Just because a legal letter said it, doesn't mean that it is true. I don't know German law. But I know that American lawyers send letters all the time threate

Just because a legal letter said it, doesn't mean that it is true. I don't know German law. But I know that American lawyers send letters all the time threatening all sorts of things that would completely be laughed out of an actual court. It is generally easier to accept what the letter says than to fight it, so people just cave. As you apparently did. But if you know your rights and fight the letter, you'll generally win. So the fact that lawyers like to make people's lives miserable with threats doesn't necessarily mean that the laws are actually bad. They may also be bad, but lawyers manage to make things miserable on their own. That said, Germany has a long tradition of very strong privacy rights. It is (at least in theory) not whether or not you're saying something malicious, it is whether you can say it at all. This was a giant headache for Google Street View. You don't have to just blur out people, cars, and so on. You have to ask them whether they want their house blurred out as well - and lots said that they did!