The presence of NATO troops stationed in Germany on the basis of a special agreement is subject to the NATO Agreement on the Status of the Armed Forces (SOFA) of 19 June 1951 (agreement between the contracting parties to the North Atlantic Treaty on the Status of their armed forces, Bundesgesetzblatt 1961 II p.1190) and the additional SOFA agreement of 3 August 1959 (agreement complementing the agreement between the contracting parties to the North Atlantic Treaty on the status of (Bundesgesetzblatt 1961 II P.1218). The additional agreement contains detailed provisions on all matters relating to troops stationed in Germany. Following German unification, it was deeply revised by the agreement of 18 March 1993 (Bundesgesetzblatt 1994 II, p.2594). Think carefully about your decision to get married or divorce during your stay in Germany. Marriage and divorce in Germany can be very different from those in the United States, marriage or divorce documents are not simply transferred or applied between the German authorities and different American states. Any divorce, whether abroad or back in the United States, can be very complicated and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for child support, child care, spousal property sharing and legal fees. Former spouses could apply for a court order for money, refer your commander to enforce a separation agreement, or any military obligation to support families. Since the Law Center cannot represent staff in the event of a divorce, you must seek the services of a German lawyer. The temporary deployment of the Partnership for Peace (PfP) armed forces and other third countries to Germany requires an agreement under the Visiting Forces Act of 20 July 1995 (Bundesgesetzblatt 1995 1995, p.554, Bundesgesetzblatt 2002 II P.2482).
Under Article 1 of the Act, the federal government can make such agreements with foreign states effective regarding the entry and short-term presence of their armed forces in Germany for exercises, overland transit and legal instrument training. So far, the federal government has concluded such agreements with Poland (agreement of 23 August 2000) and the Czech Republic (agreement of 31 July 2003). Below are some frequently asked questions that many people have about aspects of life as part of the SOFA agreement. A recent example of a bilateral agreement on the status of German armed forces abroad is the German-Russian transit agreement of 9 October 2003 (agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Government of the Russian Federation on the transit of defence equipment and personnel through the territory of the Russian Federation with regard to the contributions of the Federal Army to the stabilization and reconstruction of Afghanistan , Bundesgesetzblatt 2003 II P.1620). The German-Russian transit agreement is the first agreement under which the Russian Federation granted the right of transit to a NATO state for its troops. The SOFA agreement is complemented by another agreement that specifically applies to the six NATO countries (including the United Kingdom and the United States) that have a permanent military presence in Germany, the Complementary Agreement (or SA). SOFA was signed in 1951 and the SA was signed in 1959 and last updated in 1998 at the end of the Cold War. With its 83 articles, the SA to SOFA is much more detailed than SOFA itself (with 20 articles in Roman numerals – z.B. XX), and most of the time it is confused with the SOFA itself.
Some items are rationed because a separate agreement between the UK and Germany explicitly limits the amount of cigarettes and tobacco, whisky, gin and coffee that a person can buy duty-free, which is why your NAAFI Ration Card must be filled every time you purchase these products. In order to ensure that the exempt allowance for these goods is not exceeded, they cannot be purchased tax-free in outdoor stores: for example, if you make your weekly purchases at REWE with an exempt order form, you cannot buy rationed items (for example. B a glass of coffee or a packet of cigarettes) as part of your ”Big Shops”
