granting for consent lies with the operator of the landing site.

Geographical zones:
Over and within a lateral distance of 1,000 metres from the boundaries of airports and within a lateral distance of less than 1,000 metres from all runway centrelines at airports both in the direction of arrival and departure extended by 5 kilometres;

Conditions for operation:
Operations in the ‘specific’ category

Geographical zones:
Over and within a lateral distance of 100 metres from the boundaries of industrial plants, prisons, secure psychiatric units, military installations and organizations, central energy generation and distribution plants as well as over facilities that are used for activities subject to authorization of protection level 4 within the meaning of the Biological Agents Ordinance

Conditions for operation:
Explicit consent from competent body or operator of the facility

Geographical zones:
Over and within a lateral distance of 100 meters from property that is the seat of constitutional bodies of the Federal Government and the federal states or top-level and higher-level Federal Government and federal state authorities or diplomatic missions or consular offices and international organizations under international law as well as property of the police and other security authorities

Conditions for operation:
Explicit consent from competent body or operator of the facility

Geographical zones:
Over and within a lateral distance of 100 metres from federal trunk roads, federal waterways and railway installations

Conditions for operation:

• Operations in the ‘specific’ category and particular risks of flying over federal trunk roads or railway installations have been sufficiently taken into account in the risk assessment
  or
  

• Explicit consent from competent body or operator of the facility
  or
  

• Height above ground of the aircraft at all times less than lateral distance from infrastructure and lateral distance from infrastructure at all times greater than 10 metres
  or
• Aircraft, when flying over federal waterways, is operated at least 100 metres above ground or water, uses the shortest route possible and does not overfly ships and shipping facilities, in particular locks, weirs, ship lifts and berths

Geographical zones:
over nature conservation areas within the meaning of section 23(1) of the Federal Nature Conservation Act, over national parks within the meaning of section 24 of the Federal Nature Conservation Act and over areas within the meaning of section 7(1) nos. (6) and (7) of the Federal Nature Conservation Act

Conditions for operation:
Explicit consent from competent nature conservation authority, operation of unmanned aircraft in those areas regulated otherwise in accordance with federal state law, or, except for national parks,

• where the UAS is not operated for sport or recreational purposes
  and
  

• operations take place at an altitude of more than 100 metres
  and
  

• the conservation objective is known to the remote pilot and is explicitly taken into consideration
  and
• the operational purpose can only be achieved by overflying the protected area.

Geographical zones:
Over residential property

Conditions for operation:

• Explicit consent from the owner or other authorized user whose rights are affected by the operation over the residential property
  or

• take-off mass of the unmanned aircraft is 0.25 kilograms or less and equipment of unmanned aircraft has no functions for optical or acoustic recording and transmission and no functions for recording and transmitting radio signals from third parties
  or
  
• operations take place at an altitude of at least 100 metres; and
  

1. the use of airspace over the residential property concerned is necessary to fulfil a legitimate operational purpose, public land or property other than residential property cannot be used for the overflight and consent from the property owner or other authorized user cannot reasonably be obtained;
   
2. all measures to avoid invasion of privacy or interference with the right of the individual to control one's personal data have been taken, and persons whose rights are affected are informed regularly in advance;
   
3. operations do not take place between 22:00 and 6:00 local time; and
   
4. operations are not expected to exceed ambient air reference values in accordance with no. 6.1 of the Technical Instructions on Noise Abatement
   

Geographical zones:
Over outdoor swimming pools, beaches and similar facilities

Conditions for operation:
Outside operating or bathing times

Geographical zones:
In control zones

Conditions for operation:
With air traffic control clearance in accordance with section 21 of the LuftVO

Air traffic control clearance in Germany: Application & administrative services → Air traffic control clearance
Air traffic control clearance in Austria for the control zone "Salzburg CTR":  dronespace.at

Geographical zones:
Over and within a lateral distance of 100 metres from the boundaries of hospitals

Conditions for operation:
Explicit consent from competent body or operator of the facility

Geographical zones:
Over and within a lateral distance of 100 metres from accident scenes and sites where security authorities and organizations are deployed as well as over mobile facilities and troops of the Federal Armed Forces within the context of notified manoeuvres and exercises

Conditions for operation:
Consent from head of operations

It is not possible to identify all geographical zones in the context of the Map Tool, as neither the deployment sites nor the deployment times can be determined permanently.

In addition to the defined geographical zones, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, or a federal authority designated by it, may define further geographical zones and specify details of the operation of unmanned aircraft.