Is it legal to sleep in a parked car on the streets of Munich?

6/3/2015 5:15:39 PM

The legal situation is unfortunately a bit more complicated than what is stated by Dirty-flow and user24582.

Even if the German traffic regulations do not directly forbid you to sleep in your car, you may easily violate other regulations doing so. Roads and public parking spaces may in general only be used for traffical purposes and even though stopping for a night to rest or even sleep is considered acceptable, setting up a ‘home’ for several nights in a mini-van is not what road-side parking was intended for. To be more abstract, it is generally considered acceptable to stop and sleep in your car if the purpose is to relax and regain fitness to continue a ride.

user24582 is right, that the Munich city council writes on their web pages that sleeping in a caravan is forbidden, but they actually have no legal means to prevent you from doing so. This article (unfortunately only in German) addresses exactly this topic and explains that when asked on the phone, the city council also confirms that they actually mean that it is not allowed to stay and live somewhere for several days. Stopping for a night of sleep is also in Munich fully acceptable.

Even if you could get around the law by driving to a new parking space each day and only stay for one night in one location, you should also consider other practical problems. When parking anywhere, you will probably not have a toilet nearby and using the next house corner or a tree in a park as an emergency solution raises new legal issues. Before someone claims that there is no German law forbidding you to urinate in public, the public leak is usually fined according to § 118 OWiG as a ‘crude, offensive action’.

1/16/2017 9:26:21 AM

As @Dirty-flow said, sleeping in the car is allowed, but you should not sleep in the driver’s seat etc. if you are drunk, to avoid being fined for drunk driving.

There are many areas, especially inside of the “Mittlerer Ring”, where parking is restricted (residents only or parking ticket, see map or text).

I’d suggest to park somewhere in the outskirts, near a U-Bahn or S-Bahn station, and use public transport. Feldkirchen, for example, has a nice lake you can swim in (“Erholungsgebiet Heimstettener See”).

Update: Sleeping in a caravan in the city of Munich is forbidden: “Im Wohnmobil am Straßenrand zu übernachten ist im ganzen Stadtgebiet nicht erlaubt.” See Tor-Einar Jarnbjo’s answer for more information. (They suggest parking at the Messe in Riem, 35 Eur per night.) Feldkirchen should be OK.

Also note: You need a particle emissions sticker for your car (“Umweltplakette”) if you want to drive inside of “Mittlerer Ring”.

6/4/2015 8:10:00 AM

It is not forbidden to sleep in the car as long as it is parked according to the rules. I could find many articles about it, but they are in German (www.welt.de or www.anwaltauskunft.de).

A good place to sleep could be a parking on a highway – there you can also find a toilet and a rubbish skip for your garbage.

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Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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