Adult German men must request permission to leave Germany for more than 3 months

raffael_de 104 points 63 comments April 03, 2026
www.fr.de · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (10 comments)

The_suffocated

Not all men, but all men over 17 and under the age of 45. This still seems draconian, though.

klausa

That seems more “oh we fucked up and didn’t realize our changes to the law imply this” than “Germany forces men to request permission to leave”.

i_have_to_speak

Are homo sapiens the only species that organizes themselves into tribes and work towards the destruction of other tribes of same species?

keysersoze33

Being 46 (and quite an active 46 year old, just finished a Skitour), am curious why the cutoff for these things tends to be 45?

randomNumber7

I kind of predicted this a long time ago. They way germany is currently run they will need to act like the DDR and force their people to stay. Otherwise everyone with good education will leave.

Jamesbeam

This headline is kind of misleading. First of all, there is no process yet for exactly requesting permission, secondly, the army already said they will not enforce the rule unless the Parliament declares combat readiness is necessary, and lastly, there is no punishment for not asking permission at this point in time. And to be completely honest, if more people made use of registering for the damn ELEFAND emergency contact list, this rule wouldn’t be necessary in the first place. So, men are kind of responsible for this themselves by being lazy. I had to help exfil Germans in Kabul when the US decided to pull out without telling all of their partners in time. Everyone wanted to be rescued, but you have no idea how many German idiots travel to foreign countries, not even taking five minutes to let their own government know how to reach them and where they went in case of an emergency. It’s super fun to drive around Kabul and pick up 55 years old complaining male Germans yelling at me because I told them I transport people, not their fucking luggage. Two even sued me afterwards for leaving their expensive camera equipment behind. A dozen complaints about my behavior. Sometimes it’s really annoying to protect the average citizen. Luckily, I understand that it is an extreme situation for them. Just like some people sue nurses after they broke their ribs reviving their dead ass. It’s a good thing all these idiots now have to ask for permission in the future and likely need to leave the data necessary so it’s known where they are, for how long and how to reach them.

raffael_de

I'm surprised this news is stalling at 24 points. Everybody has to understand that even if this law isn't impacting you; this is a signal in the noise. Germany is a major part of the industrial military complex together with the US and still the 3rd largest economy in the world after US and China. This is meaningful as it sets course for war in Europe. And for Germans it means soon to be enforced limitations of civil rights. That fits right in with the surveillance crap that is being attempted to roll out in EU (which is effectively headed and controlled by Germany).

mcculley

If the U.S. implements a draft, would we first implement exit visas?

mitchbob

https://archive.ph/FWcWX

haukem

The article 3 of the Wehrpflichtgesetzes says this: > (2) Männliche Personen haben nach Vollendung des 17. Lebensjahres eine Genehmigung des zuständigen Karrierecenters der Bundeswehr einzuholen, wenn sie die Bundesrepublik Deutschland länger als drei Monate verlassen wollen, ohne dass die Voraussetzungen des § 1 Absatz 2 bereits vorliegen. Das Gleiche gilt, wenn sie über einen genehmigten Zeitraum hinaus außerhalb der Bundesrepublik Deutschland verbleiben wollen oder einen nicht genehmigungspflichtigen Aufenthalt außerhalb der Bundesrepublik Deutschland über drei Monate ausdehnen wollen. Die Genehmigung ist für den Zeitraum zu erteilen, in dem die männliche Person für eine Einberufung zum Wehrdienst nicht heransteht. Über diesen Zeitraum hinaus ist sie zu erteilen, soweit die Versagung für die männliche Person eine besondere – im Bereitschafts-, Spannungs- oder Verteidigungsfall eine unzumutbare – Härte bedeuten würde; § 12 Absatz 6 ist entsprechend anzuwenden. Das Bundesministerium der Verteidigung kann Ausnahmen von der Genehmigungspflicht zulassen. See: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/wehrpflg/__3.html This was not changed. The article 3 of the Wehrpflichtgesetzes was previously only active in a war or close to war situation (Spannungs- oder Verteidigungsfall). Article 2 said this before: > § 2 Geltung der folgenden Vorschriften > Die §§ 3 bis 53 gelten im Spannungs- oder Verteidigungsfall. See: https://github.com/bundestag/gesetze/blob/master/w/wehrpflg/... Now it says this: > § 2 Anwendung dieses Gesetzes > (1) Die nachfolgenden Vorschriften gelten nach Maßgabe der folgenden Absätze. > (2) Die §§ 3 bis 52 gelten im Spannungs- oder Verteidigungsfall. > (3) Außerhalb des Spannungs- oder Verteidigungsfalls gelten die §§ 3, 8a bis 20b, 25, 32 bis 35, 44 und 45. > (4) Die §§ 15a und 16 sind nur auf Betroffene anzuwenden, die nach dem 31. Dezember 2007 geboren sind. Satz 1 gilt nicht im Spannungs- oder Verteidigungsfall. See: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/wehrpflg/__2.html This law changed it: https://www.recht.bund.de/bgbl/1/2025/370/VO Is the a up to date git repository with all German law changes? The one I found was last updated 4 years ago.

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