Can you pee in the sea at night as a human? Yes, the Lübeck district court decided and then written judgment written, which could in part also be a poem. The responsible judge, Felix Spangenberg, justified the acquittal of the wild peeer with paragraphs – and with poetry: “Under the vastness of the sky, people have no less rights than the deer in the forest, the hare in the field or the seal in the sea of the Baltic Sea.”
What happened? During the Travemünde Week in July 2022, three law enforcement officers from the city of Lübeck caught a man relieving himself on the beach into the Baltic Sea at night. They are said to have illuminated the scene with flashlights. You should know that the Travemünde Week, like the Kiel Week, is a kind of mini-Wiesn of the north. The sailing event is celebrated quite merrily.
Authorities noted that the time of the crime was 12:36 a.m. and that the man had urinated into the water “under the cover of darkness at the sea’s edge and with his back to the beach.” He was ordered to pay a fine of 60 euros “for harassing the general public through a grossly improper act.” Legally, that would be an administrative offense. The man refused to pay, and since he is neither a deer, a hare or a seal and is therefore not exempt from punishment per se, there was a main hearing that lasted about an hour in the Lübeck district court last June.
There the accused met district judge Felix Spangenberg. You obviously have to imagine him not only as a powerful lawyer, but also as a real-life lawyer. He showed understanding for “the natural need” that the man was “at best only vaguely visible” during the night. As a result, no one could have felt harassed. It is also unclear whether anyone else besides the three law enforcement officers saw him. And even if that were the case, Spangenberg writes in his judgment: Even in public men’s toilets, “social urination takes place in continuous urinals, gutters or other open dungeons.”
Urination is socially accepted in activities close to nature
The judge finds that even women’s sense of shame was not hurt by peeing on the beach; urination in nature occurs “on hikes, when working in fields and fields, among hunters and mushroom pickers, among cyclists and bicycle tourers, and among bathers at lakes and rivers and “socially accepted” in other activities close to nature. Because there is no other option on the beach than to turn around, this cannot be to the man’s disadvantage. Because, as Spangenberg writes at this point, more pragmatically than poetically: “That’s just how it is on the coast.”
In the end, the district judge calculates that no one has to worry about the water quality; The Baltic Sea contains 21,631 cubic kilometers of brackish water: “Even if it were repeated or imitated, the degree of dilution would be so high that annoying pollution or odor impairment is ruled out.”
After The judgment was published on the court website a few days agon, it was now making waves. The Picturenewspaper’s headline was inimitably clear: “Verdict with charisma”. Which is true, the decision is already legally binding.