German customs

Joined
May 24, 2001
Messages
443
I ordered two Chinese swords from KC. I had many problems celaring them from German customs. Although owning sharp swords is legal, importing them seems to be a problem since officials could send your parcel back!!! I have a big collection of antique swords and daggers and production and custom swords as well. Now I am new to this forum and I am going into the world of Kukris. I finally got my items from German customs. I want to order Kukris now, but to be honest I do not want to face these officials anymore. Any ideas??
 
We have a couple of forumites here that live in Germany, AchimW and Anton Irmen. Hopefully one or both will be by soon to help you out.

Bob

------------------
The Milk Snake: Beautiful, harmless, good-natured, eats venomous snakes for lunch.
 
Hallo, Manoucher und herzlich willkomen in einem der freundlichsten (und möglicherweise verrücktesten) Foren die ich kenne!

I have read your post at swordforum.com, and the replies from Claudio summed up the legal situation correctly. But just in case, here a link to the complete text of the relavant laws:
http://www.messerforum.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=29&t=000001
Again, there are no laws restricting the possession of swords (except for sword-canes, which are illegal) and even carrying swords in public (not at fairs or similar events, though) is legal (at least in theory). I do not know why the customs officials made such a big deal, I never had any bad experiences with them (except for the fact than they suppose me to pay custom duties, but I don't like taxes in general
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Normally, I do not even have to contact them, since the postal service is collecting the duties at my door. The only cases I had to go to the office to collect my toys were when they were not “appropriately” declared. Those guys simply did not know what a Sirupati was, for example. So I had to open the parcel and show it to them. With a quite interesting result, like: Where did you buy this? Do they have a website? May I handle it? (Grrr…
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I have, however, no idea how to save you future encounters with the customs officials, which, in your case, apparently don’t share your love for edged toys.
But, since you have the law on your side, know it and make use of this knowledge (friendly, but firmly). After a (very) short time, they might just accept the laws the way they are.

Beste Grüße,

--[------ anton

oh, here is another link to a site with FAQ's considering weapon laws, put up by the police:
http://www.polizei-mg.de/index800.html
Here is the most important part:
Was ist im Umgang mit Hieb- und Stoßwaffen zu beachten?
Das mit sich führen derartiger Gegenstände ist nicht erlaubnispflichtig. Verboten ist es, Hieb- und Stoßwaffen bei öffentlichen Veranstaltungen mitzuführen. (....)
Hieb- und Stoßwaffen dürfen nur von Personen erworben werden, die das achtzehnte Lebensjahr vollendet haben.



[This message has been edited by Anton Irmen (edited 05-24-2001).]
 
Hallo Manoucher, and welcome.
I have been picking up several khukuris at two different German customs offices so far, and the only constant is that they seem to think up something new every time. I once got the parcel handed over without any further ado, and another time they wouldn't settle for less than two copies of an official invoice, preferrably with a German translation. The least problems were always encountered when the parcel had entered German territory per air mail via the Frankfurt airport customs. Try to see it as a sport..
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Andrea
 
Oh, yes, the invoice problem... forgot about that. I had it two times with a parcel from HI since there was no official looking invoice included, although the type and value of the merchandise was clearly stated on the customs declarations form. Two printouts of the order confirmation from smoothsale were all that was needed to solve the lack of papers that could be filed and stamped.
 
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