The question arises again and again, whether one may or may not and, if so, where and for how long. I once thought about it:

The road traffic regulations do not positively regulate where you can park everywhere, but contain provisions where you are not allowed to stop or park. Only with regard to the manner in which the vehicle is to be parked when parking is permitted does 12 (4) sentence 1 of the Road Traffic Regulations contain a regulation. The right-hand hard shoulder is to be used for parking, this also includes parking lanes along the road. Parking on sidewalks is only permitted if it has been expressly permitted by appropriate signs. ´Half-parking on the sidewalk´ is also prohibited, even if it is common in many places.

Parking is part of the so-called ´common use´ of the vehicle and is permitted wherever it is not permitted by 1, Paragraph 2; 12 or 13 StVO is restricted. 1 StVO is the so-called ´rubber paragraph´, according to which one has to behave as a road user in such a way that no one else is harmed, endangered or hindered or annoyed more than unavoidably under the circumstances. This goes without saying.

The essential content of the no-parking and no-parking regulations are contained in 12 StVO, which I do not want to repeat here in detail. If you are interested, you can read this again in the StVO.

Since parking is so-called ´common use´, parking with the mobile home is also permitted everywhere, where it is not expressly prohibited.

It is different if you don´t just park the motorhome, but want to spend the night in it. This is also generally permissible if it does not serve to permanently live in one and the same place. Resting and spending the night in the motorhome in public traffic areas for the purpose of restoring physical fitness to drive is permitted public use, but also special use that requires a permit; Hentschel ´Road Traffic Law´, 39th edition to 12 para. 42 a) with further references as well as Wolfgang Berr, ´Motorhomes and Wohnanh nger´, marginal no. 465 ff.

According to this, a one-time overnight stay is usually not for special use, but for public use. As a result, it is always permissible to spend the night in the general street area, unless there is a general parking ban for this vehicle at the specific point in the public traffic area.

These federal regulations cannot be restricted by state laws. Even landscape conservation laws, as they partly exist, cannot easily restrict the one-time overnight stay in public parking lots and public streets.

Something else applies when life is like camping, i.e. setting up tables, chairs, unscrewing the awning or setting up an awning. This is no longer parking, but special use, which is not allowed without a permit.

If you stay overnight for several days and park your motorhome in a public car park for the purpose of repeated overnight stays, it is no longer common use, but special use. This is not permitted without permission for special use. In these cases, the street is no longer used primarily for traffic purposes, but for residential purposes. Such parking for the purpose of living in the mobile home is therefore no longer permissible long-term parking within the meaning of 12 StVO and would only be possible with the corresponding special use permit.

The local municipalities can also exclude individual parking spaces from the use of certain vehicle types. This has already been the subject of other contributions. The keyword here is the blue parking lot sign with a corresponding white additional sign, on which a corresponding vehicle symbol is attached. In these cases, the parking space is not released for other vehicles, but is limited to certain vehicle types. Spending the night in the motorhome in the corresponding parking spaces is not permitted again, because parking this type of vehicle is prohibited there.


If a municipality would like to dedicate certain parking spaces for the longer parking of mobile homes, i.e. if it would like to set up mobile home parking spaces, it can do so by means of a corresponding special usage statute. Use can then be regulated more precisely in the statutes and the duration of permitted parking for residential purposes can also be regulated.

The following must also be mentioned:

On paths and roads not dedicated to public traffic (paths closed to general traffic, forest paths and the like), national regulations, e.g. B. for the purposes of nature and landscape protection, restrictive regulations apply. However, this really only affects those parts of the street and areas that are not available to general public traffic, which in turn must be recognizable by signs etc.

In summary:

Spending the night on public roads in Germany is generally permitted in mobile homes and caravans, unless it is expressly permitted forbidden. The prohibition must be clearly recognizable by signs. Away from the public roads and paths, general state regulations may provide for additional restrictions. Multiple overnight stays in one place is not a common use, but a special use and is subject to corresponding restrictions, is therefore not permitted on its own, but requires an express approval, which the municipalities for parking spaces in the local by-laws be able to speak out and publicize them through signs.
which the municipalities can pronounce for parking spaces in the local statutes and make them public through signs.
which the municipalities can pronounce for parking spaces in the local statutes and make them public through signs.


~womo66~fritz14~fritz~, 2007-10-18