We had a random long version census in 2011 in Germany, too. It was mandatory. There was a moderately large political debate about the privacy implications. A v

We had a random long version census in 2011 in Germany, too. It was mandatory. There was a moderately large political debate about the privacy implications. A very small number of people refused to participate, under a threat of penalty that, afaik, was never acted upon. I wasn't asked. The last real census (in the western part, anyway) before 2011 was in 1987. It was originally planned for 1983, but had to be postponed and modified aftr it was met with huge, widespread resistance. This culminated in the German supreme (ie. constitution,al) court issueing a landmark ruling on privacy rights, establishing informational self-determination as a fundamental right.