Imagine: you're quietly laughing at a meme on your phone, and suddenly your doorbell rings. "It's the police!
"You are violating Nachtruhe !" - this is how the story of American Jessica Brown begins, who in 2022 received a 250 euro fine for "loud breathing" in Berlin.
"I had asthma!" she fumed on social media. But the German court refused to overturn the fine: "Rules are more important than excuses."
In Germany, silence is a religion. The law prohibits not only making noise, but also... flushing the toilet after 10 p.m. Yes, you heard right. In 2019, Hamburg pensioner Gunter Scholz sued his neighbor who "flushed the cistern 3 times a night." He lost the case, but the precedent became a meme.
Stern magazine jokes: “Germans are ready to endure pain, just to avoid hearing someone else’s cough.”
The roots of this phenomenon go back to the 19th century. Historian Claudia Schmidt explains in an ARD documentary:
"After the cholera epidemics, people believed that noise spreads infection."
Today, 70% of Germans support the bans, according to a YouGov poll. But there are nuances: in Bavaria, you can’t mow the lawn on Sundays, and in Dresden, you can’t wash your car in the yard.
"The fines reach 5,000 euros. This is no joke," warns lawyer Frank Weber on the Legal Tribune blog.
Real cases sound like jokes. In 2021, Indian tourist Rajiv Patel was fined for “whispering too loudly” in a Munich hotel.
In 2023, French student Louise Claire was warned for "rustling a bag" at night. "They listen through the walls!" she wrote on social media.
But not all Germans are fanatics. Musician Thomas Müller from Cologne started a petition "Let us live!", collecting 50,000 signatures: "We are becoming a nation of paranoids."
Even Justice Minister Rainer Wendt supported him, stating in Die Welt : "Sometimes the law must give way to humanity."
However, night patrols continue to operate. In Hanover, there is a special “silent police” that has been using drones to search for violators since 2020. Their motto: “Silence is our weapon.”
Psychologists are sounding the alarm. Dr. Sophia Mayer writes in a study for Spiegel :
"The fear of making an unnecessary noise leads to neuroses. 40% of Germans admit that they are afraid even to cough at night." But traditions are stronger: in 2023, a Bonn court allowed residents of an apartment building to install microphones in the corridors to control noise.
"It's like Big Brother , but with pedantry," human rights expert Karl Hoffmann commented in Deutsche Welle .
