Federal police handed over 190,000 violations of Corona entry rules from travelers to authorities

Anecdotally, I can confirm that twice in the last year, upon crossing land borders, once from France and once from Switzerland, my documents were checked by federal police, including once quite recently while returning from France (for which you need since mid-December to have filled out a digital registration form, since it is a Hochrisikogebiet).

People really need to understand that these things can and are checked, even if not every single person is controlled. It is the same logic as having your ticket for public transit, even though they don't check always.

What's been posted on this topic so far raises more questions than I ever thought to ask - especially on the land border procedures.

"...almost every twentieth traveler (4.8 percent) was found to be in violation at the land border."

So then, how does this work for that 4.8%, exactly?

Since this is a TRAVEL forum, let's hypothesize using a US tourist arriving from France... A Germany-bound US tourist leaving Strasbourg drives to the German border at Kehl and is unable to produce a CDC card, or produces a Card that shows only one vaccination, or multiple vaccinations from a pharmaceutical company that is not authorized by Germany. Am I wrong to assume that the border police merely turn him around and send him back the way he came? Is that not the end of it? Is it a violation of German law to present yourself at a border check with missing, inadequate or incomplete documentation, any of which automatically result in report filing, charges, etc.?

"In minimum case people must pay an expensive fine and can also end up in jail (fines from German Infection Protection Act)."

FINE/JAIL: So does the tourist get sent directly back into France and later get a fine in his mailbox back home? What happens if he fails to pay up before the stated deadline? Extradition and German jail time?

Or is he required to pay on the spot before turning around, and if he cannot, jailed until it's paid?

And how much is this expensive fine, on average?

And what kind of crime do you have to commit to get both a fine AND jail time?

Seems to me that detaining or imprisoning potentially-infected foreign nationals for flawed paperwork would necessitate their presence in Germany, which is what the German Infection Protection Act was designed to avoid. Or are neighboring countries crowding their jails as we speak with underprepared tourists?

Anyone happen to know how many of the 190,000 violators were foreign tourists who ended up in a German (or other European) hoosgow?

Am I wrong to assume that the border police merely turn him around and
send him back the way he came? Is that not the end of it? Is it a
violation of German law to present yourself at a border check with
missing, inadequate or incomplete documentation, any of which
automatically result in report filing, charges, etc.?

I cannot answer any of your deeper legal or procedural questions. But, I can say this: the checks that I have experienced have not been precisely at border crossings; they have been once one is already in Germany. Thus, if one has missing paperwork, one has already broken the rule.

The fines are set by the individual Bundesländer, but according to this article, for example, coming into BW without a test when one is required leads to a fine of between 300 and 3000 EUR. Sorry, I don't have the patience to dig deeper in the legal documentation to figure out what would be the situation for currently likely incidents, like entering without the registration form filled out.

I suppose I think this is all fairly simple. People should simply be aware that there are actual laws in Germany governing border crossings right now, and like all other laws, they need to comply with them.

Thanks for your response, Azra. No, I wasn't expecting you to do a bunch of research on my behalf, just spilling questions uncontrollably over the bewildering wisdom of €3,000 fines and prison sentences for tourists who haven't mastered the German approach to Covid-19 tourism.

"People should simply be aware that there are actual laws in Germany governing border crossings right now, and like all other laws, they need to comply with them."

I'm sure there are Covid scofflaws, but I still question whether their ranks include normal tourists. I suspect they are most likely Germans returning home from abroad, or other Europeans doing business, etc. etc., rather than international tourists/travelers from North America and other places. AFAIK most people on this forum are looking forward to a pleasant vacation in Germany which includes museums, sightseeing, etc. They already KNOW Germany is taking big measures to combat the virus, and they seem determined to nail down the requirements for entering Germany and to get their paperwork in perfect order.

If they fail to do so, then sure, they shouldn't be permitted to enter Germany until they do. It's a severe situation.

