[Talisker]

The pensioner, who had never worked, was not even registered with the police - mandatory in Germany...

GERMANY? What IS it with those people? LOL, I just stared at this, and... looked at the year on the calendar, and... I don't know, I just went and got a beer and started laughing... not in a good way, you know? Not laughing in a good way at all.

[Billthedrill]

It was that way when I lived in Japan as well (80's through the mid-90's). You had to register at your local police station and tell them if you moved.

I had actually flattered myself when I moved there that I was something of a cosmopolitan but in fact what I learned was just how very American I am in assumptions, attitudes, and convictions about the relationship between the individual and the state. Sometimes it takes living in an foreign country to pound that lesson home. Never forgot it, either.