Odd Stories: German City's Parking Fines are Just the Ticket

By Alice Baghdjian

Potsdam, Germany - German authorities are giving parking violators in one city an unexpected break by issuing tickets without fines.

The tickets, put on carelessly parked cars in Potsdam, include a fine of 0 euros and the cheerful message "Glueck gehabt!!!" (Lucky you!!!). The new approach is designed to admonish motorists without hitting them in the wallet.

"The tickets serve as a warning to parking offenders," said Regina Thielemann, a city of Potsdam spokeswoman. "They're issued when the driver isn't around. So they're given written notice when they'd ordinarily only get a verbal warning."

Potsdam, the state capital of Brandenburg just outside Berlin, earned around 1.2 million euros from parking fines in 2011, she said. Around 120,000 parking fines were issued last year.

In Germany -- a country known for its fondness for obeying rules and punishing offenders -- Potsdam's fine-free tickets have caught the attention of the national media.

One recipient, Kathrin Bach, said her initial reaction to finding a note on her windscreen was one of annoyance -- until she read the message.

"I thought 'Oh no - got another ticket'," she told Germany's Bild newspaper. "I've paid loads of parking fines before because there are so few parking spaces in the area," she added.

Bach's offence -- parking less than five meters away from a road junction -- should have cost her 10 euros, according to the city's parking rules.

German President Refuses to Resign

While expressing his refusal to resign, German president Christian Wulff admitted Wednesday he made a “grave mistake” by trying to stop a newspaper from publishing a story that would embarrass him.

"The call to the chief editor of Bild was a grave mistake, for which I am sorry and for which I apologize,"

The voice-mail in question was sparked by Wulff letting a low-interest rate on his home loan. He told the editor-in-chief there would be “war” if the article was published.

Despite pressure to resign as president and the distraction it poses for Chancellor Angela Merkel, who nominated him for the position, he said “[I will not resign] because I had great support in the past weeks from many citizens, my friends and employees. I like fulfilling my duties [as president] and have taken the job for five years and want to show at the end of the five years that I was a good, successful president. This has been a learning process. I went from being a state premier to president very quickly, without time to adjust or prepare. It all went very fast."

Murkel has, for the moment at least, decided to continue backing Wulff.