German border checks on the Polish frontier ruled unlawful by Dresden court

In brief

• A court in Dresden ruled that German border controls with Poland and the Czech Republic were unlawful.
• The ruling followed complaints by a Polish resident of Görlitz and a German citizen from Brandenburg.
• The judgments are not final and can be appealed, and the controls remain in place for now.

Court sides with two complainants

The Administrative Court in Dresden ruled on Thursday that the border controls ordered by the German interior ministry at the frontiers with Poland and the Czech Republic were unlawful (Niemieckie kontrole na granicy z Polską. Sąd: niezgodne z prawem – Business Insider Polska) (Sąd w Dreźnie: niemieckie kontrole na granicy z Polską łamały prawo – Rzeczpospolita) (Polak zatrzymany na granicy z Niemcami. Sąd uznał kontrolę za niezgodną z prawem – Bankier.pl). The court said the specific checks challenged by the two plaintiffs were also illegal (Niemieckie kontrole na granicy z Polską. Sąd zdecydował po skardze Polaka i Niemca – RMF24).

The two cases

The first complaint came from a Polish citizen who lives with his family in Görlitz and visits relatives in Zgorzelec almost daily. He challenged an identity check and a search of his minibus by German police in September 2024, carried out after he had crossed the Old Town bridge and was already on German soil (Kontrole niezgodne z prawem. Polak wygrał sprawę z Niemcami – Wirtualna Polska). Officers asked for his document and looked inside the vehicle, which held only a bicycle.

The second came from a German citizen living in Michendorf in Brandenburg, who travels to the Czech Republic several times a year. He contested the identity check carried out in May this year, when police stopped a replacement bus returning from Prague at a border control point and checked the papers of every passenger (Gericht in Dresden - Deutsche Grenzkontrollen waren rechtswidrig – Deutschlandfunk).

Background

Germany reintroduced controls on the Polish and Czech borders in mid-October 2023 and extended them to all land borders a year later (Polak pozwał Niemcy za kontrole na granicy. Co zdecyduje sąd? – Deutsche Welle). For people in the border region, crossing has since meant queues and document checks, and in some cases car searches. Several courts, including those in Koblenz and Munich, had earlier found the controls unlawful. Berlin kept them in place and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt extended them until mid-March of the following year.

What comes next

The judgments can be appealed. Until a higher court decides, the controls remain in force, as the extension announced by the ministry has not been withdrawn.