Mit dem Gutscheincode (BLACKFORESTFAMILY) sparst Du in Deutschland bis zu 90€ aufDeine ersten 4 Boxen von HelloFresh ( bit.ly/BLACKFORESTFAMILY )- Kostenlosen Versand für die 1. Box gibtʼs obendrauf dazu!
You can mow your Lawn on Sunday ;) but you are not allowed to use Gas or Elektric driven lawnmowers ;) therefore you can use a "Spindelmäher (Cylinder Mower)" or a "Scythe" which is driven by Musclepower :D
The anti-sandcastle laws actually have also another very serious reason for the Islands with those laws are mostly out of sand wich got eroded extremely fast in the last years. Many lose big amounts of their area to the sea. Building sandcastles causes this to happen Faster. You shift sand and are giving water and wind more attack area to erode the beaches. One or two sandcastles are no big deal but if hundreds of people do it almost all year around it adds up.
One little anektdote: There a some numberplates that are in some cases forbidden in Germany (de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kfz-Kennzeichen_%28Deutschland%29#Unerw.C3.BCnschte_Erkennungsnummern) while some are always forbidden, you can get others occaionally. For example LM-AA (Meaning: Lick my A..) used to be fobidden but you can get it nowadays. But although you can get it you are not allowed to point at a person and afterwards on your numberplate.
Technically, nobody prevents you from mowing your lawn on a Sunday in Germany - as long as you're doing it quietly by using a hand mower or a really silent electrical one. As long as the noise is not disturbing anybody, it's just fine. It's not about what you're doing but the noise you're creating.
Well not quite true, there are regulations which prevent you from just doing work visible even quietly can disturb the "Sunday quietness" and would be forbidden if your neighbors take offense. Though e.g. light (quiet) garden work is fine.
@@lal12 You are right. A grumpy neighbor can even report you if you hang out freshly washed laundry to dry in the garden on Sunday because it's work. Just silly.
@@bragiboddason4304 Yes, *those* laws are actually religiously motivated - which presumably means that they will get less over time as more Germans become non-religious.
@@KaiHenningsen Fortunately, the police (and the „Ordnungsamt“) have known such grumpy neighbors as complainers for a long time and treat such reports subordinate. Not to mention the annoyance with which judges react to such notorious complainers who clog the judiciary with their lawsuits. German courts really have better things to do than judge wet laundry (except maybe the courts in Catholic Bavaria ;)).
@@lal12 When we lived in Denmark in the eighties some neighbors complained at the yearly meeting that (some) we did not put our freshly washed underwear to dry discretely. They were laughed at and stopped complaining.
Nope. According to the German street traffic law (StVO) your vehicle must be able to run at least 60 kmh, not 80 kmh to be allowed on the Autobahn. This had been implemented to ban slow moving vehicles like tractors (or bikers etc) to enter the Autobahn. Tractors which are able to move with more than 59 kmh are allowed on the Autobahn. 😊
Hi, Black Forest Family! "Sand castles" usually don't refer to the small "model castles" made of sand that can be seen in your video, but ring walls made of sand in which whole families can stay. These "craters" dug into the beach are a real obstacle, e.g. for ambulances, they also loosen the structure of the beach, which increases the risk that it will be eroded by storm surges. Sand castles of this kind can even endanger flood protection. In addition, I think it's bad habit to mark off part of a public beach with a "castle" like this. It is somewhat similar, but worse than the much-ridiculed German bad habit of "reserving" beach loungers or deckchairs with a towel.
The term Sandburg has led you a bit onto slippery ice here. Sand castles do not mean decorative sculptures. Large sand walls are meant here, which are intended to serve as windbreaks. Similar to how German tourists get up at 5 a.m. on Mallorca to reserve a lounger by the pool with a towel, fathers of families dug deep ditches and round walls into the beach on the German beaches in order to find a sheltered place for the whole family. The private sand wall, often decorated with turrets, often lasted for several days. Nowadays, this form of Sand castle is mostly both forbidden and frowned upon, for ecological and economic reasons. From an ecological point of view, one fears beach path flooding. Sand, the most interesting thing such an island has to offer, is destroyed by the digging work of vacationers. In addition, however, the commercialization of the beach is limited by the occupancy rate. If everyone puts a wall around themselves, fewer people can be accommodated on a kilometer of beach. Decorative sand castles that are washed away by the next flood are not forbidden.
And also it is because of concerns about flood prevention. Most of the north sea islands don't have a dike, so the beach and the sand dunes protect the island in case of storm surges. So digging a hole on the beach can endanger the people living on the island.
@@haselmaus8054 exactly. The sand on Sylt is extra hard to preserve / the isle spends billions to just keep existing. Digging even a small sand castle might cause a loss of few square meters of sand beach because the current can eat the part that’s not as smooth as the rest.
@@haselmaus8054 Small correction: it's not really about whether the island has a dike. Those islands that don't have dikes (the "Halligen") generally don't have sand beaches or dunes either. But those islands that do have dikes usually don't have them at those parts of the coast where the sand beaches and dunes are, e.g. on Föhr, the beaches are along the south coast (and the southernmost parts of the west and east coast), but not at the rest of the coast which is where the dike is.
That's why many Germans come to the Netherlands in summer 😁. In general, making sandburgs is not forbidden here, although it is forbidden by some local authorities. It is really a German tradition and we love to make fun of our neighbours and their digging.
You did not mention the law, which is propably the most important and most serious to know for US-Americans: "Unterlassene Hilfeleistung". NOT HELPING in an accute emergency to your best abilities is a crime here, that can easyly get you to prison. EDIT (07.04.23): To clarify some points, which came up in the comments: - No, I also do not think, that this law is weird or bad. I mentioned it, because it is very different than the US-situation. - By "accute emergency" I was refering to a serious situation which requires help immediately (which is close to a direct translation of the actual text of the law). That does not include any obligation for general charity. - "to your best ability" really means, what it says. You do not have to do stuff, which is impossible for you, but you are not completely on the save side, just because you did "something", if that "something" isn´t sufficient and you could have done more. Yes, in the situation of the emergency, only you can decide, what you can and can´t do. But that does not mean, that a judge has to accept that, if you take your responsibility lightly. - To add to that: Yes, there are exceptions and limitations to that law (which are characterized within the text of the law). Details about that can be tricky, but in general, it can be boiled down to: You need to have a quite strong case, that it is unreasonable to help (or to help more), otherwise you have to. Personal discomfort or minor risks will usually not be regarded as sufficient excuses from the duty.
Ah yeah great point!! They have passed quite a few "good Samaritan" laws in the US to try to encourage people to help in emergency situations (prior, people were afraid of being sued if they accidentally caused more harm than good in trying to help - such as breaking a rib while doing CPR). But I like that there is an obligation to your fellow citizen to help here.
However, it doesn't mean, that you are forced to help, without helping yourself first. That means: You must help yourself first, to be able to help others. It is also extended to civil parts, like genuine charity, what doesn't mean "big" donations or support of organisations, but contribution to your community. In the US context it is actually a hidden part of the constitution in the "pursuit of happiness" and being generally open, what extend that right to any American, while in Germany this was organized and enforced from "above".
@@TypeAshton Note that it is limited by your personal ability - if you have little to no understanding of the situation, simply notifying the relevant services and maybe alerting others so as to not make things worse can fill the requirement of Hilfeleistung. And of course, no needlessly endangering yourself.
@@Llortnerof Legally it's pretty much always enough to call emergency services, since you alone are the judge of your abilities. At least that's what I get told in first aid classes for first responders at the workplace.
Even if I work 8 hours a day, one hour break and have two travel an hour to work and another back, I will have still 13 hours of the day and in Spring and Summer, when it is time to cut the lawn, there will be still time with day light to do so after or before the work. And probably there in not only one person in the household, that always work and has no time to do this, once a week oor every couple of weeks. There is no need to do it on a day of rest, like Sunday or Holidays. Overall it seems to me, that the Amercan way of "freedom" is very selfish and does not care about others at all, like disturbing the bird in the breeding season, no care about ground water or insulting others until it is hate speech.
Freedom of speech: Does it make sense that you are free to say or gesture whatever you want - but you have to beep or blurr it on media? Many videos on youtube sound like morsecode because of that. Therefore I prefer the german regulation, where you have to observe the rules of good behavior by law.
A lot of the times it has more to do with advertising requirements. In the case of this video - we beeped and "quacked" so that it passed UA-cam's rules for the display of ads.
@@dearseall Yes and no. Freedom of speech is with in a public setting. However UA-cam is not owned by the public it is owned by a private company. They and any private company/person can make rules for there property and how you can use it.
@@raudi42 it's more how that constitution has it worded. As in the letter of the law. In most cases it's about how a government has to act to it's people. A company is not a government. If you don't agree you can try and take a company to court over it. But until that point. It's up to said company how you can use there facilities.
In Scotland: If a stranger knock on your door and ask to use the toilet, you MUST offer up that 'service without any charge' with no regards to if the toilet is inside the home or outside in the yard, and you must let him or her wash their hands after in water 'supplied by the home owner or resident' but you do NOT need to supply any (toilet) tissue to that person. This is a law from 1849 and was created because people had a habit of stopping their horse drawn carriage and just sit down, leaning towards someones house and 'do their business!'. The law is still on the books, but no one has been taken to court for it since 1899 when a vagrant was turned away from Carberry Tower Mansion in Scotland, and then did his 'business' in the fountain as a revenge. The Laird (Lord) at the mansion took the vagrant to court but was himself fined for not offer 'convenience' to the vagrant in the first place. I LOVE SCOTLAND!
All these "up to" fines are for extreme cases. It most countries in Europe it's also illegal to remove your own large tree on your own land without permission. They want to protect old oak trees and such.
not only the protection of said trees. but more big trees form a risk when they are taken down. So you both need a permission and someone who is allowed to actually do the work. We have them here in the Netherlands as well It is much more about the second part. Not saying the first one does not apply
When I was living in Germany I was surprised by a German guy I knew who was a school science teacher. In his backyard was a headstone he told me was his fathers. I asked if his father was interred there but told no, he wasn't it was only the headstone. In his town when you bought a cemetery plot it was for only 20 years. After that if you didn't pay for another 20 years the plot would be dug up, any remains there disposed of, and the plot sold to someone else. After he declined to pay for another 20 years he was told to come and collect the headstone. He asked what happened to the bones and was told in that part of the cemetery the soil was quite highly alkali and after 20 years not much remained. But, the cemetery manager told him, in the other part after 20 years the bones were pretty much complete. He said he was a science teacher and a few bones could be useful to him teaching human biology. To his surprise he got a phone call a few weeks later saying the cemetery had a nice complete skeleton if he wanted it. A few months later his mother, who was living with him, said she would be happy if he called the cemetery and told them he had enough bones, she actually said, "I had to live with these people when they were alive, for most of them that was enough!"
I think Germany has a lot of pretty strict laws how to behave in and treat nature. If you look into hunting and fishing laws this becomes even more obvious. It is probably because of the high population density and the vast usage of the land for agriculture. There's hardly any wild nature left compared to the US, so the little there is has to be protected and its use regulated so everyone can enjoy some of it.
Iam a German living in Australia and remember a lot of those rules.some of them are new to me as well. My wife lived with me in Germany for 12 years it was very hard to get her out of the Kirchen Steuer she is a Buddhist. Thanks and had a laugh as well😂
I would guess that the law about insults is due to the "first amendment" in the German General/basic Law: "Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar." (The dignity of the human is untachable) Therefore freedom of speach ends where the dinity of another human begins. In driving it is also to prevent road rage and aggressive driving which could be dangerous.
That is not completely right. Article 5 paragraph 2 of the Basic Law permits restrictions among other things through a legal reservation. In this case the limiting law is the Criminal Code and here specifically the offense of insulting. Today, this offense is a result of the general right of personality which also includes the personal honor. The general right of personality results from Article 1 Paragraph 1 and Article 2 Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law.
I was about to say something similar. In general, German basic law has its focus on human dignity, not on individual freedom (of expression). And along this line, @TheBlackForestFamily, are you sure that "hate speech" is not actually covered by the first amendment of the US constitution and therefore protected as free speech? As far as I know, "hate speech" is not an actual legal term in the first place, and can only be deemed illegal in particular circumstances, on a case by case basis.
"Therefore freedom of speach ends where the dinity of another human begins." I love this phrase, and more so when we apply it to any personal liberty. Unfortunately, speaking as an American, too many people in the USA do not realize or care when their own manifestations of personal liberty encroach on the liberty and dignity of others. "It's my right!" is as far as their brains go. :_( And trumpism has made it worse.
Actually, the roots of the legislation on insults go back to the nineteenth century and developing ideas on honor and defamation and a big wave of libel lawsuits, so they very much predate the Basic Law. If you are interested in more detail on the subject in English, check out the book Honor, Politics and the Law in Imperial Germany, 1871-1914 by Ann Goldberg (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
@@andreaheinrich2576 And you need to be careful walking on some beaches. I once did modelplane flying and went a step to the back while looking up and literally falling into one of these holes.
Each year, thousands of € are spent to put sand to the beach. And these excavation activities endanger the beach. The beach is the "frontline" against landloss caused by the sea
It's not really about the dangers to tourists directly. It's the indirect effect. Digging trenches that connect to the sea, especially on the North Sea coast, allows the water to erode the sand much, much quicker. Fehmarn, Amrum, Sylt, and the Halligen are under constant barrage by ocean currents. They loose land to the sea each year that often has to be shored back up artificially, and as you may have guessed, with huuuuge costs. Especially Sylt with its large crowds of tourists is dependent on not growing smaller. It seems that during each winter storm Sylt looses a not insignificant amount of land to the sea. However, the Wattenmeer, the large mudflats along the coast of the North Sea, are a protected world heritage site so there's a limit to how far out protective structures can be built. In essence, this reduces any wave-breakers right to the islands themselves and can't be placed a few hundred meters to a few kilometers ahead of the shore. Btw: a few kilometers in case of Amrum and Föhr would be on the other island, respectively. The more minor aspect is the stereotypical German 'saving a good spot at the beach' prevention. 😃🤣
The Germans are known for digging big holes at the beaches in the Netherlands... maybe the Dutch government should copy this law especially for the Germans and include digging restrictions😁
I didn't even know most of them! I hope next week you're making one about the equivalence in the US, there must be some weird ones too. For example child marriage still being legal in most states and 20 states don't even have a minimum age...I would be so great to get your insight on that because I don't understand it
I can relate to your amusement about No. 8 (17:50): Places of work must have windows. Universities tend to ignore rules of this nature as they can usually get away with this. This is much more likely to be enforced in private enterprises. (Not just in Germany. I have seen similar things in the UK. I have seen some really atrocious things both at Cambridge University and Leeds University, and heard of similar things in France.) I even have a story from Freiburg related to this. Years ago, a friend of mine convinced the city to allow a subway that had been closed for a long time to be converted into a youth center. Obviously they wanted to have dance nights with disc jockeys there, but someone working for the city found a pretext to prevent this: According to them, the disc jockeys had their place of work their for the night, and needed a room with a window they can look out of for their breaks. This forced the youth center to build a little protraction at one of the exits, containing a completely unnecessary little room from which you would be able to look at pedestrians' feet.
