Building regulations form the basis for the planning and construction of buildings. Due to federalism, each federal state in Germany has its own building regulations. These are based on the model building regulations. As the model building regulations are not always implemented 1:1 in the federal states, it may be necessary to look at the building regulations of the federal state in which doors and windows are installed. If you look at Europe, it becomes even more complicated.
Model building regulations
Model building regulations
The model building regulations contain information on windows and doors in the following places, among others*. As a rule, the term "door" is not used, but "closures":
| § Section 29 Partition walls | Para. 5, openings in partition walls, closures |
| § 30 Fire walls | Para. 8, openings, closures Para. 9, fire-resistant glazing |
| § Section 35 Necessary stairwells, exits | Para. 3 No. 3, stairwells, corridor Para. 6, Nos. 1-3, openings in stairwells |
| § Section 36 Necessary corridors, open corridors | Para. 3, closures in necessary corridors Para. 4, closures in walls of necessary corridors |
| § Section 37 Windows, doors, other openings | Para. 2, glass doors Para. 3 Apartment entrance doors |
| § Section 45 Storage of solid waste | No. 2, Closures of openings |
As some of the paragraphs in the state building regulations have different numbers, the above table may differ from the state building regulations. The requirements are also not the same everywhere. For example, flat entrance doors (closures in necessary stairwells in accordance with Section 35 (6) No. 3) must be tightly sealed and self-closing (i.e. with a door closer) except in NRW and Baden-Württemberg (BW). In NRW and BW, "tight-closing" is sufficient (as of 2019/05).
Special buildings - special building regulations
In addition to the building regulations, there are also special building regulations, e.g. for places of assembly, places of accommodation (hotels) or sales premises. All model special building regulations and the model building regulations can be downloaded from the public pages of the Conference of Building Ministers: www.bauministerkonferenz.de
The special building regulations also differ depending on the federal state and not all special building regulations exist in all federal states. For example, BW, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia do not have any special building regulations. The directive on the construction and operation of high-rise buildings, the timber construction directive and the school construction directive also do not apply in all federal states (as of 2019/05).
All building regulations can be viewed at www.bauordnungen.de
*No claim to completeness, reading the building regulations is recommended