My buddy and I were discussing the allowed blood alcohol content for driving (purely hypothetically) and how it varies across countries and then we stumbled upon the question in the title. Would be curious to hear if you guys know any good examples.
One thing you can do in Germany but can’t in the US is “drinking in public”. Bring your beer, sit down at the market, park or just walk around while drinking it.
A very common thing, specially in cities with a high amount of students or the like is the so called “Wegbier” (on-the-way-beer) where you go with friends from your house to i.e. a pub and on that way you have a beer to bridge the gap so to say.
I got stopped for this in Lithuania and Canada and basically learned the hard way that this is not common elsewhere.
It is legal to drink in an automobile in Mississippi, but not in any other state.
I think BGB §18 was fascinating until it got revised/removed:
As far as I understood this, if you have to transport a corpse in Germany, you have to be a trustworthy person according to the German Civil Code (BGB). However, you do NOT have to be a trustworthy person to transport a skeleton. So if you see someone with a fresh corpse in the trunk of a car in Germany, you can rest assured. You can blindly trust this person. If, on the other hand, you see someone with a pile of skeletons in their car, then you should quickly take cover.
Can you post the original text? according to this official portal the §§15-20 have been removed from the law
Oh, that’s a sad loss of a fun law… Well, I don’t have an original text, since I was just pointed to a snippet of it a long time ago. It stuck with me because of how morbid it was.
I do have some memories on other fun implications of laws due to how specific they are. I can post some from memory if you like. Something about lawnmowers and defective cars for example.
If this law existed, it probably was not § 18 BGB. According to this § 18 was about the time a person is considered to be dead. There are laws about the lacking reliability of people but these are as far as I know usually part of administrative law codes like e.g. § 35 GewO and not the BGB.
I wonder how they define “trustworthy” here and why is trust so important for this task
It is a criminal offense to run out of fuel on the Autobahn
Probably not exactly what you are looking for, but these are my personal go to examples for hilarious laws in good ol’ Schermany…
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Per law, it’s forbidden to detonate a nuclear weapon. It’s at least 5 years in Prison.
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According to state law in Hesse, burglars could still be sentenced to death until 2018, but since this was already prohibited by federal law, the law was no longer applied for a long time. It has since been abolished, but it’s still funny.
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Driving blind is forbidden.
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You’re allowed to drive naked - getting out of the car however requires you to be clothed.
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If you fall asleep at work and injure yourself as a result, for example because you fell off a chair, it’s considered to be an accident at work and the insurance is liable.
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In North Rhine-Westphalia, the following applies: If a civil servant dies while travelling on business, the business trip is deemed to have ended.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the following applies: If a civil servant dies while travelling on business, the business trip is deemed to have ended.
In the rest of Germany they deal with zombie civil servants.
The classic: In Germany it is not illegal to escape from prison.
But you can and will be prosecuted for damage to the building or hurting anyone on the way out. Only a total clean getaway won’t impact your sentence (if caught). What I’m not so sure about is if it has an impact on a scheduled early release with probation.
Of course. Was asking myself: Do I need to mention that the circumstances of the escape may change things? Naaa, everybody knows by now as EVERY TIME you mention the “escape is not illegal” thing somebody will add that.