That said, getting all the i's dotted is not so simple with the ever-changing laws and punishments, which must be made enormously clear - at the border crossings, by the border police.

"...the checks that I have experienced have not been precisely at border crossings; they have been once one is already in Germany. Thus, if one has missing paperwork, one has already broken the rule."

This is very puzzling. Doesn't Germany want to pre-empt virus carriers at the border? If I drove through a border crossing without getting checked, I might assume the entry requirements had been recinded. And if the border police aren't handling problems and catching scofflaws consistently AT THE BORDER CROSSINGS but instead are randomly handing out fines and making arrests in the interior, there's going to be a ton of non-compliance. Genuinely underinformed tourists, genuine scofflaws... if they're a Covid risk, why let either of these groups in and try to chase them down later? Also, this is a very bad look - like maybe the situation is less severe than advertised. And the resulting punishments end up looking cruel and unusual. If the authorities are really serious about the borders, t almost seems like the kinder thing to do would be to just shut down tourism altogether.

If I drove through a border crossing without getting checked, I might
assume the entry requirements had been recinded.

Well, but this is simply not how things work in covid times, and yes: tourists do need to know that, and yes, they do due diligence to know the rules concerning moving between countries in the EU zone. The same way that we, as citizens of EU member states, need to.

If the authorities are really serious about the borders, t almost
seems like the kinder thing to do would be to just shut down tourism
altogether.

Shutting down the internal borders in the EU early in the pandemic was a huge hardship on both a broad level, and for many individuals who live cross-border lives. The governments have tried very hard in the reopening phase to allow movement to go back to normal, but that does not mean it is 100% normal, and these new rules are, in fact, part of that.

I think that this is something that perhaps non-European people who have begun to visit in recent months haven't really internalised, and is also at the root of why you keep seeing people based in Europe advise that travellers only visit one country--we saw how fast borders could close. I think we were all collectively a bit traumatised by having the borders shut the way they were. It was drastic and life-changing for the very many of us who are used to crossing them on a daily or weekly basis.

Anyway, as we go into year three of the pandemic, the idea that there are sometimes extra conditions that come along with crossing internal EU borders is simply no longer shocking, and one knows to check before one travels.

And if the border police aren't handling problems and catching
scofflaws consistently AT THE BORDER CROSSINGS but instead are
randomly handing out fines and making arrests in the interior, there's
going to be a ton of non-compliance.

About why these laws work the way they do: I suppose it is rather the same logic as not checking every ticket for public transit. When I am in, for example, New York, I must use my train card to enter the subway station, and so it is clear that I have to pay the fare. In my home-town, I can enter any train without a ticket...but that does not mean that I am allowed to ride without a ticket! Of course I must still pay the fare, and if I am caught without having paid, I can be heavily fined. This is precisely the same issue. Since this is a tourism forum, and not one for debating the vagaries of different models for legal enforcement, I won't get into the debate about which model is the right one, nor would I speculate, for lack of information, about how 'harshly' these measures are applied to obviously hapless tourists.

Anyway, I would assume that Markk's point, and certainly mine, is that people actually really do need to know the laws of the countries they are visiting during a pandemic (just as they did in the pre-pandemic times, to be fair).

Shutting down the internal borders in the EU early in the pandemic was
a huge hardship on both a broad level, and for many individuals who
live cross-border lives.

I get all of that as it applies to the local citizenry. Life's essentials must be worked around. It was not my idea that the borders should shut down entirely for everyone - only that border control might be helpful and that eliminating non-essential tourist travel might be in order.

And yes, the rules must be snug, well-enforced, and adaptive during a pandemic. Maybe jail time and €3,000 fines are indeed the best way to go. Maybe border crossings without real border enforcement are the right thing for Germans and citizens of bordering countries. I also get that making exceptions for casual tourists works against the country's Covid objectives. I wouldn't expect that of any country.

