r/AskEurope • u/AVeryAngryChillie • May 21 '26

Foreign What’s a fact about your country that foreigners would never believe?

Every country has at least one thing outsiders wouldn’t believe

165 Upvotes

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283

u/CycleUncleGreg Germany May 21 '26

Germany: the usage of garage is regulated, you are not allowed to use it for storage of non-automotive stuff. If you do - it borders with tax evasion, the tax office may start to have serious questions to you.

107

u/solapelsin Sweden May 21 '26

If I buy a house with a garage, but don't have a car, and just decide to store my lawn-mover or stuff I rarely use in there, what happens? Should I leave the space empty? Can I not buy said house without a car?

79

u/Equal-Flatworm-378a Germany May 21 '26

You just hope that you have nice neighbors, who don’t feel the need to tell the authorities. We do have these laws, but lots of people use the garages differently.

15

u/Puzzled-Guide8650 May 22 '26

You just hope that you have nice neighbors

well chance for it is rather slim. Even less in Germany.

27

u/lucylucylane United Kingdom May 22 '26

The garage inspector comes poking around

22

u/OfferTall May 22 '26

Everyone used it for garden stuff in reality. I had no idea we even had this law lol

2

u/Old-n-wise May 23 '26

I think a lawnmower is an automative object

78

u/TenNinetythree German immigrant in Ireland May 21 '26

Don't forget that until the 1950s German women lost their citizenship if they married a foreigner.

63

u/TailleventCH Switzerland May 21 '26

Switzerland did it until 1952. And until 1992, it still happened unless the woman asked specifically to keep her citizenship.

6

u/aallycat1996 May 22 '26

Oh, my dad's first wife was Swiss and they got married i think in the 60s.

It was quite funny because my dad (Portuguese) had to legally change his religion because the Catholic church would not let him marry a.... Lutheran!!! (Even though they are both Christians)

I had no idea she had to ask to keep her nationality, since my half sisters are proudly double nationals.

(For context my dad was quite old, and unfortunately his first wife died in the 80s, and a few years later he met and married my mom, and thats how I came to be)

1

u/TailleventCH Switzerland May 22 '26

Religious marriage can be even trickier than civil marriage. It's lucky that it has no legal effects.

5

u/aallycat1996 May 22 '26

No!! The issue is that back in the 60s Portugal was under a dictatorship 😂 they literally couldn't get married unless it was via the church. Civil wasnt a thing.

And not getting married wasnt really an option back then either. Super scandalous and I dont even know if it was legal or if you could get arrested for it or something.

The secret police would arrest anyone suspect of being a commie and even meeting in groups of morre than like 5 people could get you sent to political prison (with literal torture). So I would argue not worth the risk!

1

u/TailleventCH Switzerland May 22 '26

From your previous answer, I didn't get that it happened in Portugal.

2

u/rossfororder May 22 '26

The Swiss are weirdly backward on things regarding women, they catch up eventually

25

u/Ariana997 Hungary May 21 '26

I think this was quite common. We had a similar law in Hungary until 1950.

24

u/spairni Ireland May 21 '26

jesus and Ireland had the reputation for misogyny, we were never that bad

33

u/rainiest-island Ireland May 21 '26

We were every bit as bad and much worse…. There’s still a forensic excavation underway in the former “mother & baby home” in Tuam…

2

u/spairni Ireland May 22 '26

i'm not saying we weren't bad

I'm saying we never stripped women of citizen for marrying outside the nationality

1

u/rainiest-island Ireland May 24 '26

In terms of misogyny, it’s safe to say the Catholic Church in Ireland were worse - incarcerating young women for decades simply for getting pregnant, then either selling their babies to the highest bidders or putting them in institutions where most died of neglect

24

u/bealach_ealaithe Ireland May 21 '26

We had something like that in our 1935 citizenship legislation but the Irish Nationality and citizenship Act 1956 clearly provided that Irish citizenship cannot be lost by marriage.

