#33 - The One Where We Expose Crazy German Laws

We are debating our schedule this week: Should we officially move our podcast releases to Tuesday mornings? We ask listeners whether they listen in the morning or to fall asleep though Coline admits she doesn't listen to podcasts at all because she produces them!

After looking at French laws in the previous episode, Coline turns the tables and presents a list of German laws that completely shock French people:

• Illegal Dumpster Diving: Taking discarded, edible food from a supermarket's private dumpster is prosecuted as qualified theft under Section 242 of the Criminal Code.
• The Church Tax (Kirchensteuer): The automatic 8% to 9% income tax deduction for registered church members, and the paid administrative fee required just to leave (Kirchenaustritt).
• The Private Abmahnung System: How private law firms track IP addresses to demand €1,000 to €2,000 for downloading copyrighted media—including Alex's story of settling an €800 fine for downloading a single episode of Modern Family!
• Autobahn Rules: Having no statutory speed limit on roughly 70% of the network, while running out of fuel on the highway is treated as punishable driver negligence.
• Constitutional Religion Classes: Mandatory religious instruction (Religionsunterricht) in state public schools guaranteed by Article 7 of the German Constitution.
• Regulated Prostitution: Legalized prostitution under the Prostituiertenschutzgesetz, where sex workers register businesses and pay taxes (unlike France, where purchasing sex penalizes the client).
• Sunday Quiet Hours (Sonntagsruhe): Strict bans on lawn mowing, power drills, and even dropping glass bottles into public recycling containers on Sundays.
• Mandatory Registration (Anmeldung): The legal requirement to register your address at the local Bürgeramt within 14 days of moving or face fines up to €1,000.
• The Annual Dog Tax (Hundesteuer): Paying a municipal tax for owning a dog and having it wear an official brass tag on its collar.
• Traffic Insults & the "Du" Fine: Facing criminal charges and heavy fines for showing the middle finger (Stinkefinger) or addressing a police officer with the informal "Du" instead of "Sie".
• Drunk Biking: Riding a bicycle with a blood alcohol concentration of 1.6‰ or higher can trigger an evaluation that revokes your car driver's license.
• Prison for Fare Evasion & Baby Names: Repeatedly riding public transport without a ticket (Schwarzfahren) can lead to prison time, while the civil registry office (Standesamt) can reject chosen first names for children.
• Insulting Foreign Leaders: Alex adds the law where comedians can get sued in Germany for insulting foreign presidents.

Let us know in the comments if you prefer our new Tuesday morning upload schedule, and tell us which of these German laws shocked you the most!

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