Among the German criminal code....there is this one paragraph which is kind of interesting....paragraph 132a.
It concerns the misuse or abuse of titles, job titles and badges.
There are three ways that you can get in trouble over unauthorized 'use':
1. If you try to use German or foreign official service titles, college degrees, ranks, or public dignities.
2. If you hold a professional title of doctor, dentist, psychological psychotherapist, child and adolescent psychotherapist, psychotherapist, veterinarian, pharmacist, lawyer, patent attorney, auditor, sworn accountant, tax advisor or tax agent.
3. Finally, if you wore domestic or foreign uniforms, official clothing or official badges.
So how bad is this if caught and taken in court? Potential fine and potentially up to 12 months in prison.
Now, I bring this up today because of a police report out of Hamburg's train station.
You see....cops got called over a mid-50s dude who was smoking within the train-station.
They approach, and this guy is in a German Army uniform...full regular beret on with some rank showing, and the rank of 'captain' on the shoulder tabs.
This was a 'regular'....someone that the cops tend to meet and have to handle on a regular basis. So they wrote up the discrepancy report, and forwarded it onto the station.....then they released the guy for the time being.
If the court wants to mess with him? The paragraph is plain simple and laid out, but it's a waste of time if you ask me.
How often does this title, college degree thing, or badge business come up? I probably see two or three of these in an average year, and sometimes it reaches a surprising level....where someone was actually hired into a job with a fake degree (last year was some doctor in Hessen who'd never attended medical school). Around a decade ago....an American PhD guy was a college instructor in Germany and was warned by the police not to hand out business cards with the 'rank' of PhD on it because he wasn't German PhD'ed (just plain American PhD'ed).
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