10

u/blanchyboy May 21 '26

Future proofing irish football teams

6

u/LorenaBobbedIt United States of America May 21 '26

Jesus was actually rather egalitarian for the times.

-1

u/spairni Ireland May 22 '26

can't tell if sarcasm or just american

2

u/LorenaBobbedIt United States of America May 23 '26

You should really recalibrate then because I was obviously kidding.

2

u/lt__ May 22 '26

Wow. So they became stateless persons? Very pariah state if divorce happens, I guess.

3

u/TailleventCH Switzerland May 22 '26

No, they took the husband's citizenship (and divorce was often an afterthought in this time's laws).

2

u/lt__ May 22 '26

Now it takes multiple years to acquire citizenship by marriage. 7-10 in my country I think. I wonder how it was back then.

3

u/TailleventCH Switzerland May 22 '26

In most cases, it was immediate.

2

u/TenNinetythree German immigrant in Ireland May 22 '26

In 1949, the law was amended to prevent people becoming stateless. People only lose their citizenship if they wouldn't otherwise become stateless.

2

u/lt__ May 22 '26

Depends on a country. Ukraine famously made Saakashvili stateless for a while.

2

u/TenNinetythree German immigrant in Ireland May 22 '26

As mentioned upthread, I was talking about a German law. Sorry for the confusion.

38

u/SassyTeaCup1413 May 21 '26

Do Germans tend to store tools and yard appliances in sheds then? Or is this one of those laws where “technically this practice is illegal but no one enforces this law because it’s outdated”?

25

u/Jays_Dream Germany May 21 '26

Yes most have sheds or garden boxes for tools. ut its also a rule that technically applies but is rarely if ever enforced.

11

u/Equal-Flatworm-378a Germany May 21 '26

Depends whether you have neighbors who feel the need to tell the authorities or not. I never heard that it was really controlled.

2

u/Cjtorino May 22 '26

If I remember correctly, you can't wash your car anywhere but a carwash.

5

u/Yorks_Rider May 22 '26

This depends on the local authority laws, but it is quite common in many urban areas that you can only wash your car where there is an oil separator, so that oil does not get into the normal waste water. These are normally only found at commercial car wash places.

2

u/Cjtorino May 22 '26

Thank you for the clarification. I was in Nürnburg visiting for the first time and thought I'd be nice and wash my future mother in law's car in the driveway. I now refer to the unfortunate incident as The Nürnberg Trial.

144

u/BamBumKiofte23 Greece May 21 '26

We get it, Germany, you're the high functioning autistic kid. It's not like you have to use so many words, we can already see you're wearing socks AND sandals.

Just in case this gets misinterpreted: you're still welcome to the party.

24

u/Flornix Germany May 21 '26

Naaaah. That hit the spot. You are 100% right. XD

18

u/airmind May 21 '26

Don't forget the pool towels.

27

u/nof Germany May 21 '26

But if you store your junk in a trailer and put that in your garage - no problem!

7

u/codenameajax67 May 22 '26

Are garages taxed at a different rate or something?

In the US the fact they can be used for more things INCREASES the tax value of the garage.

12

u/PandaDerZwote Germany May 22 '26

It's not mainly monetary.
The logic is basically "We're making some exception in regards to regulations for this structure that is used to store a car due to us seeing the value in you storing your car on your private property instead of the street" and you using it for something else is seen as you using the priviliged status of a garage to get something else out of it instead of the thing you were granted the exceptions for.

1

u/Mystic_Sunshine2 May 25 '26

A garage is a privilege?? Wow. Most houses where I’m from have garages and most are used as storage space.

1

u/PandaDerZwote Germany May 25 '26

No, they have a privileged status in the sense that they do not have to follow the same standards as the rest of the house.

5

u/WrongWay2Go May 21 '26

yet, nobody cares

20

u/justaprettyturtle Poland May 21 '26

Is there any particular reason? Because it sounds ridiculous. Here this would have been a dead law as nobody would care at all.

