Men have regained their fundamental right to pee standing up in Germany, a court has ruled, after a landlord tried to retain part of a tenant's 3,000 euro deposit claiming an unnamed man damaged the marble floor of his toilet by sprinkling it with urine.
Judge Stefan Hank in the city of Duesseldorf has warned that traditionalists who insist on standing "must expect occasional rows with housemates, especially women" but cannot be held to account for any collateral damage.
"Despite growing domestication of men in this matter, urinating while standing up is still widespread," he pointed out.
The debate about whether men should stand (or rather sit?) while relieving themselves in Germany, is worthy of Bernard Shaw's "Man and Superman" comedy, except for it's no laughing matter for local males. In fact, there's a derogatory term for men who, for some reasons, prefer to sit and pee - "Sitzpinkler" - which implies it's not masculine behavior. Meanwhile, some toilets in Germany, which has the largest population of any EU country, have red traffic-style signs forbidding the key standing position.