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Life & Law · Module 6 of 6

Traffic and insurance

Car, bicycle, e-scooter or train: on the move there are clear rules, and the right insurance protects your money. Here you'll find the essentials from accidents and fines to your passenger rights in plain words, with the matching sections of the law and a quiz to think along.

The six modules

  1. Everyday contracts (BGB)Online
  2. Employment contracts and labour lawOnline
  3. Tenancy agreements and tenancy lawOnline
  4. Family and custodyOnline
  5. Jobcenter, objections and disabilityOnline
  6. Traffic and insuranceYou are here

Module 6: Traffic and insurance

Eight cards for everyday life on the road and on buses and trains. Each card gives you the German legal term, so you recognise it in letters from authorities and insurers.

1Motor liability, partial and comprehensive cover

Liability insurance is compulsory for every registered car, motorbike and e-scooter; driving without it is a criminal offence. Liability insurance pays for damage you cause to others – but not for damage to your own vehicle. For that there is partial cover (Teilkasko), for example for theft, broken glass, storms or collisions with wild animals, and comprehensive cover (Vollkasko), which also covers accidents you cause yourself and vandalism.

German term: Pflichtversicherung, Teilkasko, VollkaskoLaw: §§ 1, 6 PflVG

2Personal liability insurance

Under German law, anyone who negligently harms another person is liable with all their assets, without an upper limit – for example if you knock down a pedestrian on your bicycle. Personal liability insurance (Privathaftpflicht) is voluntary, often costs only a few euros a month and is one of the most important insurances of all. It pays justified claims and fends off unjustified ones.

German term: Schadensersatzpflicht, PrivathaftpflichtversicherungLaw: § 823 BGB · § 100 VVG

3After an accident

Secure the scene, give first aid and call the emergency number 112 if anyone is injured. Exchange names, addresses, number plates and insurance details, and take photos. Anyone who leaves the scene without waiting a reasonable time or calling the police commits hit-and-run (Unfallflucht) – even after a small parking scrape and even with a note under the windscreen wiper. Don't sign an admission of fault on the spot.

German term: Unerlaubtes Entfernen vom UnfallortLaw: § 142 StGB · § 34 StVO

4Fines, points and objection

You can lodge an objection (Einspruch) against a fine notice (Bußgeldbescheid) within two weeks of delivery; the date is on the yellow envelope. Fines from 60 euros usually mean a point in the driving fitness register in Flensburg. At 4 to 5 points you get a reminder, at 6 to 7 a warning, and at 8 points your licence is revoked.

German term: Bußgeldbescheid, FahreignungsregisterLaw: § 67 OWiG · § 4 StVG

5Foreign driving licence

Licences from EU and EEA countries remain valid in Germany. With a licence from another country, you may drive for at most six months after registering your residence; after that you need a German one. For some countries it is simply converted, for others tests are required. For people from Ukraine with temporary protection, the Ukrainian licence remains valid as long as that protection lasts.

German term: Anerkennung ausländischer FahrerlaubnisseLaw: §§ 28, 29 FeV

6Bicycles, e-scooters and alcohol limits

E-scooters need an insurance sticker; you may ride from age 14, always alone, on cycle paths or the road – on the pavement only if a sign allows it. E-scooters have the same alcohol limits as cars: 0.5 per mille, 0.0 during the probationary period and under 21. On a bicycle you commit a criminal offence from 1.6 per mille in any case, and from 0.3 if you show signs of impairment.

German term: Elektrokleinstfahrzeuge, PromillegrenzeLaw: eKFV · §§ 24a, 24c StVG · § 316 StGB

7Deutschlandticket and passenger rights

The Deutschlandticket is valid nationwide on buses, trams and regional trains, but not on ICE, IC or EC trains. Since 1 January 2026 it has cost 63 euros a month. It is a subscription: cancellation usually has to reach the provider by the 10th of the month to take effect at the end of that month. For long-distance rail delays you get 25 per cent of the fare back from 60 minutes, and 50 per cent from 120 minutes.

German term: Deutschlandticket, FahrgastrechteLaw: VO (EU) 2021/782 · EVO

8Cancelling insurance and reporting claims

Report a claim to your insurer straight away and truthfully – false statements can cost you your cover. Motor insurance usually runs until 31 December; you can cancel with one month's notice, so by 30 November. If the insurer raises the premium without extending cover, you have a special right of cancellation (Sonderkündigungsrecht) within one month of receiving the notice, and likewise after a claim has been settled.

German term: Anzeigepflicht, SonderkündigungsrechtLaw: §§ 30, 40, 92, 111 VVG

Quiz: test your knowledge

Twelve questions about getting around. Tap an answer – then you'll see the explanation with the matching section of the law.

  1. Question 1In a supermarket car park you scrape a parked car. You put a note with your phone number under the windscreen wiper and drive off. What applies?

  2. Question 2A fine notice arrives in a yellow envelope. By when can you lodge an objection?

  3. Question 3You slide into a tree on black ice. You only have motor liability insurance, no Kasko. What does the insurer pay?

  4. Question 4You move to Germany from a non-EU country and register your residence. How long may you drive on your existing licence?

  5. Question 5What alcohol limit applies on an e-scooter?

  6. Question 6Two of you want to ride one e-scooter, on the pavement. Is that allowed?

  7. Question 7You board an ICE with your Deutschlandticket and want to cancel the subscription on the 25th, for the end of the month. What is true?

