It is definitely legal to own a decommissioned, but otherwise functional tank in Germany. I know that the owner of my local scrapyard had a Russian tank that he liked to drive on his property. I suspect the guy in the OP had some other stuff, that was illegal to own…
He also had a whole stash of weapons and a flak gun. The tank was actually found to not be usable as a weapon, but he had to give it up anyways (in some articles I’ve found, it sounded like it was not officially decommissioned, just not usable because of damage).
He only got a probation sentence in the end, for the possession of a machine gun barrel and two rounds, the only ones his permit was not good for as they count as weapons of war.
(German source about the sentencing: https://www.lto.de/recht/nachrichten/n/lg-kiel-7kls1317-weltkrieg-panzer-keller-flak-waffen-munition-sammler-bewaehrungsstrafe)
It is definitely legal to own a decommissioned, but otherwise functional tank in Germany. I know that the owner of my local scrapyard had a Russian tank that he liked to drive on his property. I suspect the guy in the OP had some other stuff, that was illegal to own…
He also had a whole stash of weapons and a flak gun. The tank was actually found to not be usable as a weapon, but he had to give it up anyways (in some articles I’ve found, it sounded like it was not officially decommissioned, just not usable because of damage). He only got a probation sentence in the end, for the possession of a machine gun barrel and two rounds, the only ones his permit was not good for as they count as weapons of war. (German source about the sentencing: https://www.lto.de/recht/nachrichten/n/lg-kiel-7kls1317-weltkrieg-panzer-keller-flak-waffen-munition-sammler-bewaehrungsstrafe)