Yepp, Germany has it's fair share of both ridiculous and only ridiculous sounding(!) laws. The maximum fines have to be included due the basic judicial system of Germany: the civil code law, in comparison to the English and American case law system. Judges and juries in the USA especially are given virtual law making powers in case no such case has ever been seen before by establishing precedent cases. In Germany the civil code system requires (!) a law to be present before (!) you are able to punish someone for such a crime, felony, or misdemeanor. In addition the span of fines and other punishment has to be codified into the law. That results in some very weird and ridiculous laws when read out loud for the first time. The conservation laws may sound incredibly ridiculous with its hefty fines, but those are rarely if ever enforced to the full extent. Only in cases of very rare plants under strict endangered listing would such a high fine be invoked. It usually boils down to the seriousness of the infraction as well as the malicious intent of the perpetrator. That applies to virtually all laws in Germany. If you are obviously not of malicious intent, your infraction was minor, you might get a more or less slap on the wrist, a stern warning not to do it again, and use both your brain and potentially google before ripping out a Blauer Enzian from your alpine rock surface mountain bordering on your backyard. However burning down the protected orchard of ancient trees on your own grounds for laughs and giggles WILL get you fined harshly. The same type of reasoning applies to nearly all laws. Honest mistakes = slap on the wrist; malicious intent or real dumb stupidity preventable by using your brain and endangering or harming others = pretty harsh penalties. Sure, in a bureaucratic convoluted mess like Germany's there may be some exceptions to that general rule of thumb, on both sides of the fence, so to speak.
I found out the hard way LOL. While stationed in Lahr Swartzwald I decided to wash my car in the driveway on a Sunday. Back then the act of washing the car was not an issue, but working outside on a Sunday was verbotten. I quickly learned that the Burgermiester's (Mayor's) secretary lived across the street and came over and gave me a stern lecture in true German form. I quickly came to appreciate nice quiet Sunday's without noise and to avoid the scorn of my neighbors. 😀
True, many of those laws might seem strange, but protecting the environment, making sure cars are safe on the street and not having all the noise every time, is actually a good thing. Whilst growing up in Germany, I kind of never thought about these laws as they kind of make sense. However, living 20+ years in the US, I would want those laws here. It often happens that you want to stay in bed a bit longer on Sunday and you hear machine noise all over for the whole day to trim things.....in Las Vegas were nothing grows;-) Sometimes I have the feeling that the neighbors time it in a way that there is a constant noise level throughout the day.
By sand castle, "Sandburg", Germans would not typically mean those sculptures shown in the video but circular walls of sand by which some people stake their territory on the beach.
About "sand castles": It is about the protection of the beaches and the sand. This is because coastal protection is intended to prevent wind and water from carrying away the sand and thus reducing the size of the island. In the past, vacationers used to dig deep holes around their beach chairs to protect them from the strong coastal winds. But with stronger winds and more water, more of the coast ended up being washed away, and the sandcastle ban is now intended to prevent that.
Weeelllll,, should you happen to be in the US and are looking for a good place to relieve yourself, be aware to check the surrounding housing beforehand, even during the night. If you select a tree or a bush next to a Kindergarten, you might not know but...... you're a sex offender and can end up in prison.
Very true story - a girl I worked with in high school was arrested in our local town for peeing in an alleyway. She was having fun at a beer festival but all of the port-a-potty-s were occupied and she couldn't wait. She said it was the most embarassing phone call to her parents in her life.
People often do not realize that it is really, REALLY dangerous to stop on the Autobahn. People die every year on the "Standstreifen" (breakdown lane) because drivers are tired or do not pay attention and drift into that lane. Cars even slam into emergency vehicles with all sorts of flashing lights when they are stopped there. Therefore, it makes sense that stopping on the Autobahn is generally forbidden except in an emergency, and as you said, running out of gas does not count. Whenever people have to stop in case of an emergency, it is best to get out on the right side of the car if possible and get behind the guard rail, then call for assistance.
As a German, I expect that most fines you listed are really only for extreme cases, like when you consciously violate this law repentantly, maybe even as part of your business. I would expect that the typical fines for individuals can be up to multiple orders of magnitude lower.
That's why the fines are mostly listed as "up to … €". As far as I know - if and when such cases are brought to court - judges usually construct an extreme model case to gauge the legislators intent for the maximum fine and then scale the fine down for the actual case (factoring in repeated offenses, etc.). Of course that also means there is much leeway for the court.
While it's true that they would be orders of magnitudes lower in most cases, these fines are also only guidelines for the upper end. If it end up infront of a court, the judge can in very extreme cases go far above these fines if the potential harm you caused justify it, or you keep doing it. So if you keep parking on handicaped only parking spots with your car f.e. the sky is the limit for the fine you will get even if the Busgeldkatalog only says 55€.
@@fdsfnicht6533 Ok. I am wondering if this cloud good depend on the source of the fine? Just an idea because some of the fines in the video seemed pretty high, while the fines from the Bußgeldkatalog (i.e. for traffic violations) seem reasonable. So I could imagine that for example that fines from the Bußgeldkatalog are only guidelines, while fines defined in some other materials are actual limits.
@@JojOatXGME You're completely right. The high fines mentioned in the video are written as "bis zu … €" ("up to … €") in the law. These can only be exceeded in some cases (e.g. § 17 (4) OWiG says that the fine may be increased if the economic benefit for the offender from the offense is higher than the fine). The fines in the Bußgeldkatalog for traffic violations are written as Regelsätze (recommended fine for the "usual" case) and § 24 StVG sets the upper limit for most offenses from the Bußgeldkatalog to 2000 € and for drunken driving to 3000 €.
In Switzerland many mountain roads in Winter force you to at least carry snow chains and if the weather mandates it, also install them. Some, like the road leading up to Davos, will actually have police officers who send away any car that doesn't have them installed if the weather is bad. And for good reasons, as a single car getting stuck can lead to the road being blocked for hours.. Iirc the laws concerning winter tires (and snow chains) in Switzerland are pretty similar. No obligation to install them but if you're on the road in bad conditions without them it can get pretty expensive.
I absolutely cannot understand what is so incomprehensible about these legal regulations. The deceased belong in a cemetery and not in the living room. Bird protection is important, so no tree or shrub may be cut down during the breeding season. On a highway where you can drive at 350 kilometers per hour, you should not stop because you are out of gas...not even on the shoulder. And so on and so forth. These laws make perfect sense, they protect me, my health, my neighbors or nature. And if you even look into why there are such laws in Germany at all, it should actually make sense to everyone. After a very long series of really good videos from you, this video is really nonsense.
Cutting down trees and bushes in the summer months after mid March is also not allowed in the UK for exactly the same bird related reasons. No idea what the fines are though.
You can cut down trees in the summer but you have to prove that there are no birds nesting or starting to nest. The person who confirms that there are no birds has to be qualified and don't come cheap. If you are willing to pay someone a few hundred pounds to watch a tree for hours so that they can sign off that no birds are nesting then you can do it. Large trees and woods would be prohibitively expensive to inspect, and you would most likely find birds, so are very unlikely to get cut down after March.
In Germany you can cut down trees in the summer as well, if there is a risk associated with them. One of the big trees in our backyard was ill and unstable and was cut down in the middle of summer, because it was a safety hazard.
@@tombrauey In that case two laws contradict each other and human life comes first. Even more: You have to take action if you must see that your property is a hazard for other people and their property ( a tree that got hit by lightning or got damaged in a storm and shows rot in the wood, lose roof tiles, a rotten balcony...) That comes under the horribly long word of "Verkehrssicherheitspflicht", meaning that you as the owner have the duty to see to it your property is safe. "Verkehr" in this context is not road traffic but all relation and interaction between people.
Perhaps the idea is to prevent people from building anything along a beach which prevents others from enjoying the edge of the water & freedom to wander. That has become a big issue that restricts average taxpaying citizens from access as the very wealthy want to own everything natural and beautiful especially in non-abundant locations & resources.
The dataprotection laws we have in germany are good. I just thought about that when you mentioned the photographing of food. ^^ That made me think of an instance I witnessed on twitch where a woman was playing a game, streaming it and obviously talking with customers of a car insurance within her job at home at the same time. So you could hear her talking with customers and I could have also written down at one point the email address of that person if I was quick enough. As a german that almost gave me a heartattack. :D That is such a violation of dataprotection and privacy, I was baffled. I even reported it to twitch and they said "no violation". I could not believe it. We europeans value privacy and take this stuff very seriously.
Datenschutz could honestly almost be its own video someday... HUGE differences from the States to Germany, even not in a "legal" sense, but just in a cultural sense. I had to sign 10 different forms when I started Jack at Kita giving them permission to even take photos of him and that's just for their own internal purposes (like putting his picture on his cubby so he can find where his coat goes), these aren't shared publicly. In the States, I don't think they would ever permission for this and just do it anyway.
@@TypeAshton ...even the "big five" (Apple, Meta, Twitter, MS and Amazon) have mentioned they would prefer to see something like the GDPR in the US.... Not so sure about Twitter anymore with the new boss.
I would assume that this is at least partly stil because of the "DDR" (east germany before 1990), where a lot of the german population learned fist an even more second hand, what could happen if a you data gets used against you. And i would go so far to assume the "cash is still king in germany" is also , partly, related to that as well. A huge portion of the german population lived through that time frame, or heard it from parents, and I'm quite happy we take this topics relay serious here, and that out European friends are on board with it.
@@benslab8370 That's true, and another part is the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1971 that there is a right to "informational self-determination" (which also includes data protection), since otherwise the free development of personality is endangered. And this right is protected by Article 2 of the "Grundgesetz" / German Constitution.
Thank you for this entertaining insight. I've lived in Germany for around ten years as well and the sand castle prohibition is the only one that caught me off-guard! Since your chapters mention freedom of speech, would you be interested in making a video about corresponding laws in the US compared to Germany's constitution? I find that my right to express myself is safer here in Germany than in the States but that is largely anecdotal. I suspect it's much easier to outright ban works of art or books in the US than it is in Germany. For example, the Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders rates Germany much higher than America. If you have any insight as to why and how, I'd love to hear it from you. Thank you so much!
@@TypeAshton I understand that in some places where they have brought in book banning laws to protect the children are now being forced to ban the bible. Not what they intended but they have to treat all books in accordance with their new laws.
A similar law prohibits running out of gas on the highway in France. It will cost you from thirty-five to one hundred euros, but you will find gas stations at rest areas open 24 hours a day to fill up. Italy require winter tires from November to April on every roads. France has a similar law but it's only in mountain area from November to March. I've learned to drive in Germany, while in the French army and I'm pretty sure I've broken a few rules :D When I was a photographer, I learned that image rights and copyright laws are always against you. You can be sued for almost anything man-made in your photo, from license plates to products, humans and buildings, everything is a potential risk. Fortunately, you can mitigate some of this risk by asking for signed permissions and people rarely use these laws without some legitimate concern. But for videos, the blur filter is your friend :D That's why news channels in France blur faces, plates and all kind of things, even Google Earth had to blur people faces. Freedom of speech exists in Europe, and it stops (as does your First Amendment) where "hate speech" and "defamation" begin. There is just a little less tolerance for insults and hate speech. But in practice, you will be harassed on American social media for anything you say that could be interpreted as slightly inappropriate. In Europe, we don't yet have such a cancel culture.
Doing lounder work on a Sunday may be OK, if you clear it with all neighbours beforehand. Like, your moving into the flat and ask, if it would be OK for you and your helpers to put up furniture, pictures etc. Just abide by any requests they make, like not doing it between a certain time because the baby is sleeping. Some may even offer their help! Same with mowing etc. Even parties during quiet hours may be OK, if you talk to everyone first. Most people won't mind too much, because they can relate. Again, just abide by their requests. And if you're a trully nice person, just bring over leftover cake etc. and they'll be over the moon. (in a good neighbourhood, where people like each other, that is.) Just return the favour, if they come asking. - Oh, and if anyone comes over to ask, if you could be a little quieter, because, while they know you celebrate your huge birthday, it would be great if it could just be a notch quieter - just do it. And just turn it down a little more, because they might want to be polite and would enjoy a little more quiet. But really, with talking to each other, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The typical German mix of makes perfect sense - and guaranteed to make us all get frustrated. I love that you titled the flipping the bird one „free speech“, because that’s how I have always seen it. That poor guy. I instantly thought „ ja, but the Deich!“ when I saw „no sandcastles“! I notice, I‘m quite German these days…! Ashton, I haven’t been around much since October- lovely to see you both looking well in this fun video! Hugs and have a great Sunday 🤗
Well, it all goes back to article 1 of the german constitution: "Die würde des Menschen ist unantastbar. ..." (Human dignity is inviolable.) An insult goes against your human dignity and even free speech doesn't trump that.
Hi Lauren. To be honest, even if this constitutes to "freedom of speech" in the US, I for sure wouldn't flip the bird against an US cop or other official. Depending on the situation or just their mood, they might find other reasons to punish you and to let you regret your decision.
@@Opa_Andre no, I wouldn’t do that to a policeman, either. But I thought he made the gesture not to be seen, just in the direction of the speed control? And if you’re not speeding, no photo- that’s what I thought, I might have got it wrong!
@@andreasvogler1875 Yes, one might joke that Americans have the right of free speech with almost no limits but then the insulted person may draw a gun and pump you full of lead and go free.