  8. Question 8Your ICE arrives 130 minutes late. What compensation are you entitled to?

  9. Question 9In December your car insurer raises next year's premium by 18 per cent without extending cover. Can you still switch after 30 November?

  10. Question 10Riding your bicycle carelessly, you hit a pedestrian. Her health insurer claims 8,000 euros in treatment costs. Which insurance protects your assets?

  11. Question 11Right after a rear-end collision, the other driver wants you to sign a written admission of fault. Should you?

  12. Question 12At how many points in Flensburg is a driving licence revoked?

What you can do now

  • Check whether you have personal liability insurance and take it out if needed.
  • Keep the insurer's accident report form and a high-visibility vest in the car.
  • Keep the yellow envelope of a fine notice and put the two-week deadline in your calendar.
  • With a licence from a non-EU country, apply early for the conversion at the driving licence authority.
  • Keep a list of the cancellation deadlines of your subscriptions and insurance policies.

Personal advice

Verbraucherzentrale (consumer advice centre): independent advice on insurance and contracts, including which insurance you really need (verbraucherzentrale.de, in German).

Insurance ombudsman (Versicherungsombudsmann): free dispute resolution with your insurer (versicherungsombudsmann.de).

Conciliation body for public transport (söp): free dispute resolution on passenger rights with rail, bus and air (soep-online.de).

Sources

This guide gives you general orientation on German law. For your specific case, an advice centre or a lawyer is the right place to go.

When the founder gives the company his name

There's a group of companies in German – these are sort of medium-sized companies that are already a bit older, that have been on the market a bit longer – that simply have the name of the owner and founder, 99% or 99.9% of the time a man, as their name. We still have that in part with American companies, with British companies too. Back then that was the usual thing, that you simply took the name – Dell, for example, and there are loads of others. But lately, start-ups create a name that the target group can also identify with, so they use creativity.

Spedition Zufall and Autohaus Gegner

And in German there are just some really funny family names that then get used as company names – like Zufall, for example. Now that's funny! I think Zufall is a freight forwarder. I mean, how can I call my freight company “Zufall” – “Coincidence”? Well, I'd have to be very, very unimaginative, or else have a certain kind of humour. Or there's Autohaus Gegner – it's a local company in Saxony, I think, but then again pretty big, and the dealership is guaranteed to belong to Mr Gegner. And well, of course I find it funny if my company is called “Gegner” – “Opponent”.

I do think you can put these company names under the microscope and explain how they would be rendered in other languages and how that comes across to an English-speaking or Russian-speaking audience. So what do you think?

My favourite: Nothnagel – and why I named my company Autotransfer.jetzt

So my favourite so far among the funny company names is Nothnagel. A truck came towards me recently, and it said “Nothnagel” on it – spelled with a th, of course – and I thought: now that's interesting. A company that's obviously also in logistics in the broadest sense calls itself Nothnagel – “Notnagel” is German for a last resort, literally an emergency nail. And what is it actually about? Recycling. So something gets recycled, and in case it can't be recycled, there's still the last resort – or that's roughly how you have to picture this story.

Yes, that's why I named my company Autotransfer.jetzt back then. Now of course you could argue: what good did that do you? And the people who'd put it that way would of course be right. So a company name that describes something and is easy to remember is of course far from a guarantee of the company's success.

Nevertheless, I do think it's also in the interest of the customers and the target group when founders think up a name that the target group, the community, can then perhaps identify with. Why should the target group identify with the name “Nothnagel”? And of course many people will now argue and say: Nothnagel isn't about the so-called B2C, business-to-consumer market. That may be, but it's still a company in the public eye, and they advertise, and civilians too – private individuals, that is – read the name and then react to it accordingly.

What “Zufall”, “Gegner” and “Nothnagel” mean in other languages

Translated literally, the three names mean:

NameEnglishRussianUkrainian
Zufallcoincidence, chanceслучайность, случайвипадковість, випадок
Gegneropponent, rivalпротивник, соперниксупротивник, суперник
Nothnagel („Notnagel“)last resort, stopgapкрайнее средство, запасной варианткрайній засіб, запасний варіант

In German you hear the joke straight away: you expect a freight company to get your goods there reliably – and it's called “Coincidence”. A car dealer wants to win customers over – and it's called “Opponent”. Translated literally, you'd get “Coincidence Logistics” and “Opponent Motors” in English, «Экспедиция „Случайность“» and «Автосалон „Противник“» in Russian, «Експедиція „Випадковість“» and «Автосалон „Супротивник“» in Ukrainian. And Nothnagel has the “Notnagel” in it, the last resort when nothing else works – literally “Last Resort Recycling”, in Russian «Переработка „Крайнее средство“», in Ukrainian «Переробка „Крайній засіб“».

Company names, though, are usually not translated, just transliterated into other scripts: in Russian and Ukrainian, Zufall becomes “Цуфаль”, Gegner “Гегнер” and Nothnagel “Нотнагель”. For English-, Russian- or Ukrainian-speaking customers that's a completely neutral name – the joke stays in German. It works the other way round, too: hardly anyone in Germany knows that in English a “dell” is a small wooded valley.

Company Names
Family Names
Mittelstand
Spedition Zufall
Autohaus Gegner
Nothnagel
Autotransfer.jetzt
Translation