In August 2021 an 84-year-old German citizen was fined €250,000. What had he done?

In August 2021 an 84-year-old former financier, named only as Klaus-Dieter F. by German sources, was convicted of illegal weapons possession after he was found to own an extensive personal arsenal including a tank, a torpedo, an 88 mm flak cannon, 70 assault rifles and machine guns, an unspecified number of semi and fully automatic pistols, and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition at his quiet suburban mansion in Heikendorf (Schleswig-Holstein).

The 40-tonne World War II tank was stowed in the basement. Klaus-Dieter F. had found it in a junkyard in southern England and brought it to Germany via the Netherlands in 1977. Following repairs at a workshop in Solingen, he installed it in his home during the 1980s.

Local media reported that Klaus-Dieter F. had been seen one winter using the tank as a snow plough. This raised concern that the collector had violated Germany’s War Weapons Control Act, sparking an ongoing public debate about the fine line of distinction between collectors’ items and military weapons.

Local authorities raided the property in 2015 after receiving a tip-off about the building's contents by colleagues in Berlin, who had earlier searched the home for stolen Nazi art. It took about 20 soldiers almost nine hours to extract the Panther tank - without its tracks - from the property. Klaus-Dieter F. was reportedly upset that his items may have been damaged during their removal.