Crazy $hit, what's funny for Europeans is that US Americans so proud of free speech, but blur the finger or show a sticker on it, omit the curse word sound, dub it with an ouch as it wasn't said on purpose, a slip of the tongue. Any research of how effective education on minors that is? You should be aware to who you insult, e.g. traffic police (esp. Politessen) don't have any humor.
Well, I wasn't any better, I wrote "$hit", you know what I mean by that. We believe in free speech and First Ammendment or Grundgesetz, Redefreiheit and Nobody can tell us & US anything, but the biggest scissor in our mind is fear of demoneyticing. Cheat in some typos to stay under the radar.
This was SUCH a Fun vlog!👏 I have lived here 27yrs and a couple of these I didn't know!😅 The tree/bush law is true but trimming trees and hedges is allowed in Spring- Summer (just not cutting them down/back to an extreme). You just look up the date from which you can start trimming, which changes each year due to weather affecting the nesting season and which is different for each state. If you have/plant trees there is protection on them when their truck reaches a certain diameter..so always check and get permission if you want to cut a tree down. No washing car law is one ground water protection law that helps keep Germany drinking water the quantity of mineral water! In America I would never trust tap water when you read what industry and farming and people are allowed to do which causes major contamination etc. It took me years to get used to "no noise or noisy jobs with machinery on Sunday" eg no lawn cutting, hedge trimmers, DIY (with machines) or even using washing machines in appartmens. I do my hedge trimming by hand and see it as a work out if i do it on Sunday if that's the day I have time and/or it's not raining😂. Didn't know about the food photo law or the sandcastle law 😱.
One very important detail they dont mention is, that german laws define the maximum fines, which of course are not the common the normal or average fines. Of course nobody gets fined €100.000 for cutting a single bush or tree. But on the other hand a fine a few hundred Euro would not prevent a landowner to cut down half a forrest e.g. if he wants to build a house.
Winter tires in winter is madatory in Quebec, for the rest of Canada certain roads might require it (put a sign saying winter tires or chains required beyond this point) such as on the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler, BC (host of alpline skiing in the 2010 Olympics). So requiring winter tires is very logical. I have seen cars unable to cross a bridge in snow (probably without winter tires) in Vancouver of course (Vancouver gets much less snow that eastern cities like Toronto and so are always made fun of). A pickup truck from the transport authority had to push the vehicles across the bridge.
In Denmark we can legally beat a Swede with a stick. But only if they happen to be crossing from Sweden to Denmark over the ice in case Øresund freeze over.
The English up until frighteningly recently used to have the right to shoot me (Welsh 🏴) in a border town! Maybe this is a remnant of Danelaw…?! 😂
@@LaureninGermany Not sure about that, as far as I know only the middle eastern parts of the island was under Danelaw don't think it ever made it all the way to Wales and the southern parts paid Danegeld to keep the norsemen out of their areas. I could be wrong tho.
As an American running out of Gas is a thing for me and our family and we don’t want to run out of gas when we’re anywhere. Also my dad loves to wash his car at car washes and rarely at home idk it’s just him. We don’t usually show the special finger.
Instead of summer and winter tires, you can just use "all year" tires. This is obviously only advantageous, if you live in mild region, where not much snow is expected. I have had them for years now and I like, that I don't need to switch that often.
Well winter tires are not just about snow, but also about temperature. The rubber mixture is different, so winter tires are still soft at low temperatures while summer tires are to hard. At the same time driving a winter tire in summer will lead to a lot of wear and probably a bit more fuel consumption. So a all year tire will always behave worse than dedicated tire. And while there are areas with much less snow, I am not aware of any areas where you don't really encounter winterly temperatures. That being said, there is always better/worse and there is good enough ^^.
@@lal12 of course. "all year" tires are a compromise for either season. But if you don't drive professionally and you don't need your car to get to work (because of public transport or bike or home office), this compromise is absolutely good enough.
The second weird law from the Netherlands is: If you ever get married make sure you get to know the mother in law because you will never get rid of her! Even after you divorced your wife and you both wanted passionately to end the relationship your mother in law will remain your mother in law by law.
That's actually pretty much the case in Germany as well. Even after divorce you have a "Zeugnisverweigerungsrecht", the right to refuse to testify against your then former in-laws.
You should look into StGB § 307, Herbeiführen einer Explosion durch Kernenergie - you can go to prison for five years for causing a nuclear detonation. Not overly strict, but I guess the risk of repeat offenders wasn't super massive to begin with 😛
I actually looked this up and ALMOST included it in the video. But since the angle of the video was more about "laws that Americans might think are unusual" - I stopped short because technically there is a similar law in the US about the transport, storage, and detonation of nuclear material.
2) You actually can trim your hedge in summertime - but only trim it, not cut it down. If some twigs impede users of an adjacent sidewalk you are even obliged to trim them. But you trim only the tips, you do not change the hair-do or form of your hedge. The height of the fine depends on the damage. A 50,000 Euro fine would be imposed only if you cut down e.g. a landmark tree or a centuries old, healthy tree without special permit or a big, healthy tree within a preserve area or protected landscape or holding the nest of a protected species. 3) Any stopped car at the Autobahn is considered to be a traffic hazard, including standing on the shoulder. You're only allowed to stop in case of an emergency, and running out of fuel is no emergency. 4) You are allowed to use all-season tires if you don't use your car to go skiing or to traverse the Alps in wintertime or generally do not drive in snowy conditions. Due to climate change that allows not only people around Frankfurt to do without winter tires, but also people in more and more other regions. 9) Freedom of speech does not include insulting someone, because freedom of speech is not the highest ranking fundamental right. In Germany human dignity is the first of all fundamental rights, and all your freedom rights end where they start to impend the fundamental right of others. Insulting somebody is however not in any case a criminal act in the narrower sense, only if you violate their rights of personality by false and defamatory statements in public (e.g. in TV, in public assemblies or in social media) or if you insult civil servants in the exercise of their duties. The extension to insults in traffic helps to prevent road rage. 10) Generally mowing time starts each weekend around 4pm (to 6pm or 7pm) at Friday and again at Saturday around 10 am until around 6pm. And still most people mow their lawns far too often.
11:12 In Norway you're *technically* only required to use tires with a minimum thread depth of 3 mm between the start of November and mid March (unless your vehicle is above 3,5 tons, then the laws are stricter and involves snow chains), but the *intention* is for those tires to be winter tires. But yes, you are *technically* permitted all year tires then too. Like Germany we're also required to have a good grip though, so in practice you essentially have to get winter tires.
About the topic with the Winter Tires. In the black forest, probably you need them. If you live in an urban area in the middle of germany, you could just keep the summer tires and that one day in year where you have snow, you just don't use the car. That's the idea of the law. Especially if you have two cars in the family, you could think of just not to use it on the few snow days.
Thats not fully correct. The idea of the law is to have full function tires. since the gum is effected by temperature, summer tires loosing grip below 7 degree celcius. And bout snow, yes we have not many days with snow in the north BUT we have lot more frosty ones with ice on the roads. Good luck with summer tires when u driving over a spot of ice
@@issel3276 I don't want to. I know that wiinter tires are better in winter but you won't get fined if you use summer tires at 6 degrees. And if you can afford to leave the car in the car park some days, I can understand you don't buy full blown winter tires. When we had 2 cars, we had one of them with all season tires. That's okay for most of the time.
@@andreaseufinger4422 No idea when u checked the last time the law but it changed. You can be fined ! since 2010. Also, all season( MS ) tires are only valid until 09/2024 IF produced by 31/12/2017. All after that must be winter tires. 60 € and 1 Point in Flensburg otherwise, for only driving at Black ice, slippery snow, slush, ice or hoar frost. What we always have some days in the winter, even in the north
I wonder how many cases were settled out of court by the Restaurant asking the instagrammer to add the details for the restaurant, so the customers added by that compensate for customers lots by recipe getting out (not always, but sometimes, a recipe can be pretty obvious from the look of the food).
Winter tires in the province of Québec are mandatory from December 1 to March 15 but most Quebeckers have them put on in November and off in April, just to be safe. And scraping the windshield? Haha that's an almost daily occurence here!
For the windows you could just cover them the day before with a blanket. you even have them made for windshields. they cost almost nothing but work like a charm. they only scraping i have to do is for the head and tail lights. (that is more for the other users of the road)
Freedom of speech in Germany (and same in the US btw) only grants immunity from punishments by the government. And in Germany particulary it doesn't trump article 1 of our constitution ("Human dignity shall be inviolable"), which means you'll probably end up in a civil lawsuit when flipping the bird to someone.
A really funny video, I didn't know some examples of laws either. It was really nice to hear the German terms said as well. Thank you and have a nice week.
I don't get how you're ridiculing the law about insulting someone. You say that in the US it is covered by the freedom of speech amendment. Well in Germany it is too. But the difference between freedom of speech and unfree speech is whether or not you're forbidden to say something. In Germany the constitution stipulates in its first paragraph that a person's dignity is untouchable. If you insult someone you impose on their dignity. Both freedom of speech and dignity are human rights in Germany. So if you insult someone no one will stop you from saying it but since you violated someone else's human rights you have to live with the consequences. Still free speech.
Ridicule is an interesting choice of phrase. We explicitly state within the first 90 seconds of this video that "we are not saying that these laws are not legitimate or reasonable. We agree with many of them. But these are the ones which Americans find the most culture-shocking".
@@TypeAshton the choice of phrase was intentional. I did see/hear those 90 seconds but yet in the particular section you imply that this is not free speech. Maybe it's just my perception but to me it came across as ridiculing
It's not an implication or a ridicule, it's a facet of US law. Period. The courts have ruled again and agin that insulting someone is "protected free speech" under our first amendment. And truthfully, I might AGREE with you... I wish we would put dignity above the freedom to say whatever you want. But in the United States, the reason white supremacists are able to fly the schm-atzi flag, anti-abortion groups can scream horrible things at young women seeking healthcare, and you can flip someone off in the car while driving without any legal repercussion is specifically because of our laws on "free speech".
you definitly have to include the Hamburg Law, were it is "strengstens verboten" to insult a Swan. (although not enforced) also killing a single wasp also costs up to 50k€ And yes, the Unterlassene Hilfeleistung has to come in a serious video as well
I like your videos. One small point: the plural of 'Euro' (the currency unit) is 'Euro'. Without a final 's'. I think this is because different (European) languages would form the plural differently, so, for uniformity across the continent, the plural is just 'Euro'. You're welcome.
Switzerland goes a bit further with its laws :-) - 1. The beer pong ban Not a place for those who drink: In the canton of Neuchâtel, it has been illegal to play beer pong in bars and restaurants since 2015. All drinking games are a no-go here to protect the players from their "excessive fighting spirit" and the associated alcohol consumption. 2. The nocturnal flushing ban When a good night's sleep is more important than going to the toilet: if you live in an apartment in Switzerland, you are no longer allowed to flush the toilet after 10 p.m. - after all, this could disturb the sleep of the neighbors. 3. The Higheels ban Speaking of a good night's sleep: wearing heels after 10 p.m. is also prohibited by law in some Swiss municipalities. 4. The law against the loneliness of guinea pigs Attention pet owners: for several years, there have been regulations in Switzerland that certain pets may no longer be kept alone. In particular, sociable small animals such as guinea pigs, goldfish, and budgerigars - but also llamas and alpacas - must live with at least one conspecific. Violators face a hefty fine of several hundred Swiss francs. 5. The law against eating dogs and cats together Only allowed for personal use: If you want to eat a dog or a cat in Switzerland, you can do so - but only within your own household. As soon as another person is invited to eat, this is a serious violation of the law. 6. The angler selfie ban No trophy: anglers who take a selfie with a caught fish risk a hefty fine in Switzerland. The same applies, by the way, if these anglers in the canton of Zurich throw fish that have been caught over a certain length back into the water. 7. The Sunday laundry ban "It just doesn't look good": Swiss people are not allowed to hang out their laundry outside on Sundays and public holidays. According to the homeowners' association, a full washing line at the weekend simply spoils the look, which is why the so-called standard washing regulations were issued. 8. The ban on hiking naked Nudist tourism not desired: nude hiking has been expressly forbidden in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden since 2009. The decree against "indecent behavior" has apparently had an effect: According to the police, not a single nude hiker has been sighted in the wild in the region for ten years. 9. The law against regulated re-parking If the parking space gets expensive: If you want to move your car in Switzerland, you must have driven in the flow of traffic for at least a brief time in between - violating the decree could otherwise result in a fine of 40 Swiss francs.
Hi from Switzerland as well. Re: 2. I live in Switzerland since over 60 year and moved houses several times. Never saw such a rule and always flush. I would be interested in some references so convince me this is not just an internet myth 😉 re: 8: Would be interested what Americans think about it. Maybe the culture shock form them is rather the fact that there was a reason to introduce a law against hiking naked🤣
I remember a couple years back it had been raining all week and the Bio-Bin was due to be picked up Monday. I said screw it and mowed with our Electric Mower on Sunday. Not even 10 Minutes after I was done, I heard another Mower going then another one. Sometimes you just need to be the first to do it ;-)
Thats not quite correct. According to §§39 V Nr.2 i.V.m. 69 III Nr.13; VII BNatSchG there are only fines up to 50k€ possible, in the case of cutting down trees in the prohibited time only up to 10k€. If you cut down a tree in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania exceding the measurements of 100cm of tree circumference 1,3m above ground you could be fined 100k€.
It must be remembered that some of these laws are EU wide and others don't apply outside Germany. Almost every country has local variations and obsolete laws. A couple of examples. In the UK there is a law passed in 1388 requiring every able bodied man to practice archery for 2 hours after church on a Sunday. AFAIK this has never been repealed. Hence in the town where I grew up there was an Archery Road and a street known as The Butts (an archery practice range). When it comes to trees, tree surgeons are loath to work on trees in the spring when the birds are nesting as many species are protected by law. Of course there are exceptions such as dangerous and trees felled in storms. In addition, it is not illegal to fell a tree UNLESS it is the subject of a Tree Preservation Order (TPO). TPO trees are fairly common and are usually particularly fine or old specimens of their type. I've got two mature copper beeches on the boundary with a neighbour and we have to get special permission every time we need to prune them. Many countries in Europe have protected food names (PDO), not just France. Stilton Cheese can only be called "Stilton" if it is made in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire using pasteurised milk and only 6 dairies are licenced to do so. Stichelton is an English blue cheese virtually identical to Blue Stilton, but because it does not use pasteurised milk or factory-produced rennet it cannot legally be called Stilton, due its PDO status. This is doubly so because, although Stichelton (the old Doomsday book name for the village of Stilton) dairy is actually in the village of Stilton, Stilton is NOT in the 3 PDO counties due to boundary changes.
