The Munich Administrative Court (VG) has retrospectively declared border controls at the German-Austrian border illegal in three cases. Three men who were checked in 2025 had filed lawsuits – among them Schroeder and two other plaintiffs who complained of racial profiling and political arbitrariness. The duration of the checks and their compatibility with the Schengen Borders Code were at issue.
The court found that the virtually unchanged duration of the checks over years and the question of whether they were compatible with the new Schengen Borders Code were decisive. The court plans to publish the written reasoning for the rulings in a few weeks.
However, the court rejected an urgent motion by plaintiff Werner Schroeder, who sought to have future checks provisionally suspended. A court spokesperson stated that citizens must initially tolerate such interventions and can usually only have their illegality determined retrospectively. The court demands that the Federal Ministry of the Interior provide evidence of a serious threat for extending the checks, not merely a ‘continued’ high level of secondary migration.
Source: www.zeit.de
