17 years after its release Germany has "unbanned" the famous first person shooter game "Doom". The funniest thing reading about this was becoming re-acquainted with the German government ministry that originally did the banning, the fabulously named
Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien literally "Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons"
Germany actually has this organisation that goes beyond rating media like games and films but can actually completely ban an item from sale or distribution if it is deemed "Harmful to Minors" which they define as:
Objects are considered harmful or dangerous to minors if they tend to
endanger their process of developing a socially responsible and
self-reliant personality.
What actually happened in practice was that items on the "index" were only available through certain outlets like sex shops.
I first came upon this "Won't somebody think of the chiiiiildren!" nightmare organisation some years ago through a German punk outfit "Die Ärtze" (The Doctors) who had one of their songs banned by the blue noses at the BPjM; it was a lovely little ditty about a girl called Claudia and her German Shepherd dog, went something like this...
Claudia hat nen Schäferhund
und den hat sie nicht ohne Grund,
Abends springt er in ihr Bett
und dann geht es rund!
Yes, it's rather rude but it really does beggar belief that some serious, educated people sat around in a room and went "Yes this song will encourage our young women to experiment with bestiality, better ban it."
So as a result of the ban Die Ärtze were forbidden to sing this song at their concerts.
But as technically only the lyrics were banned what they used to do was play the song as an instrumental. The audience used to sing it.
I can just imagine some Mary Whitehouse type watching thousands of teenagers singing..
Claudia mag keine Jungs
Und sie ist auch nicht lesbisch,
am allerliebsten mag sie es,
mit ihrem Hundchen untern Esstisch!
... at the tops of their voices as she slowly turned purple with impotent rage.