Germans (within a certain age group) don't need to be told that that's the Christmas movie with the Griswolds - which are, also with help of the vacation movie, the template of "The (crazy) Americans" ... ;) The European Vacation movie is called, in German: "Hilfe, die Amis kommen!" (~ "help, the yanks are coming!")
Lot's of these point you could call a kind of adjustment of 'bad' behaviour. The no 'finger' could help you to treat other people respectfully. Thinking at the U.S, it maybe would be a good thing these days🤣😂🤔Here in Denmark it's unlawfull to j-walk, and many foreigners think it's stupid. But for a Dane, who's useing at lot of time educate our children that it's forbitten, it really get's to us, when stupid foreigners do it in front of our children. It's a lack of a normal educated behaviour, and very selfish. Thanks for your videoes, and views at Europe.
Some thoughts on "Free Speech", the European approach: «The freedom of the individual ends where the freedom of others begins». Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) «Freedom consists in being able to do everything that does not harm someone else». Matthew Claudius (1740-1815) "Man's freedom does not lie in the fact that he can do what he wants, but in the fact that he does not have to do what he does not want". Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) Therefore, insulting another can be a fundamental breach of the concept of freedom in favor of egomaniacal anarchy, or the right of the stronger to impose their will on the weaker. To construe Freedom of Speech as allowing someone to speak any crap, whether it hurts or otherwise harms someone else (e.g., damaging the reputation), or serves to disrupt society (e.g., hate speech) is also harmful to a society like an ultimate ban on speaking. Germany has therefore introduced legal regulations for this very reason and due to bad historical experiences (NS propaganda etc.). But a statement that is accused of being an "insult" within the meaning of § 185 StGB - has always to be checked for an opinion-friendly interpretation. EPRS study | European Parliamentary Research Service "Freedom of Expression: A Comparative Perspective" (in german): www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2019/642269/EPRS_STU(2019)642269_DE.pdf
Crazy US Law: in Twenty-one states in the United States have laws that criminalise adultery. In five such states, Idaho, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, adultery is classified as a felony. It is a misdemeanor in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia. Penalties for an adultery conviction can include fines as well as terms of imprisonment of up to four years mostly against the women.
I love the movie clips! As the guy flipping the finger: maybe he flipped it towards the guy overtaking him? And even if he flipped it to the camera: it’s not like he personally insulted a certain policeman. As he was not caught speeding, nor infringing on any personal rights of another citizen, I am not sure what the offense was. I mean: I would get it, if he sprayed ACAB on some Police property. While he was in traffic, he also was in his car: don’t you have your freedom of expression in your own car? Was the window open? Did he hold his hand out? This is getting ridiculous. This was a completely accidental picture, as the camera was triggered by the other car. If nobody was speeding, the footage would not have been recorded and kept at all. This sounds crazy. - Well: Bavaria is our German Texas: don’t fuck with the Bavarian state, unless you have the right party membership, I guess. Edit: I mean: there are better and more creative ways of making fun of Bavarian politicians - former Ministerpräsident of Bavaria Edmund Stoiber was a deserving target ua-cam.com/video/9Vg2h_nW0bA/v-deo.html („Stoiber on Drums“ by Jonny König) Edit 2: oh, they also drumified Trump 😂 listen ua-cam.com/video/Cds7dU7xXSA/v-deo.html Edit 3: made revisit The Gregory Brothers Songify the News ua-cam.com/video/ooPzr1vzmGY/v-deo.html I sometimes forget how comparatively sane German politicians are, even when they are unintentionally funny
If you want to post pictures of the food, just ask the restaurant owner (or manager). Usually, they'll just give you permission. On one occasion, I forgot and posted anyway. 30 minutes later, the owners were asking around, "who is this 'RealUlli' guy?". Gut feeling "oh sh...". Being honest, I raised my hand ... and got a glass of homemade honey as a thank you for the positive review. :-)
Danes have almost the same attitude to naked bodies as Germans. You can go swimming naked anywhere, but all towns on the sea has got a little strech of beach allocated to nakedness. Not officially, it's just a local "agreement", that works for everybody. To the actual story........ A couple of decades ago a family bought a house right on the beach north of Copenhagen. They didn't like local people taking of their clothes and going for their morning swim, so they put up two signs - one in each in each "divide" - reading: NO Skinny Dipping! They were taken to court and fined 7500 Euro's ......... for poluting the beach with their ugly signs 🤣🤣🤣 Peace and love
The shurb/tree law is completely asinine. As a horticulturist, I can tell you that not ALL species can be trimmed from October-March. On many occasions, doing so will compromise the health of the plant in question. For instance, ALL species of poplar and birch prefer to be trimmed in late summer (August), they will bleed excessively if trimmed in the winter months.
Nice view again. And you even missed "Sonntagsruhe", "Mittagsruhe", "Tanzverbot" (coming up in a few days!). Really love your insights that often teach even me news - and I'm an "indigene". Have a nice time - looking out for the next video already!
The good thing with rules in Germany is, contrary to the typical German stereotype, these are usually handled with quite a fair bit of common sense. Means often enough you get away with a clarifying (friendly) chat and possibly a warning. I live now in Australia and as friendly as the Aussies are, rules are rules, if they make sense or not, obeying them is expected and if not, (hefty) fines apply with near to no chance to discuss. In Berlin I several times got around a parking ticket because I overstretched the time by 10-15 minutes when talking to the council clerk that was still around checking other cars. That would not happen in Australia, you got to pay once fined no matter how "severe" your failure actually was.
@ the black forest family: About showing the middlefinger as part of first amendmen right... how come it is blured in TV? Like in "Guarding of the Galaxie - Vol 1". Or is that a youtube thing?
On Sundays ... I'm actually astonished that with all the "extreme" christians in the US, they don't abide by the Old Testament, (creation of earth and Exodus 23:12) "on the 7th day you shall rest". also in the jewish religion known as sabbath.
winter tires are also required by law in part of Canada during winter months. Many Canadian cities also ban washing your car at home (up to $3,000 fine in some cities). I love the mowing the lawn regulation, we need this in America! Also for the leaf blowers (these things are so useless, and extremely annoying)
Insult is generally punishable in Germany, however you show it with words or gestures. And you don't pay a fiixed fine, but (usually) a financial punishment of 10 to 30 days worth of your net salary. Technically, you can go to jail up to one year. And the "proof" just needs to be a reasonably believeable accusation (no "reasonable" doubt), in particular if the alleged victim is a stranger who has no obvious reason to falsely incriminate you.
In Germany freedom of speech is guaranteed in Article 5 of the constitution. More important is Article 1: "Human dignity shall be inviolable." So your freedom has boundaries which I think is logical in a society. Personally I'd love to live in a society where everybody was considerate of others - in contrast to just doing what you want and demanding others to tolerate it.
In Germany, the right to demonstrate is a fundamental right (right to freedom of expression, Art. 5 (1) GG, & right of assembly, Art. 8 GG). And how to do that is regulated by the law on assemblies and processions (Versammlungsgesetz). In it, there might be some rules that might seem strange. The most impractical rule is that a demonstration must be announced to the authorities at least 48 hours in advance (§ 14). Spontaneous demonstrations are thus not allowed. This is why there is the saying, "In Germany, even anarchists register a demonstration." 🙃
I don't understand your problem/issue. It is a different country! Sure usually white colored people. But Germany is NOT the US. You would not go to an African country and complain that the laws are different?
@ 22:08. In German we call Wednesday “Mittwoch” meaning the mid week so like most everywhere else, Sunday is the 1st day of the week. And I am in America now, we do our gardens in a weekday usually just before rubbish day / garden waste. I don’t want that noise running through my garden on the weekends. Or we’re just not home.
~ 16:40 - Now this _is_ IP protection gone too far. This is a disturbing (and, frankly, surprising) trend in Europe recently - it would more naturally. "fit" in American legal landscape.
Germany doesnt have the hurricanes that some parts of the US has. You gotta "aggressively" tree trim your things during hurricane season which is June 1 through November 30. September 10 is the most active time of year. Its your duty to trim things like coconuts in Spring, early Fall, and Summer. Coconuts are little missiles. You have a dead palm tree its your duty to remove it before a hurricane. The trunk can snap in half and become a missile. I was heartbroken when I had to chop down a dead palm tree in my yard. It had a woodpecker with babies. This kind of woodpecker laid eggs in June. It was June 3rd when a hurricane was coming. If neighbors arent responsible and trim trees people will go out and take pictures of whats left around before a hurricane. Insurance companies have denied claims of coconuts breaking car windows (this used to be the way. I left FL 10 years ago). Their excuse is you should trim your trees. If you can prove it was your neighbor then the Insurance company will pay.
1. Same rule in Sweden. The ashes of the loved one has to be dealt with in 3 months. And if ashes are to be spread on the sea, it has to be done at least 3 km (2 miles) from the shore. There's a story about one prominent person in Stockholm "underworld" ( a poet, singer, musician and also a drinker) who died, got cremated. His friends took the ashes and to mourn and memorite their friend they went from bar to bar in Stockholm spilling the ashes here and there at places wellknown to their friend. Winter tyres are mandatory 1 Dec - 31 March IF the conditions requires tyres for winter driving. Spiked tyres only permitted 1 October - 15 April. I would appreciate a general ban of leaf blowers.
Driving in wintertime in Norway without proper winter tires, can be very costly. Your insuranse is not paying anything if u crash and weather is snowy or icy. U risk to pay a penalty for 400 000 dollars and more for this.... So dont drive a car with summertire and inflict damage on a human...
Ha ha ha, well, yes some laws are strange here, but.... the thing with the sandcastles, its not meant the kiddy ones, and....... on an autobahn when you drive over 200 km/h, you wouldn´t like someone who is "parking" on the left lane because he run out of fuel. Oh, did you know that in Alabama its illegal to drive blindfolded? 🤗I wonder why, makes no sense 😉.... hehehe
Maybe you could present things like this more objectively and without all the giggling and wide eyed amazement. I really don't like the impression you're leaving here making Germany appear like some kind of authoritarian state as compared to the us where we're all so free because freedum. Effectively in my day to day life, I feel far more personal freedom here in Germany than when I'm in the US. Also, the 1st amendment card? Srsly? Maybe look into the German constitution to find the root of the personal insult laws. I feel the quality of your content is slipping.
For all of these laws the legal principle of "Verhältnismäßigkeit" (=proportionality) applies. You will definately not be fined 100.000 Euros for cutting some bushes in your own garden, but if you break the same law by logging a small forest as a professional gardener and earn a lot of money for doing so, you will be in some trouble. The same applies more or less in the same way to the other laws you may find strange. And just because something is not explicitly forbidden, doesn't mean the consequences are just fine. What will happen if you build a sand castle on an american beach, leaving a three feet deep whole and someone breaks his leg as he stumbles into it in the dark? Is that just bad luck or will some skilled lawyer sue the hell out of you? I don't think, you can get away with "it was just a legal sand castle".
A bit of information about the fine regarding the insult (flipping the bird). The punishment is calculated in "daily rates", meaning it is based on your daily income. 30 daily rates are the same as one month's worth of income. If someone got 5.000 € for flipping the bird, that probably means he had quite the very substantial income, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he went to a higher court to challenge that ruling, as he didn't aim the finger at a person, but a camera or maybe the system itself. In general, the lower courts are more willing to wave these kind of insult complaints from the police through.
Oh yes... there is one more law I like... and it is not even that obscure. If there is a medical emergency on an airliner, and the crew ask if there are any MD on the plane, any MD do not NEED to make him- or herself present or avalable... UNLESS you fly Finnair. ...and it doesn't matter what nationality the MD are; he or she MUST make themselves avalable to the crew, or the Police will wait for them when they land in Helsinki. This happens 2 or 3 times every year...
Well, let us look the other way round .... Americans may have weapons any time. Apparently any size - if I heard it right the child mortality is dominated by gun violence. So, talking about weird laws ... well, in this context fines for washing your car or mowing your yard on weekends seem kind of minor, isn't it? So these many regulations in Germany may have some good sides to them as well ... :-)
Mit dem Gutscheincode (BLACKFORESTFAMILY) sparst Du in Deutschland bis zu 90€ aufDeine ersten 4 Boxen von HelloFresh ( bit.ly/BLACKFORESTFAMILY )- Kostenlosen Versand für die 1. Box gibtʼs obendrauf dazu!
You can mow your Lawn on Sunday ;) but you are not allowed to use Gas or Elektric driven lawnmowers ;) therefore you can use a "Spindelmäher (Cylinder Mower)" or a "Scythe" which is driven by Musclepower :D
The anti-sandcastle laws actually have also another very serious reason for the Islands with those laws are mostly out of sand wich got eroded extremely fast in the last years. Many lose big amounts of their area to the sea. Building sandcastles causes this to happen Faster. You shift sand and are giving water and wind more attack area to erode the beaches. One or two sandcastles are no big deal but if hundreds of people do it almost all year around it adds up.
One little anektdote: There a some numberplates that are in some cases forbidden in Germany (de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kfz-Kennzeichen_%28Deutschland%29#Unerw.C3.BCnschte_Erkennungsnummern) while some are always forbidden, you can get others occaionally. For example LM-AA (Meaning: Lick my A..) used to be fobidden but you can get it nowadays. But although you can get it you are not allowed to point at a person and afterwards on your numberplate.
Technically, nobody prevents you from mowing your lawn on a Sunday in Germany - as long as you're doing it quietly by using a hand mower or a really silent electrical one. As long as the noise is not disturbing anybody, it's just fine. It's not about what you're doing but the noise you're creating.
Well not quite true, there are regulations which prevent you from just doing work visible even quietly can disturb the "Sunday quietness" and would be forbidden if your neighbors take offense. Though e.g. light (quiet) garden work is fine.
@@lal12 You are right. A grumpy neighbor can even report you if you hang out freshly washed laundry to dry in the garden on Sunday because it's work. Just silly.
@@bragiboddason4304 Yes, *those* laws are actually religiously motivated - which presumably means that they will get less over time as more Germans become non-religious.
