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>Germany red
u wot
Germans are avid hikers. Hiking is an integral part of our culture and setting up a tent for a night is positively tolerated. Nobody will bat an eye if you're on a multi-day track in the Alps and decide to spend a night in your tent because you failed to reach the next hut before nightfall or something. It's widely tolerated everywhere though, provided you don't stage barbecue parties with 20 people in a nature reserve or something.
Laws concerning camping vary from state to state. The German state of Brandenburg expliticly allows non-motorized to spend a night in a tent in non-protected areas as long as you fuck off in the next morning. The same rule applies for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein, although there you technically need to make sure that the owner of the forest you intend to spend the night in is okay with it. Highly impractical of course, and IRL it's not enforced.
Most other states have vague rulings concerning wild camping. The nature conversation laws of Bremen don't mention it all iirc. According to the forest protection law of Bavaria wild camping is a contravention which "may carry a fine" but there's no mention of any exact amount. Other state laws also make use of the vague "may carry a fine" phrase and specify an amount, usually "up to" a couple of thousand euros. A fine that high would require a caravan party in a national park with your entire extended family though.
tl;dr the legality of wild camping depends on the state you're camping in. In some it's essentially legal, in others it's a grey area or banned but tolerated. Wherever you are, as long as you
- are not motorized
- don't spend more than a night in the same spot
- don't make a fire
- leave no trace
you will be good even in the unlikely event a ranger does find you.
