I suspect many Germans have varying personal interpretations (not being German). However, StackOverflow has a question/answer [1] where the most general answer

I suspect many Germans have varying personal interpretations (not being German). However, StackOverflow has a question/answer [1] where the most general answer is "right or freedom as in Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung being 'freedom of speech'". Otherwise, tends to represent "the encompassing scope of all laws" vs "the interactions of a single law." The "the spirit of the law" tends to be more like: "what did we believe the law was supposed to do vs what does it actually result in if you're a rules lawyer." Games have a lot of that with little oversight, legal laws tend to get publicly challenged. We made a rule where all the miniatures have to stand in squares, except now all anybody does is abuse the facing and distance rules. [1] https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/30384/what-s-the-difference-between-the-three-rechtlich-rechtm%C3%A4%C3%9Fig-and-gesetzlic https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/30384/what-s-the-...