@@KaiHenningsen Fortunately, the police (and the „Ordnungsamt“) have known such grumpy neighbors as complainers for a long time and treat such reports subordinate. Not to mention the annoyance with which judges react to such notorious complainers who clog the judiciary with their lawsuits. German courts really have better things to do than judge wet laundry (except maybe the courts in Catholic Bavaria ;)).
@@lal12 When we lived in Denmark in the eighties some neighbors complained at the yearly meeting that (some) we did not put our freshly washed underwear to dry discretely. They were laughed at and stopped complaining.
Running out of fuel on the highway where people drive 200km/h is extremely dangerous. I would be shocked if there was not such a law.
Even funnier is a law that U arent allowed to Drive too slow .. i think Ur. Car must at least can Drive 80kmh or U arent allowed to use Autobahn
Nope. According to the German street traffic law (StVO) your vehicle must be able to run at least 60 kmh, not 80 kmh to be allowed on the Autobahn. This had been implemented to ban slow moving vehicles like tractors (or bikers etc) to enter the Autobahn. Tractors which are able to move with more than 59 kmh are allowed on the Autobahn. 😊
I often go to Germany. Gew cars drive these high speeds. And the areas with speed limits on the autobahn have multiplied a lot over the last 20 yrs.
Hi, Black Forest Family! "Sand castles" usually don't refer to the small "model castles" made of sand that can be seen in your video, but ring walls made of sand in which whole families can stay. These "craters" dug into the beach are a real obstacle, e.g. for ambulances, they also loosen the structure of the beach, which increases the risk that it will be eroded by storm surges. Sand castles of this kind can even endanger flood protection. In addition, I think it's bad habit to mark off part of a public beach with a "castle" like this. It is somewhat similar, but worse than the much-ridiculed German bad habit of "reserving" beach loungers or deckchairs with a towel.
The term Sandburg has led you a bit onto slippery ice here. Sand castles do not mean decorative sculptures. Large sand walls are meant here, which are intended to serve as windbreaks. Similar to how German tourists get up at 5 a.m. on Mallorca to reserve a lounger by the pool with a towel, fathers of families dug deep ditches and round walls into the beach on the German beaches in order to find a sheltered place for the whole family. The private sand wall, often decorated with turrets, often lasted for several days. Nowadays, this form of Sand castle is mostly both forbidden and frowned upon, for ecological and economic reasons. From an ecological point of view, one fears beach path flooding. Sand, the most interesting thing such an island has to offer, is destroyed by the digging work of vacationers. In addition, however, the commercialization of the beach is limited by the occupancy rate. If everyone puts a wall around themselves, fewer people can be accommodated on a kilometer of beach. Decorative sand castles that are washed away by the next flood are not forbidden.
And also it is because of concerns about flood prevention. Most of the north sea islands don't have a dike, so the beach and the sand dunes protect the island in case of storm surges. So digging a hole on the beach can endanger the people living on the island.
@@haselmaus8054 exactly. The sand on Sylt is extra hard to preserve / the isle spends billions to just keep existing. Digging even a small sand castle might cause a loss of few square meters of sand beach because the current can eat the part that’s not as smooth as the rest.
@@haselmaus8054 Small correction: it's not really about whether the island has a dike. Those islands that don't have dikes (the "Halligen") generally don't have sand beaches or dunes either. But those islands that do have dikes usually don't have them at those parts of the coast where the sand beaches and dunes are, e.g. on Föhr, the beaches are along the south coast (and the southernmost parts of the west and east coast), but not at the rest of the coast which is where the dike is.
That's why many Germans come to the Netherlands in summer 😁. In general, making sandburgs is not forbidden here, although it is forbidden by some local authorities. It is really a German tradition and we love to make fun of our neighbours and their digging.
Wow, this takes the term "sand castle" to a whole new level!
You did not mention the law, which is propably the most important and most serious to know for US-Americans: "Unterlassene Hilfeleistung". NOT HELPING in an accute emergency to your best abilities is a crime here, that can easyly get you to prison.
EDIT (07.04.23): To clarify some points, which came up in the comments:
- No, I also do not think, that this law is weird or bad. I mentioned it, because it is very different than the US-situation.
- By "accute emergency" I was refering to a serious situation which requires help immediately (which is close to a direct translation of the actual text of the law). That does not include any obligation for general charity.
- "to your best ability" really means, what it says. You do not have to do stuff, which is impossible for you, but you are not completely on the save side, just because you did "something", if that "something" isn´t sufficient and you could have done more. Yes, in the situation of the emergency, only you can decide, what you can and can´t do. But that does not mean, that a judge has to accept that, if you take your responsibility lightly.
- To add to that: Yes, there are exceptions and limitations to that law (which are characterized within the text of the law). Details about that can be tricky, but in general, it can be boiled down to: You need to have a quite strong case, that it is unreasonable to help (or to help more), otherwise you have to. Personal discomfort or minor risks will usually not be regarded as sufficient excuses from the duty.
Ah yeah great point!! They have passed quite a few "good Samaritan" laws in the US to try to encourage people to help in emergency situations (prior, people were afraid of being sued if they accidentally caused more harm than good in trying to help - such as breaking a rib while doing CPR). But I like that there is an obligation to your fellow citizen to help here.
However, it doesn't mean, that you are forced to help, without helping yourself first. That means: You must help yourself first, to be able to help others. It is also extended to civil parts, like genuine charity, what doesn't mean "big" donations or support of organisations, but contribution to your community. In the US context it is actually a hidden part of the constitution in the "pursuit of happiness" and being generally open, what extend that right to any American, while in Germany this was organized and enforced from "above".
@@TypeAshton Note that it is limited by your personal ability - if you have little to no understanding of the situation, simply notifying the relevant services and maybe alerting others so as to not make things worse can fill the requirement of Hilfeleistung.
And of course, no needlessly endangering yourself.
I actually do not find that law weird, it is one of the best laws we have, I would argue.
@@Llortnerof Legally it's pretty much always enough to call emergency services, since you alone are the judge of your abilities. At least that's what I get told in first aid classes for first responders at the workplace.
Even if I work 8 hours a day, one hour break and have two travel an hour to work and another back, I will have still 13 hours of the day and in Spring and Summer, when it is time to cut the lawn, there will be still time with day light to do so after or before the work.
And probably there in not only one person in the household, that always work and has no time to do this, once a week oor every couple of weeks.
There is no need to do it on a day of rest, like Sunday or Holidays.
Overall it seems to me, that the Amercan way of "freedom" is very selfish and does not care about others at all, like disturbing the bird in the breeding season, no care about ground water or insulting others until it is hate speech.
Freedom of speech: Does it make sense that you are free to say or gesture whatever you want - but you have to beep or blurr it on media? Many videos on youtube sound like morsecode because of that.
Therefore I prefer the german regulation, where you have to observe the rules of good behavior by law.
A lot of the times it has more to do with advertising requirements. In the case of this video - we beeped and "quacked" so that it passed UA-cam's rules for the display of ads.
@@TypeAshton Well: Isnt the outcome pretty much the same?
@@dearseall Yes and no. Freedom of speech is with in a public setting. However UA-cam is not owned by the public it is owned by a private company.
They and any private company/person can make rules for there property and how you can use it.
@@sirBrouwer So that means: Private regulations overrule the constitution?
@@raudi42 it's more how that constitution has it worded. As in the letter of the law. In most cases it's about how a government has to act to it's people. A company is not a government. If you don't agree you can try and take a company to court over it. But until that point. It's up to said company how you can use there facilities.
In Scotland: If a stranger knock on your door and ask to use the toilet, you MUST offer up that 'service without any charge' with no regards to if the toilet is inside the home or outside in the yard, and you must let him or her wash their hands after in water 'supplied by the home owner or resident' but you do NOT need to supply any (toilet) tissue to that person. This is a law from 1849 and was created because people had a habit of stopping their horse drawn carriage and just sit down, leaning towards someones house and 'do their business!'. The law is still on the books, but no one has been taken to court for it since 1899 when a vagrant was turned away from Carberry Tower Mansion in Scotland, and then did his 'business' in the fountain as a revenge. The Laird (Lord) at the mansion took the vagrant to court but was himself fined for not offer 'convenience' to the vagrant in the first place. I LOVE SCOTLAND!
All these "up to" fines are for extreme cases. It most countries in Europe it's also illegal to remove your own large tree on your own land without permission. They want to protect old oak trees and such.
not only the protection of said trees. but more big trees form a risk when they are taken down. So you both need a permission and someone who is allowed to actually do the work.
We have them here in the Netherlands as well It is much more about the second part. Not saying the first one does not apply
When I was living in Germany I was surprised by a German guy I knew who was a school science teacher. In his backyard was a headstone he told me was his fathers. I asked if his father was interred there but told no, he wasn't it was only the headstone.
In his town when you bought a cemetery plot it was for only 20 years. After that if you didn't pay for another 20 years the plot would be dug up, any remains there disposed of, and the plot sold to someone else. After he declined to pay for another 20 years he was told to come and collect the headstone. He asked what happened to the bones and was told in that part of the cemetery the soil was quite highly alkali and after 20 years not much remained. But, the cemetery manager told him, in the other part after 20 years the bones were pretty much complete. He said he was a science teacher and a few bones could be useful to him teaching human biology. To his surprise he got a phone call a few weeks later saying the cemetery had a nice complete skeleton if he wanted it.
A few months later his mother, who was living with him, said she would be happy if he called the cemetery and told them he had enough bones, she actually said, "I had to live with these people when they were alive, for most of them that was enough!"
🤣
😂 Life goes on!
so the car wash law in my opinion is around for muuuuch longer than just 10 years. I remember being told that in the 90s already.
I think Germany has a lot of pretty strict laws how to behave in and treat nature. If you look into hunting and fishing laws this becomes even more obvious. It is probably because of the high population density and the vast usage of the land for agriculture. There's hardly any wild nature left compared to the US, so the little there is has to be protected and its use regulated so everyone can enjoy some of it.
😍
Iam a German living in Australia and remember a lot of those rules.some of them are new to me as well. My wife lived with me in Germany for 12 years it was very hard to get her out of the Kirchen Steuer she is a Buddhist.
Thanks and had a laugh as well😂
Yes, even if it looks natural it is a forrest but not a wood .😊
I would guess that the law about insults is due to the "first amendment" in the German General/basic Law: "Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar." (The dignity of the human is untachable) Therefore freedom of speach ends where the dinity of another human begins.
In driving it is also to prevent road rage and aggressive driving which could be dangerous.
Personally, I really like this. I think it seems extremely reasonable and kind.
That is not completely right. Article 5 paragraph 2 of the Basic Law permits restrictions among other things through a legal reservation. In this case the limiting law is the Criminal Code and here specifically the offense of insulting. Today, this offense is a result of the general right of personality which also includes the personal honor. The general right of personality results from Article 1 Paragraph 1 and Article 2 Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law.
I was about to say something similar. In general, German basic law has its focus on human dignity, not on individual freedom (of expression).
And along this line, @TheBlackForestFamily, are you sure that "hate speech" is not actually covered by the first amendment of the US constitution and therefore protected as free speech? As far as I know, "hate speech" is not an actual legal term in the first place, and can only be deemed illegal in particular circumstances, on a case by case basis.
"Therefore freedom of speach ends where the dinity of another human begins." I love this phrase, and more so when we apply it to any personal liberty. Unfortunately, speaking as an American, too many people in the USA do not realize or care when their own manifestations of personal liberty encroach on the liberty and dignity of others. "It's my right!" is as far as their brains go. :_( And trumpism has made it worse.
Actually, the roots of the legislation on insults go back to the nineteenth century and developing ideas on honor and defamation and a big wave of libel lawsuits, so they very much predate the Basic Law. If you are interested in more detail on the subject in English, check out the book Honor, Politics and the Law in Imperial Germany, 1871-1914 by Ann Goldberg (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Sand castles: They don't mean the little castles built by kids, but huge craters dug by people as a protection against wind.
Exactly. A German Sandburg is more excavation than construction!
@@andreaheinrich2576 And you need to be careful walking on some beaches. I once did modelplane flying and went a step to the back while looking up and literally falling into one of these holes.
Each year, thousands of € are spent to put sand to the beach. And these excavation activities endanger the beach. The beach is the "frontline" against landloss caused by the sea
It's not really about the dangers to tourists directly. It's the indirect effect. Digging trenches that connect to the sea, especially on the North Sea coast, allows the water to erode the sand much, much quicker. Fehmarn, Amrum, Sylt, and the Halligen are under constant barrage by ocean currents. They loose land to the sea each year that often has to be shored back up artificially, and as you may have guessed, with huuuuge costs.
Especially Sylt with its large crowds of tourists is dependent on not growing smaller. It seems that during each winter storm Sylt looses a not insignificant amount of land to the sea. However, the Wattenmeer, the large mudflats along the coast of the North Sea, are a protected world heritage site so there's a limit to how far out protective structures can be built. In essence, this reduces any wave-breakers right to the islands themselves and can't be placed a few hundred meters to a few kilometers ahead of the shore.
Btw: a few kilometers in case of Amrum and Föhr would be on the other island, respectively.
The more minor aspect is the stereotypical German 'saving a good spot at the beach' prevention. 😃🤣
The Germans are known for digging big holes at the beaches in the Netherlands... maybe the Dutch government should copy this law especially for the Germans and include digging restrictions😁
I didn't even know most of them! I hope next week you're making one about the equivalence in the US, there must be some weird ones too. For example child marriage still being legal in most states and 20 states don't even have a minimum age...I would be so great to get your insight on that because I don't understand it
Us Americans don't understand it either.
I can relate to your amusement about No. 8 (17:50): Places of work must have windows. Universities tend to ignore rules of this nature as they can usually get away with this. This is much more likely to be enforced in private enterprises. (Not just in Germany. I have seen similar things in the UK. I have seen some really atrocious things both at Cambridge University and Leeds University, and heard of similar things in France.)
I even have a story from Freiburg related to this. Years ago, a friend of mine convinced the city to allow a subway that had been closed for a long time to be converted into a youth center. Obviously they wanted to have dance nights with disc jockeys there, but someone working for the city found a pretext to prevent this: According to them, the disc jockeys had their place of work their for the night, and needed a room with a window they can look out of for their breaks. This forced the youth center to build a little protraction at one of the exits, containing a completely unnecessary little room from which you would be able to look at pedestrians' feet.