As for international, independent travelers to Germany (like us Rick Steves folks...) We aren't locals whose livelihoods depend on border crossings. And we probably aren't that familiar with German law to begin with, much less with the Byzantine and everchanging Covid rules and punishments that govern travel throughout Germany today - and much, much less those laws that the 16 individual German states churn out on a weekly basis. In December alone, for example, official changes in the Covid laws of Baden-Württemberg took place on December 4, 15, 20 and 27. Not so simple if one arrived on the 1st with a B-W itinerary in mind!

Sure, it's wise for tourists to be informed on laws in Germany. But this is FAR more complex than just knowing a bus ticket is necessary to ride the bus! At present the actual learning load for anyone traveling into or around Germany is huge, much larger than for the average local citizen going about his normal homelife. Let's say you fly into FRA airport... Leaving for places to the west, east, or south, you'll very quickly end up in one of three different states where the rules suddenly change (and then change again the next day perhaps as well.) What makes you a Covid-safe visitor in Hessen doesn't necessarily make you safe or law-abiding in Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg or Rheinland-Pfalz. If the various German governments expect the average Asian/North American tourist from overseas to successfully navigate their way around the country while staying within the law, they are quite naive, I think. Right now it's probably closer to the truth to say that any move you make might result not only in disappointment and inconvenience but perhaps in heavy fines and/or hard time, as Azra has pointed out.

It's very unclear to me how Germany's still-open door for tourists makes for successful travel experiences - or makes the country healthier - under the current circumstances.

I've been a die-hard, rah-rah traveler to Germany for decades. I know my way around, and I can handle the German language. I've never had the slightest concern about being confronted by Grenzpolizisten on the railways or the streets of Germany. And I don't think I've ever before thought of Germany as being off limits. But I must say that the current flurry and unpredictable nature of the Covid mandates, along with the draconian consequences for non-compliance, have encouraged me to put my spring travel plans for Germany on the shelf for now. If I do get away, it will likely be somewhere else.

I think that is the result they are working towards, Russ.

I have open tickets on Eurotunnel that have remained unused - no way I'm going anywhere unless and until it is safe.

I am perfectly happy that the French, German, and Italian police enforce these laws.

If it is too complicated for you moving from jurisdiction to jurisdiction wait a while until it calms down.

There's a reason the folks on this side of the Atlantic have been trying so hard to convince people to travel with simple plans.

"I think that is the result they are working towards, Russ."

And I think you're right. But it's so much simpler and more honest to just shut the door. Right now it's downright unsportsmanlike - a little like deer hunting with bait and a spotlight. Or... what if you and I threw a party, then stuck our guests in some Kafkaesque environment where they could be put behind bars for being ignorant of some household formality you and I concocted? "Working towards" zero tourism with leaky borders and a policy that happily keeps on admitting tourists seems counterintuitive. And in place of a real tourist experience, the policy offers only confusion, logistic troubles, potential disease spread, and punishments that are both undeserved and harsh. I'd much prefer they were just straight up - shut down non-essential travel entirely, sort things out, open up once they've got numbers where they want them. I'll bet the average German would prefer the same.

Since Russ mentioned crossing from Strasbourg into Kehl...

Our plans for the spring - we are vaxed and boosted- flying from US into Madrid - simply fill out a form shortly before flight date, right?

We stay in Spain for 13 nights then fly from Madrid to Paris. One EU country to another so no testing needed, right? But get French health pass online beforehand.

After 8 nights in Paris, train from Paris to Strasbourg then immediately train across border into Germany where we currently have a reservation. Plan is to do various things in Strasbourg area as well as in Germany but it's sounding like we may be better off staying in Strasbourg and if it's not too complicated when we are there, train over to Germany if/when we can for day outings.

After Germany, we then stay in Provence area for 2 weeks followed by a few nights in Lyon before flying back to US. Must have negative covid test to enter US.

Advice and opinions welcomed. While we want to spend some time in Germany, it seems like it might be best to sleep in France.