Living next door to malice

Depression, insomnia and nightmares: that's how a couple living outside Munich describe the unending clashes with their neighbor. The source of noise pollution eating away at their quality of life? The neighbor has a herd of bovines on her green pastures, whose cow bells keep the couple awake at night. A heff-ty price to pay for country living.

Germans adore their garden gnomes, but too much of a good thing can result in litigation. There have been numerous court cases in Germany over the impish little lawn dwellers offending neighbors. Be it pygmy-sized Nazi salutes or exposed kobold buttocks, garden gnomes are known to polarize public opinion and drive neighbors asunder.

In a recent case in Bavaria, a man did the neighborly thing and left a sex doll on his patio, facing his neighbor's property. The police had to intervene and notify the puppet's owner that provocations featuring genitalia were illegal. According to reports, the man complied - by turning the doll around to face the other way.

In 1999, a courtroom TV show in Germany gained notoriety when a woman from Saxony sued her neighbor (pictured here) for refusing to get rid of his snowberry bush, which apparently was damaging her wire-mesh fence. To be fair, the case attracted more attention due to the woman's thick accent rather than for the petty dispute itself. There are some things that only happen in Germany.

We may all have different standards of cleanliness but in 2017, one woman in the eastern German town of Bautzen could no longer take the chaos at the bakery next door. One day, after spotting rats at said establishment, the senior citizen decided to go ahead and sanitize the place the only way she knew how: by setting it on fire. Needless to say, she was later sent to prison for arson.

As trivial as some of these disputes may sound, rows between neighbors can actually end deadly. In southern Germany, a man shot his neighbor dead in 2013 because of a dispute on the property line between the two attached houses. Each year, there are several reports of murder between neighbors in Germany. So best be careful around your neighbors with your garden gnomes, cow bells and sex dolls.