Yepp, Germany has it's fair share of both ridiculous and only ridiculous sounding(!) laws. The maximum fines have to be included due the basic judicial system of Germany: the civil code law, in comparison to the English and American case law system. Judges and juries in the USA especially are given virtual law making powers in case no such case has ever been seen before by establishing precedent cases.
In Germany the civil code system requires (!) a law to be present before (!) you are able to punish someone for such a crime, felony, or misdemeanor. In addition the span of fines and other punishment has to be codified into the law.
That results in some very weird and ridiculous laws when read out loud for the first time.
The conservation laws may sound incredibly ridiculous with its hefty fines, but those are rarely if ever enforced to the full extent. Only in cases of very rare plants under strict endangered listing would such a high fine be invoked.
It usually boils down to the seriousness of the infraction as well as the malicious intent of the perpetrator. That applies to virtually all laws in Germany. If you are obviously not of malicious intent, your infraction was minor, you might get a more or less slap on the wrist, a stern warning not to do it again, and use both your brain and potentially google before ripping out a Blauer Enzian from your alpine rock surface mountain bordering on your backyard. However burning down the protected orchard of ancient trees on your own grounds for laughs and giggles WILL get you fined harshly.
The same type of reasoning applies to nearly all laws. Honest mistakes = slap on the wrist; malicious intent or real dumb stupidity preventable by using your brain and endangering or harming others = pretty harsh penalties.
Sure, in a bureaucratic convoluted mess like Germany's there may be some exceptions to that general rule of thumb, on both sides of the fence, so to speak.
I found out the hard way LOL. While stationed in Lahr Swartzwald I decided to wash my car in the driveway on a Sunday. Back then the act of washing the car was not an issue, but working outside on a Sunday was verbotten. I quickly learned that the Burgermiester's (Mayor's) secretary lived across the street and came over and gave me a stern lecture in true German form. I quickly came to appreciate nice quiet Sunday's without noise and to avoid the scorn of my neighbors. 😀
we germans do like to point out the error in your ways in person :) Here to help.....
True, many of those laws might seem strange, but protecting the environment, making sure cars are safe on the street and not having all the noise every time, is actually a good thing. Whilst growing up in Germany, I kind of never thought about these laws as they kind of make sense. However, living 20+ years in the US, I would want those laws here. It often happens that you want to stay in bed a bit longer on Sunday and you hear machine noise all over for the whole day to trim things.....in Las Vegas were nothing grows;-)
Sometimes I have the feeling that the neighbors time it in a way that there is a constant noise level throughout the day.
By sand castle, "Sandburg", Germans would not typically mean those sculptures shown in the video but circular walls of sand by which some people stake their territory on the beach.
About "sand castles": It is about the protection of the beaches and the sand. This is because coastal protection is intended to prevent wind and water from carrying away the sand and thus reducing the size of the island. In the past, vacationers used to dig deep holes around their beach chairs to protect them from the strong coastal winds. But with stronger winds and more water, more of the coast ended up being washed away, and the sandcastle ban is now intended to prevent that.
Stop defending these dumb laws.
They still do, they just now come to the netherlands. Germans here have quite a reputation for digging at beaches.
@@proman9849 they learned from their grandfathers how to.
Weeelllll,, should you happen to be in the US and are looking for a good place to relieve yourself, be aware to check the surrounding housing beforehand, even during the night. If you select a tree or a bush next to a Kindergarten, you might not know but...... you're a sex offender and can end up in prison.
Very true story - a girl I worked with in high school was arrested in our local town for peeing in an alleyway. She was having fun at a beer festival but all of the port-a-potty-s were occupied and she couldn't wait. She said it was the most embarassing phone call to her parents in her life.
People often do not realize that it is really, REALLY dangerous to stop on the Autobahn. People die every year on the "Standstreifen" (breakdown lane) because drivers are tired or do not pay attention and drift into that lane. Cars even slam into emergency vehicles with all sorts of flashing lights when they are stopped there. Therefore, it makes sense that stopping on the Autobahn is generally forbidden except in an emergency, and as you said, running out of gas does not count. Whenever people have to stop in case of an emergency, it is best to get out on the right side of the car if possible and get behind the guard rail, then call for assistance.
Actually, it's just as dangerous on US highways and interstates, and people crash into emergency vehicles there, as well.
As a German, I expect that most fines you listed are really only for extreme cases, like when you consciously violate this law repentantly, maybe even as part of your business. I would expect that the typical fines for individuals can be up to multiple orders of magnitude lower.
That's why the fines are mostly listed as "up to … €". As far as I know - if and when such cases are brought to court - judges usually construct an extreme model case to gauge the legislators intent for the maximum fine and then scale the fine down for the actual case (factoring in repeated offenses, etc.). Of course that also means there is much leeway for the court.
While it's true that they would be orders of magnitudes lower in most cases, these fines are also only guidelines for the upper end. If it end up infront of a court, the judge can in very extreme cases go far above these fines if the potential harm you caused justify it, or you keep doing it. So if you keep parking on handicaped only parking spots with your car f.e. the sky is the limit for the fine you will get even if the Busgeldkatalog only says 55€.
@@fdsfnicht6533 Ok. I am wondering if this cloud good depend on the source of the fine? Just an idea because some of the fines in the video seemed pretty high, while the fines from the Bußgeldkatalog (i.e. for traffic violations) seem reasonable. So I could imagine that for example that fines from the Bußgeldkatalog are only guidelines, while fines defined in some other materials are actual limits.
@@JojOatXGME You're completely right. The high fines mentioned in the video are written as "bis zu … €" ("up to … €") in the law. These can only be exceeded in some cases (e.g. § 17 (4) OWiG says that the fine may be increased if the economic benefit for the offender from the offense is higher than the fine).
The fines in the Bußgeldkatalog for traffic violations are written as Regelsätze (recommended fine for the "usual" case) and § 24 StVG sets the upper limit for most offenses from the Bußgeldkatalog to 2000 € and for drunken driving to 3000 €.
Ok... 50k€ for mowing the lawn sounded a little much even for Germany
In Switzerland many mountain roads in Winter force you to at least carry snow chains and if the weather mandates it, also install them. Some, like the road leading up to Davos, will actually have police officers who send away any car that doesn't have them installed if the weather is bad. And for good reasons, as a single car getting stuck can lead to the road being blocked for hours..
Iirc the laws concerning winter tires (and snow chains) in Switzerland are pretty similar. No obligation to install them but if you're on the road in bad conditions without them it can get pretty expensive.
Love the film clips you choose!😂
hahaha thanks! This was a fun video to edit. 😂😂😂
@@TypeAshton I'm a bit disappointed you cut short the laugh from "the money pit"....
I absolutely cannot understand what is so incomprehensible about these legal regulations.
The deceased belong in a cemetery and not in the living room.
Bird protection is important, so no tree or shrub may be cut down during the breeding season.
On a highway where you can drive at 350 kilometers per hour, you should not stop because you are out of gas...not even on the shoulder. And so on and so forth.
These laws make perfect sense, they protect me, my health, my neighbors or nature. And if you even look into why there are such laws in Germany at all, it should actually make sense to everyone.
After a very long series of really good videos from you, this video is really nonsense.
Cutting down trees and bushes in the summer months after mid March is also not allowed in the UK for exactly the same bird related reasons. No idea what the fines are though.
You can cut down trees in the summer but you have to prove that there are no birds nesting or starting to nest. The person who confirms that there are no birds has to be qualified and don't come cheap. If you are willing to pay someone a few hundred pounds to watch a tree for hours so that they can sign off that no birds are nesting then you can do it. Large trees and woods would be prohibitively expensive to inspect, and you would most likely find birds, so are very unlikely to get cut down after March.
In Germany you can cut down trees in the summer as well, if there is a risk associated with them. One of the big trees in our backyard was ill and unstable and was cut down in the middle of summer, because it was a safety hazard.
@@tombrauey In that case two laws contradict each other and human life comes first. Even more: You have to take action if you must see that your property is a hazard for other people and their property ( a tree that got hit by lightning or got damaged in a storm and shows rot in the wood, lose roof tiles, a rotten balcony...) That comes under the horribly long word of "Verkehrssicherheitspflicht", meaning that you as the owner have the duty to see to it your property is safe. "Verkehr" in this context is not road traffic but all relation and interaction between people.
Perhaps the idea is to prevent people from building anything along a beach which prevents others from enjoying the edge of the water & freedom to wander. That has become a big issue that restricts average taxpaying citizens from access as the very wealthy want to own everything natural and beautiful especially in non-abundant locations & resources.
The dataprotection laws we have in germany are good. I just thought about that when you mentioned the photographing of food. ^^
That made me think of an instance I witnessed on twitch where a woman was playing a game, streaming it and obviously talking with customers of a car insurance within her job at home at the same time. So you could hear her talking with customers and I could have also written down at one point the email address of that person if I was quick enough. As a german that almost gave me a heartattack. :D That is such a violation of dataprotection and privacy, I was baffled. I even reported it to twitch and they said "no violation". I could not believe it. We europeans value privacy and take this stuff very seriously.
Datenschutz could honestly almost be its own video someday... HUGE differences from the States to Germany, even not in a "legal" sense, but just in a cultural sense.
I had to sign 10 different forms when I started Jack at Kita giving them permission to even take photos of him and that's just for their own internal purposes (like putting his picture on his cubby so he can find where his coat goes), these aren't shared publicly. In the States, I don't think they would ever permission for this and just do it anyway.
@@TypeAshton ...even the "big five" (Apple, Meta, Twitter, MS and Amazon) have mentioned they would prefer to see something like the GDPR in the US....
Not so sure about Twitter anymore with the new boss.
I would assume that this is at least partly stil because of the "DDR" (east germany before 1990), where a lot of the german population learned fist an even more second hand, what could happen if a you data gets used against you. And i would go so far to assume the "cash is still king in germany" is also , partly, related to that as well. A huge portion of the german population lived through that time frame, or heard it from parents, and I'm quite happy we take this topics relay serious here, and that out European friends are on board with it.
@@benslab8370 That's true, and another part is the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1971 that there is a right to "informational self-determination" (which also includes data protection), since otherwise the free development of personality is endangered.
And this right is protected by Article 2 of the "Grundgesetz" / German Constitution.
@@simplicissimus1948 ... which was triggered by large protests against a particular census.
Thank you for this entertaining insight. I've lived in Germany for around ten years as well and the sand castle prohibition is the only one that caught me off-guard!
Since your chapters mention freedom of speech, would you be interested in making a video about corresponding laws in the US compared to Germany's constitution? I find that my right to express myself is safer here in Germany than in the States but that is largely anecdotal. I suspect it's much easier to outright ban works of art or books in the US than it is in Germany. For example, the Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders rates Germany much higher than America. If you have any insight as to why and how, I'd love to hear it from you. Thank you so much!
Ah this is a GREAT idea for a future video. I'll add it to our list and do more research on it.
Yes, please, that sounds really interesting.
@@TypeAshton Really looking forward to that discussion
@@TypeAshton I understand that in some places where they have brought in book banning laws to protect the children are now being forced to ban the bible. Not what they intended but they have to treat all books in accordance with their new laws.
Great topic suggestion!
The next 245 Videos are about stupid laws in the US 😉
Oh yeah don't get us wrong - the US has plenty of "head scratchers" when it comes to legal precedents as well.
Beside all this. The major differences: the Police will not shoot you on a traffic stop.
A similar law prohibits running out of gas on the highway in France. It will cost you from thirty-five to one hundred euros, but you will find gas stations at rest areas open 24 hours a day to fill up.
Italy require winter tires from November to April on every roads. France has a similar law but it's only in mountain area from November to March.
I've learned to drive in Germany, while in the French army and I'm pretty sure I've broken a few rules :D
When I was a photographer, I learned that image rights and copyright laws are always against you. You can be sued for almost anything man-made in your photo, from license plates to products, humans and buildings, everything is a potential risk. Fortunately, you can mitigate some of this risk by asking for signed permissions and people rarely use these laws without some legitimate concern. But for videos, the blur filter is your friend :D That's why news channels in France blur faces, plates and all kind of things, even Google Earth had to blur people faces.
Freedom of speech exists in Europe, and it stops (as does your First Amendment) where "hate speech" and "defamation" begin. There is just a little less tolerance for insults and hate speech. But in practice, you will be harassed on American social media for anything you say that could be interpreted as slightly inappropriate. In Europe, we don't yet have such a cancel culture.
Doing lounder work on a Sunday may be OK, if you clear it with all neighbours beforehand. Like, your moving into the flat and ask, if it would be OK for you and your helpers to put up furniture, pictures etc. Just abide by any requests they make, like not doing it between a certain time because the baby is sleeping. Some may even offer their help! Same with mowing etc. Even parties during quiet hours may be OK, if you talk to everyone first. Most people won't mind too much, because they can relate. Again, just abide by their requests. And if you're a trully nice person, just bring over leftover cake etc. and they'll be over the moon. (in a good neighbourhood, where people like each other, that is.) Just return the favour, if they come asking. - Oh, and if anyone comes over to ask, if you could be a little quieter, because, while they know you celebrate your huge birthday, it would be great if it could just be a notch quieter - just do it. And just turn it down a little more, because they might want to be polite and would enjoy a little more quiet.
But really, with talking to each other, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The typical German mix of makes perfect sense - and guaranteed to make us all get frustrated. I love that you titled the flipping the bird one „free speech“, because that’s how I have always seen it. That poor guy.
I instantly thought „ ja, but the Deich!“ when I saw „no sandcastles“! I notice, I‘m quite German these days…!
Ashton, I haven’t been around much since October- lovely to see you both looking well in this fun video! Hugs and have a great Sunday 🤗
Well, it all goes back to article 1 of the german constitution: "Die würde des Menschen ist unantastbar. ..." (Human dignity is inviolable.) An insult goes against your human dignity and even free speech doesn't trump that.
@@andreasvogler1875 ah, I didn’t know that, thank you. I think it’s a mixed blessing, this rule.
Hi Lauren. To be honest, even if this constitutes to "freedom of speech" in the US, I for sure wouldn't flip the bird against an US cop or other official. Depending on the situation or just their mood, they might find other reasons to punish you and to let you regret your decision.
