That article contains a link with a better explanation of the law: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/14/obscure-german-law-angela-merkel-recep-tayyip-e

That article contains a link with a better explanation of the law: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/14/obscure-german-law-angela-merkel-recep-tayyip-erdogan http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/14/obscure-german-... Basically it's a holdover from the monarchy, and there are similar rules across much of europe for the same reason. It seems interesting that these laws hang on despite the massive changes to borders and governments in europe since the 1800's