Ordnungswidrigkeitsverfahren

What’s the funniest misunderstanding you’ve ever been part of?

Well, I was not part of it, but this happened today in Germany.

A passenger on a train passing over a railway bridge spotted a woman wearing a mermaid costume swimming in the Rhine near Mainz. Believing it to be an emergency, the witness notified the police. The Wasserschutzpolizei (water police) located the swimmer, who explained she intended only to pose in the shallows but was caught in the current. [1, 2]

The swimmer was instructed to exit the water and safely reached the shore. German is a complex language to learn, but so is mermaid so some of these details are murky as The River Rhine .Because swimming in the commercial and highly trafficked sections of the Rhine river is illegal, the incident resulted in a regulatory offense proceeding.

What is interesting to know as this is an area where many cruise ships on popular cruise lines, dock. They’re are now heading back home telling their families about how there’s actual mermaids in Germany.

Das Schwimmen ist verboten

Because swimming is strictly prohibited in the heavily trafficked shipping channel of the Rhine, she now faces an Ordnungswidrigkeitsverfahren (administrative offense).

As a punishment, she must write the word Ordnungswidrigkeitsverfahren on the blackboard.