@@Opa_Andre no, I wouldn’t do that to a policeman, either. But I thought he made the gesture not to be seen, just in the direction of the speed control? And if you’re not speeding, no photo- that’s what I thought, I might have got it wrong!
@@andreasvogler1875 Yes, one might joke that Americans have the right of free speech with almost no limits but then the insulted person may draw a gun and pump you full of lead and go free.
We are not allowed to wash our cars at home here in our city in Texas.
Crazy $hit, what's funny for Europeans is that US Americans so proud of free speech, but blur the finger or show a sticker on it, omit the curse word sound, dub it with an ouch as it wasn't said on purpose, a slip of the tongue. Any research of how effective education on minors that is?
You should be aware to who you insult, e.g. traffic police (esp. Politessen) don't have any humor.
Well, in all fairness - we censored here mostly for advertising requirements. 😉
@@TypeAshton yes, but you had to because it's an US platform ;-)
Well, I wasn't any better, I wrote "$hit", you know what I mean by that. We believe in free speech and First Ammendment or Grundgesetz, Redefreiheit and Nobody can tell us & US anything, but the biggest scissor in our mind is fear of demoneyticing. Cheat in some typos to stay under the radar.
This was SUCH a Fun vlog!👏 I have lived here 27yrs and a couple of these I didn't know!😅
The tree/bush law is true but trimming trees and hedges is allowed in Spring- Summer (just not cutting them down/back to an extreme). You just look up the date from which you can start trimming, which changes each year due to weather affecting the nesting season and which is different for each state. If you have/plant trees there is protection on them when their truck reaches a certain diameter..so always check and get permission if you want to cut a tree down.
No washing car law is one ground water protection law that helps keep Germany drinking water the quantity of mineral water! In America I would never trust tap water when you read what industry and farming and people are allowed to do which causes major contamination etc.
It took me years to get used to "no noise or noisy jobs with machinery on Sunday" eg no lawn cutting, hedge trimmers, DIY (with machines) or even using washing machines in appartmens. I do my hedge trimming by hand and see it as a work out if i do it on Sunday if that's the day I have time and/or it's not raining😂.
Didn't know about the food photo law or the sandcastle law 😱.
Winter tires - colloquially it's called: O to O - October to Easter(Ostern)
One very important detail they dont mention is, that german laws define the maximum fines, which of course are not the common the normal or average fines. Of course nobody gets fined €100.000 for cutting a single bush or tree. But on the other hand a fine a few hundred Euro would not prevent a landowner to cut down half a forrest e.g. if he wants to build a house.
The worst fines are for insulting police and other enforcement officials aka Beamtenbeleidigung which can range in 1000s of €.
Winter tires in winter is madatory in Quebec, for the rest of Canada certain roads might require it (put a sign saying winter tires or chains required beyond this point) such as on the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler, BC (host of alpline skiing in the 2010 Olympics). So requiring winter tires is very logical. I have seen cars unable to cross a bridge in snow (probably without winter tires) in Vancouver of course (Vancouver gets much less snow that eastern cities like Toronto and so are always made fun of). A pickup truck from the transport authority had to push the vehicles across the bridge.
In Denmark we can legally beat a Swede with a stick. But only if they happen to be crossing from Sweden to Denmark over the ice in case Øresund freeze over.
The English up until frighteningly recently used to have the right to shoot me (Welsh 🏴) in a border town! Maybe this is a remnant of Danelaw…?! 😂
@@LaureninGermany Not sure about that, as far as I know only the middle eastern parts of the island was under Danelaw don't think it ever made it all the way to Wales and the southern parts paid Danegeld to keep the norsemen out of their areas. I could be wrong tho.
Yeah, winter tires from O to O here in the south of Germany. From October to Ostern ( Easter)....
11:08 Not everyone have to change tires, some use "all-weather tires" on their car, I for example do that!
As an American running out of Gas is a thing for me and our family and we don’t want to run out of gas when we’re anywhere. Also my dad loves to wash his car at car washes and rarely at home idk it’s just him. We don’t usually show the special finger.
How crazy we Germans are, thinking that there is anything wrong with damaging the environment and insulting each other. 😉
Instead of summer and winter tires, you can just use "all year" tires. This is obviously only advantageous, if you live in mild region, where not much snow is expected. I have had them for years now and I like, that I don't need to switch that often.
Well winter tires are not just about snow, but also about temperature. The rubber mixture is different, so winter tires are still soft at low temperatures while summer tires are to hard. At the same time driving a winter tire in summer will lead to a lot of wear and probably a bit more fuel consumption. So a all year tire will always behave worse than dedicated tire. And while there are areas with much less snow, I am not aware of any areas where you don't really encounter winterly temperatures. That being said, there is always better/worse and there is good enough ^^.
@@lal12 of course. "all year" tires are a compromise for either season. But if you don't drive professionally and you don't need your car to get to work (because of public transport or bike or home office), this compromise is absolutely good enough.
The second weird law from the Netherlands is: If you ever get married make sure you get to know the mother in law because you will never get rid of her! Even after you divorced your wife and you both wanted passionately to end the relationship your mother in law will remain your mother in law by law.
That's actually pretty much the case in Germany as well. Even after divorce you have a "Zeugnisverweigerungsrecht", the right to refuse to testify against your then former in-laws.
So there is no way for your newly acquired relative to become an outlaw?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I'm done. The Clip with the Big Lebowski took me right out🤣🤣🤣
You should look into StGB § 307, Herbeiführen einer Explosion durch Kernenergie - you can go to prison for five years for causing a nuclear detonation. Not overly strict, but I guess the risk of repeat offenders wasn't super massive to begin with 😛
I actually looked this up and ALMOST included it in the video. But since the angle of the video was more about "laws that Americans might think are unusual" - I stopped short because technically there is a similar law in the US about the transport, storage, and detonation of nuclear material.
2) You actually can trim your hedge in summertime - but only trim it, not cut it down. If some twigs impede users of an adjacent sidewalk you are even obliged to trim them. But you trim only the tips, you do not change the hair-do or form of your hedge. The height of the fine depends on the damage. A 50,000 Euro fine would be imposed only if you cut down e.g. a landmark tree or a centuries old, healthy tree without special permit or a big, healthy tree within a preserve area or protected landscape or holding the nest of a protected species.
3) Any stopped car at the Autobahn is considered to be a traffic hazard, including standing on the shoulder. You're only allowed to stop in case of an emergency, and running out of fuel is no emergency.
4) You are allowed to use all-season tires if you don't use your car to go skiing or to traverse the Alps in wintertime or generally do not drive in snowy conditions. Due to climate change that allows not only people around Frankfurt to do without winter tires, but also people in more and more other regions.
9) Freedom of speech does not include insulting someone, because freedom of speech is not the highest ranking fundamental right. In Germany human dignity is the first of all fundamental rights, and all your freedom rights end where they start to impend the fundamental right of others. Insulting somebody is however not in any case a criminal act in the narrower sense, only if you violate their rights of personality by false and defamatory statements in public (e.g. in TV, in public assemblies or in social media) or if you insult civil servants in the exercise of their duties. The extension to insults in traffic helps to prevent road rage.
10) Generally mowing time starts each weekend around 4pm (to 6pm or 7pm) at Friday and again at Saturday around 10 am until around 6pm. And still most people mow their lawns far too often.
Thanks for 4), saves me the effort.
A lot of these laws are the same in Slovenia (where I'm from) and probably other European countries.
11:12
In Norway you're *technically* only required to use tires with a minimum thread depth of 3 mm between the start of November and mid March (unless your vehicle is above 3,5 tons, then the laws are stricter and involves snow chains), but the *intention* is for those tires to be winter tires.
But yes, you are *technically* permitted all year tires then too.
Like Germany we're also required to have a good grip though, so in practice you essentially have to get winter tires.
Ist es in Amerika OK, dem Polizist den Mittelfinger zu zeigen oder ihn A...-loch zu nennen?
About the topic with the Winter Tires. In the black forest, probably you need them. If you live in an urban area in the middle of germany, you could just keep the summer tires and that one day in year where you have snow, you just don't use the car. That's the idea of the law. Especially if you have two cars in the family, you could think of just not to use it on the few snow days.
Thats not fully correct.
The idea of the law is to have full function tires. since the gum is effected by temperature, summer tires loosing grip below 7 degree celcius.
And bout snow, yes we have not many days with snow in the north BUT we have lot more frosty ones with ice on the roads.
Good luck with summer tires when u driving over a spot of ice
@@issel3276 I don't want to. I know that wiinter tires are better in winter but you won't get fined if you use summer tires at 6 degrees. And if you can afford to leave the car in the car park some days, I can understand you don't buy full blown winter tires. When we had 2 cars, we had one of them with all season tires. That's okay for most of the time.
@@andreaseufinger4422 No idea when u checked the last time the law but it changed.
You can be fined ! since 2010. Also, all season( MS ) tires are only valid until 09/2024 IF produced by 31/12/2017.
All after that must be winter tires. 60 € and 1 Point in Flensburg otherwise, for only driving at Black ice, slippery snow, slush, ice or hoar frost.
What we always have some days in the winter, even in the north
17:40 Watch out for the two dots. KLÄGER is pronounced like [claygur], not [clahgur.]
I wonder how many cases were settled out of court by the Restaurant asking the instagrammer to add the details for the restaurant, so the customers added by that compensate for customers lots by recipe getting out (not always, but sometimes, a recipe can be pretty obvious from the look of the food).
Winter tires in the province of Québec are mandatory from December 1 to March 15 but most Quebeckers have them put on in November and off in April, just to be safe. And scraping the windshield? Haha that's an almost daily occurence here!
For the windows you could just cover them the day before with a blanket. you even have them made for windshields. they cost almost nothing but work like a charm.
they only scraping i have to do is for the head and tail lights. (that is more for the other users of the road)
Freedom of speech in Germany (and same in the US btw) only grants immunity from punishments by the government. And in Germany particulary it doesn't trump article 1 of our constitution ("Human dignity shall be inviolable"), which means you'll probably end up in a civil lawsuit when flipping the bird to someone.
A really funny video, I didn't know some examples of laws either. It was really nice to hear the German terms said as well. Thank you and have a nice week.
8:33
Thanks for the countdown, it makes me willing to watch it in full instead of skipping.
I don't get how you're ridiculing the law about insulting someone. You say that in the US it is covered by the freedom of speech amendment. Well in Germany it is too. But the difference between freedom of speech and unfree speech is whether or not you're forbidden to say something. In Germany the constitution stipulates in its first paragraph that a person's dignity is untouchable. If you insult someone you impose on their dignity. Both freedom of speech and dignity are human rights in Germany. So if you insult someone no one will stop you from saying it but since you violated someone else's human rights you have to live with the consequences. Still free speech.
Ridicule is an interesting choice of phrase. We explicitly state within the first 90 seconds of this video that "we are not saying that these laws are not legitimate or reasonable. We agree with many of them. But these are the ones which Americans find the most culture-shocking".
@@TypeAshton the choice of phrase was intentional. I did see/hear those 90 seconds but yet in the particular section you imply that this is not free speech. Maybe it's just my perception but to me it came across as ridiculing
It's not an implication or a ridicule, it's a facet of US law. Period. The courts have ruled again and agin that insulting someone is "protected free speech" under our first amendment.
And truthfully, I might AGREE with you... I wish we would put dignity above the freedom to say whatever you want. But in the United States, the reason white supremacists are able to fly the schm-atzi flag, anti-abortion groups can scream horrible things at young women seeking healthcare, and you can flip someone off in the car while driving without any legal repercussion is specifically because of our laws on "free speech".
you definitly have to include the Hamburg Law, were it is "strengstens verboten" to insult a Swan. (although not enforced)
also killing a single wasp also costs up to 50k€
And yes, the Unterlassene Hilfeleistung has to come in a serious video as well
I like your videos. One small point: the plural of 'Euro' (the currency unit) is 'Euro'. Without a final 's'. I think this is because different (European) languages would form the plural differently, so, for uniformity across the continent, the plural is just 'Euro'. You're welcome.
Switzerland goes a bit further with its laws :-) - 1. The beer pong ban
Not a place for those who drink: In the canton of Neuchâtel, it has been illegal to play beer pong in bars and restaurants since 2015. All drinking games are a no-go here to protect the players from their "excessive fighting spirit" and the associated alcohol consumption.
2. The nocturnal flushing ban
When a good night's sleep is more important than going to the toilet: if you live in an apartment in Switzerland, you are no longer allowed to flush the toilet after 10 p.m. - after all, this could disturb the sleep of the neighbors.
3. The Higheels ban
Speaking of a good night's sleep: wearing heels after 10 p.m. is also prohibited by law in some Swiss municipalities.
4. The law against the loneliness of guinea pigs
Attention pet owners: for several years, there have been regulations in Switzerland that certain pets may no longer be kept alone. In particular, sociable small animals such as guinea pigs, goldfish, and budgerigars - but also llamas and alpacas - must live with at least one conspecific. Violators face a hefty fine of several hundred Swiss francs.
5. The law against eating dogs and cats together
Only allowed for personal use: If you want to eat a dog or a cat in Switzerland, you can do so - but only within your own household. As soon as another person is invited to eat, this is a serious violation of the law.
6. The angler selfie ban
No trophy: anglers who take a selfie with a caught fish risk a hefty fine in Switzerland. The same applies, by the way, if these anglers in the canton of Zurich throw fish that have been caught over a certain length back into the water.
7. The Sunday laundry ban
"It just doesn't look good": Swiss people are not allowed to hang out their laundry outside on Sundays and public holidays. According to the homeowners' association, a full washing line at the weekend simply spoils the look, which is why the so-called standard washing regulations were issued.
8. The ban on hiking naked
Nudist tourism not desired: nude hiking has been expressly forbidden in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden since 2009. The decree against "indecent behavior" has apparently had an effect: According to the police, not a single nude hiker has been sighted in the wild in the region for ten years.
9. The law against regulated re-parking
If the parking space gets expensive: If you want to move your car in Switzerland, you must have driven in the flow of traffic for at least a brief time in between - violating the decree could otherwise result in a fine of 40 Swiss francs.
Hi from Switzerland as well.