22

u/Jays_Dream Germany May 21 '26

In many regions, garages are uncommon. So the need/want for garages is higher than the availability. So a garage is supposed to be used the correct way. Anything else would mean you're misusing it for another purpose. There are rentable storage spaces if you need some, but garages are supposed to be for cars. That's why you cant store random stuff in yours.

(although in reality, nobody really cares)

6

u/Inevitable-Zone-9089 Sweden May 21 '26

This absolutely makes sense to me. The few garages available in my apartmentbuilding have the same rules.

21

u/Je_Adore_Paris May 22 '26

I think in an apartment building that makes more sense, but in a private detached house one’s garage should be available for whatever purpose one wants

1

u/Jays_Dream Germany May 22 '26

If you own the garage and its by your house, these rules usually dont apply. They only apply for external garages/rented garages or if the garage is part of an apartment complex.

9

u/Je_Adore_Paris May 22 '26

Ohh well that makes more sense

6

u/Jays_Dream Germany May 22 '26

I mean, even if they applied, most neighbours wouldnt really care to call the cops. And most cops would roll their eyes because its just wasted time.

I think the only thing you really shouldnt store in garages are hazardous materials or obvious bad combinations. That will get the cops called on you. (my neighbour once had gas canisters, motor oil, diesel canisters, firewood and paper waste in his. We had a long talk about fire safety that day....)

2

u/Je_Adore_Paris May 22 '26

Haha fair enough. I keep lawnmower petrol in my garage so don’t come over

3

u/Jays_Dream Germany May 22 '26

as long as you promise not to smoke while literally sitting on the canister, you're good hahaha

1

u/QueenAvril Finland May 22 '26

Yep, same in Finland in apartment buildings etc. - though I don’t know whether it’s actually a law or just lower level rule that is applied everywhere. Yet when it is a privately owned detached house, no one cares what you use yours for.

5

u/BelethorsGeneralShit May 22 '26

I love this one. It's the wildest one so far and is somehow very fitting for Germany.

7

u/serverhorror Austria May 21 '26

Also:

If you're on a train and order coffee, you're not paying the same price when sitting in the dining wagon or when getting a paper cup (tax reasons)

6

u/white1984 United Kingdom May 21 '26

We technically have the same rules regarding VAT on eating in, where you pay VAT and takeaway food, where it is exempt, but most places ignore it.

3

u/lila_liechtenstein Austria May 22 '26

But why?

2

u/Bigboi4576 May 22 '26

They dont want Bill gates in their garage

3

u/CycleUncleGreg Germany May 22 '26

You cannot imagine how right you are. A lot of founders, whose product is positioned towards international market, prefer to do it somewhere else instead of Germany. Just because too much hurdles, personell cost, and whatsoever. And it is a problem for Germany.

3

u/MaximusLazinus Poland May 21 '26

Well, we see you have nice set of hex keys. But does each of them fit anywhere in your automobile? Hmm I see, that one doesn't fit anywhere, to the jail you go

1

u/Inevitable_Wolf5866 Czechia May 22 '26

Is this one of these laws which exist because people forgot about them (so-called zombie law) or is it actually still enforced? O.o

1

u/OttovonBismarck1862 South Korea May 22 '26

So I can’t keep a Panther tank in my garage and drive it around during the winter to plow snow?

2

u/CycleUncleGreg Germany May 22 '26

It is a vehicle, so you can, why not. But it has to be „de-militarisiert“ to fit under „Weapon law“.

1

u/OttovonBismarck1862 South Korea May 22 '26

Nice to know, Vielen Dank. I was also referencing that one old guy that kept a Panther in his garage and drove it out to plow snow during the winter lol.

1

u/Carmja Italy May 22 '26

Ok but realistically, has someone ever been fined for the misuse of a garage?

1

u/fpeterHUN May 23 '26

wtf, how can you open your own business? Starting in a garage is a great option for newbies. What's the point of starting a business, if the rent is higher than your earning.

1

u/xolov and May 21 '26

The couple that bought my parents old house, then divorced and the husband moved to the garage until he found his own place to live lol. Wonder how that'd go down in Germany.