Re: 2. I live in Switzerland since over 60 year and moved houses several times. Never saw such a rule and always flush. I would be interested in some references so convince me this is not just an internet myth 😉
re: 8: Would be interested what Americans think about it. Maybe the culture shock form them is rather the fact that there was a reason to introduce a law against hiking naked🤣
I remember a couple years back it had been raining all week and the Bio-Bin was due to be picked up Monday. I said screw it and mowed with our Electric Mower on Sunday. Not even 10 Minutes after I was done, I heard another Mower going then another one. Sometimes you just need to be the first to do it ;-)
Thats not quite correct. According to §§39 V Nr.2 i.V.m. 69 III Nr.13; VII BNatSchG there are only fines up to 50k€ possible, in the case of cutting down trees in the prohibited time only up to 10k€. If you cut down a tree in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania exceding the measurements of 100cm of tree circumference 1,3m above ground you could be fined 100k€.
It must be remembered that some of these laws are EU wide and others don't apply outside Germany. Almost every country has local variations and obsolete laws. A couple of examples.
In the UK there is a law passed in 1388 requiring every able bodied man to practice archery for 2 hours after church on a Sunday. AFAIK this has never been repealed. Hence in the town where I grew up there was an Archery Road and a street known as The Butts (an archery practice range).
When it comes to trees, tree surgeons are loath to work on trees in the spring when the birds are nesting as many species are protected by law. Of course there are exceptions such as dangerous and trees felled in storms. In addition, it is not illegal to fell a tree UNLESS it is the subject of a Tree Preservation Order (TPO). TPO trees are fairly common and are usually particularly fine or old specimens of their type. I've got two mature copper beeches on the boundary with a neighbour and we have to get special permission every time we need to prune them.
Many countries in Europe have protected food names (PDO), not just France. Stilton Cheese can only be called "Stilton" if it is made in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire using pasteurised milk and only 6 dairies are licenced to do so.
Stichelton is an English blue cheese virtually identical to Blue Stilton, but because it does not use pasteurised milk or factory-produced rennet it cannot legally be called Stilton, due its PDO status. This is doubly so because, although Stichelton (the old Doomsday book name for the village of Stilton) dairy is actually in the village of Stilton, Stilton is NOT in the 3 PDO counties due to boundary changes.
Germans (within a certain age group) don't need to be told that that's the Christmas movie with the Griswolds - which are, also with help of the vacation movie, the template of "The (crazy) Americans" ... ;) The European Vacation movie is called, in German: "Hilfe, die Amis kommen!" (~ "help, the yanks are coming!")
Lot's of these point you could call a kind of adjustment of 'bad' behaviour. The no 'finger' could help you to treat other people respectfully. Thinking at the U.S, it maybe would be a good thing these days🤣😂🤔Here in Denmark it's unlawfull to j-walk, and many foreigners think it's stupid. But for a Dane, who's useing at lot of time educate our children that it's forbitten, it really get's to us, when stupid foreigners do it in front of our children. It's a lack of a normal educated behaviour, and very selfish. Thanks for your videoes, and views at Europe.
Some thoughts on "Free Speech", the European approach:
«The freedom of the individual ends where the freedom of others begins». Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
«Freedom consists in being able to do everything that does not harm someone else».
Matthew Claudius (1740-1815)
"Man's freedom does not lie in the fact that he can do what he wants, but in the fact that he does not have to do what he does not want".
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78)
Therefore, insulting another can be a fundamental breach of the concept of freedom in favor of egomaniacal anarchy, or the right of the stronger to impose their will on the weaker. To construe Freedom of Speech as allowing someone to speak any crap, whether it hurts or otherwise harms someone else (e.g., damaging the reputation), or serves to disrupt society (e.g., hate speech) is also harmful to a society like an ultimate ban on speaking.
Germany has therefore introduced legal regulations for this very reason and due to bad historical experiences (NS propaganda etc.).
But a statement that is accused of being an "insult" within the meaning of § 185 StGB - has always to be checked for an opinion-friendly interpretation.
EPRS study | European Parliamentary Research Service "Freedom of Expression: A Comparative Perspective" (in german):
www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2019/642269/EPRS_STU(2019)642269_DE.pdf
Crazy US Law: in Twenty-one states in the United States have laws that criminalise adultery. In five
such states, Idaho, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, adultery is
classified as a felony. It is a misdemeanor in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois,
Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota,
Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia. Penalties for an adultery conviction
can include fines as well as terms of imprisonment of up to four years mostly against the women.
I love the movie clips!
As the guy flipping the finger: maybe he flipped it towards the guy overtaking him? And even if he flipped it to the camera: it’s not like he personally insulted a certain policeman. As he was not caught speeding, nor infringing on any personal rights of another citizen, I am not sure what the offense was.
I mean: I would get it, if he sprayed ACAB on some Police property.
While he was in traffic, he also was in his car: don’t you have your freedom of expression in your own car? Was the window open? Did he hold his hand out? This is getting ridiculous. This was a completely accidental picture, as the camera was triggered by the other car. If nobody was speeding, the footage would not have been recorded and kept at all. This sounds crazy. - Well: Bavaria is our German Texas: don’t fuck with the Bavarian state, unless you have the right party membership, I guess.
Edit: I mean: there are better and more creative ways of making fun of Bavarian politicians - former Ministerpräsident of Bavaria Edmund Stoiber was a deserving target ua-cam.com/video/9Vg2h_nW0bA/v-deo.html („Stoiber on Drums“ by Jonny König)
Edit 2: oh, they also drumified Trump 😂 listen ua-cam.com/video/Cds7dU7xXSA/v-deo.html
Edit 3: made revisit The Gregory Brothers Songify the News ua-cam.com/video/ooPzr1vzmGY/v-deo.html I sometimes forget how comparatively sane German politicians are, even when they are unintentionally funny
If you want to post pictures of the food, just ask the restaurant owner (or manager). Usually, they'll just give you permission.
On one occasion, I forgot and posted anyway. 30 minutes later, the owners were asking around, "who is this 'RealUlli' guy?". Gut feeling "oh sh...". Being honest, I raised my hand ... and got a glass of homemade honey as a thank you for the positive review. :-)
Danes have almost the same attitude to naked bodies as Germans. You can go swimming naked anywhere, but all towns on the sea has got a little strech of beach allocated to nakedness. Not officially, it's just a local "agreement", that works for everybody.
To the actual story........
A couple of decades ago a family bought a house right on the beach north of Copenhagen. They didn't like local people taking of their clothes and going for their morning swim, so they put up two signs - one in each in each "divide" - reading: NO Skinny Dipping!
They were taken to court and fined 7500 Euro's .........
for poluting the beach with their ugly signs 🤣🤣🤣
Peace and love
The shurb/tree law is completely asinine. As a horticulturist, I can tell you that not ALL species can be trimmed from October-March. On many occasions, doing so will compromise the health of the plant in question. For instance, ALL species of poplar and birch prefer to be trimmed in late summer (August), they will bleed excessively if trimmed in the winter months.
Nice view again. And you even missed "Sonntagsruhe", "Mittagsruhe", "Tanzverbot" (coming up in a few days!). Really love your insights that often teach even me news - and I'm an "indigene". Have a nice time - looking out for the next video already!
The good thing with rules in Germany is, contrary to the typical German stereotype, these are usually handled with quite a fair bit of common sense. Means often enough you get away with a clarifying (friendly) chat and possibly a warning. I live now in Australia and as friendly as the Aussies are, rules are rules, if they make sense or not, obeying them is expected and if not, (hefty) fines apply with near to no chance to discuss. In Berlin I several times got around a parking ticket because I overstretched the time by 10-15 minutes when talking to the council clerk that was still around checking other cars. That would not happen in Australia, you got to pay once fined no matter how "severe" your failure actually was.
@ the black forest family:
About showing the middlefinger as part of first amendmen right... how come it is blured in TV?
Like in "Guarding of the Galaxie - Vol 1".
Or is that a youtube thing?
Nice video, but after 10 years in Germany, mister, you should know that "verboten" isn't pronounced "forboaten", it's "ferboten"... ;)
On Sundays ... I'm actually astonished that with all the "extreme" christians in the US, they don't abide by the Old Testament, (creation of earth and Exodus 23:12) "on the 7th day you shall rest". also in the jewish religion known as sabbath.
winter tires are also required by law in part of Canada during winter months. Many Canadian cities also ban washing your car at home (up to $3,000 fine in some cities). I love the mowing the lawn regulation, we need this in America! Also for the leaf blowers (these things are so useless, and extremely annoying)
Insult is generally punishable in Germany, however you show it with words or gestures. And you don't pay a fiixed fine, but (usually) a financial punishment of 10 to 30 days worth of your net salary. Technically, you can go to jail up to one year. And the "proof" just needs to be a reasonably believeable accusation (no "reasonable" doubt), in particular if the alleged victim is a stranger who has no obvious reason to falsely incriminate you.
In Germany freedom of speech is guaranteed in Article 5 of the constitution.
More important is Article 1: "Human dignity shall be inviolable." So your freedom has boundaries which I think is logical in a society.
Personally I'd love to live in a society where everybody was considerate of others - in contrast to just doing what you want and demanding others to tolerate it.
In Germany, the right to demonstrate is a fundamental right (right to freedom of expression, Art. 5 (1) GG, & right of assembly, Art. 8 GG). And how to do that is regulated by the law on assemblies and processions (Versammlungsgesetz). In it, there might be some rules that might seem strange. The most impractical rule is that a demonstration must be announced to the authorities at least 48 hours in advance (§ 14). Spontaneous demonstrations are thus not allowed. This is why there is the saying, "In Germany, even anarchists register a demonstration." 🙃
I don't understand your problem/issue. It is a different country! Sure usually white colored people. But Germany is NOT the US. You would not go to an African country and complain that the laws are different?
@ 22:08. In German we call Wednesday “Mittwoch” meaning the mid week so like most everywhere else, Sunday is the 1st day of the week. And I am in America now, we do our gardens in a weekday usually just before rubbish day / garden waste. I don’t want that noise running through my garden on the weekends. Or we’re just not home.
~ 16:40 - Now this _is_ IP protection gone too far. This is a disturbing (and, frankly, surprising) trend in Europe recently - it would more naturally. "fit" in American legal landscape.
Germany doesnt have the hurricanes that some parts of the US has. You gotta "aggressively" tree trim your things during hurricane season which is June 1 through November 30. September 10 is the most active time of year. Its your duty to trim things like coconuts in Spring, early Fall, and Summer. Coconuts are little missiles. You have a dead palm tree its your duty to remove it before a hurricane. The trunk can snap in half and become a missile. I was heartbroken when I had to chop down a dead palm tree in my yard. It had a woodpecker with babies. This kind of woodpecker laid eggs in June. It was June 3rd when a hurricane was coming. If neighbors arent responsible and trim trees people will go out and take pictures of whats left around before a hurricane. Insurance companies have denied claims of coconuts breaking car windows (this used to be the way. I left FL 10 years ago). Their excuse is you should trim your trees. If you can prove it was your neighbor then the Insurance company will pay.
1. Same rule in Sweden. The ashes of the loved one has to be dealt with in 3 months. And if ashes are to be spread on the sea, it has to be done at least 3 km (2 miles) from the shore.
There's a story about one prominent person in Stockholm "underworld" ( a poet, singer, musician and also a drinker) who died, got cremated. His friends took the ashes and to mourn and memorite their friend they went from bar to bar in Stockholm spilling the ashes here and there at places wellknown to their friend.
Winter tyres are mandatory 1 Dec - 31 March IF the conditions requires tyres for winter driving. Spiked tyres only permitted 1 October - 15 April.
I would appreciate a general ban of leaf blowers.
Driving in wintertime in Norway without proper winter tires, can be very costly. Your insuranse is not paying anything if u crash and weather is snowy or icy. U risk to pay a penalty for 400 000 dollars and more for this.... So dont drive a car with summertire and inflict damage on a human...
Ha ha ha, well, yes some laws are strange here, but.... the thing with the sandcastles, its not meant the kiddy ones, and....... on an autobahn when you drive over 200 km/h, you wouldn´t like someone who is "parking" on the left lane because he run out of fuel. Oh, did you know that in Alabama its illegal to drive blindfolded? 🤗I wonder why, makes no sense 😉.... hehehe
Maybe you could present things like this more objectively and without all the giggling and wide eyed amazement. I really don't like the impression you're leaving here making Germany appear like some kind of authoritarian state as compared to the us where we're all so free because freedum.
Effectively in my day to day life, I feel far more personal freedom here in Germany than when I'm in the US.
Also, the 1st amendment card? Srsly?
Maybe look into the German constitution to find the root of the personal insult laws.
I feel the quality of your content is slipping.
For all of these laws the legal principle of "Verhältnismäßigkeit" (=proportionality) applies. You will definately not be fined 100.000 Euros for cutting some bushes in your own garden, but if you break the same law by logging a small forest as a professional gardener and earn a lot of money for doing so, you will be in some trouble.
The same applies more or less in the same way to the other laws you may find strange.
And just because something is not explicitly forbidden, doesn't mean the consequences are just fine. What will happen if you build a sand castle on an american beach, leaving a three feet deep whole and someone breaks his leg as he stumbles into it in the dark? Is that just bad luck or will some skilled lawyer sue the hell out of you? I don't think, you can get away with "it was just a legal sand castle".
Restaurants. I do not think they can prevent *taking* a picture. They can prevent *publishing* it, though (or come after you if you do).
A bit of information about the fine regarding the insult (flipping the bird). The punishment is calculated in "daily rates", meaning it is based on your daily income. 30 daily rates are the same as one month's worth of income. If someone got 5.000 € for flipping the bird, that probably means he had quite the very substantial income, and honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he went to a higher court to challenge that ruling, as he didn't aim the finger at a person, but a camera or maybe the system itself. In general, the lower courts are more willing to wave these kind of insult complaints from the police through.
Oh yes... there is one more law I like... and it is not even that obscure. If there is a medical emergency on an airliner, and the crew ask if there are any MD on the plane, any MD do not NEED to make him- or herself present or avalable... UNLESS you fly Finnair. ...and it doesn't matter what nationality the MD are; he or she MUST make themselves avalable to the crew, or the Police will wait for them when they land in Helsinki. This happens 2 or 3 times every year...
Well, let us look the other way round .... Americans may have weapons any time. Apparently any size - if I heard it right the child mortality is dominated by gun violence. So, talking about weird laws ... well, in this context fines for washing your car or mowing your yard on weekends seem kind of minor, isn't it? So these many regulations in Germany may have some good sides to them as well ... :-)