The German Way of fossil collecting

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>        Antwort auf:     <<Permits for collecting
>Dear Jere,
>In Germany most of the federal states set up their own laws for preservation of
>geological, archaeological and historical sites as well as collecting minerals,
>fossils, archaeological or historical objects. Usually, these groups of objects
>are summarized in one item. The regulations vary widely within Germany. In some
>states collecting any object is forbidden except you have a (rarely given)
>permit by officials, this also applies to pieces of rock (and, such,
>microfossil samples). In other states collecting is nearly free of regulations,
>except you need to inform the land-owner about objects of high value. In fact,
>it is rarely possible to control collection activities efficiently, since you
>may find some objects on any farming site.
>Personally, I regard the regulations of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg best.
>Here, the state museum of Stuttgart has the right to claim any object of
>exceptional value for science or public (e.g., if the collection cannot be
>easily repeated) to be given or sold to the museum. A reasonable compensation
>will be given to the collector of a claimed fossil, usually good duplications
>will be given in return and collaboration in the scientific progress follows.
>The whole regulation will not be considered to apply to microfossils, since
>which rock sample will be so exceptional, that the finding could not be easily
>repeated by scientists of the museum?
>If you are more interested to hear about these regulations, you should contact:
>Staatliches Museum fuer Naturkunde
>Rosenstein 1
>D 70191 Stuttgart
>Germany
>Tel: +49-711-8936-0
>e-mail: 100726.3375@compuserve.com
>homepage:
>http://ourworld.compuserve.com:80/homepages/naturkundemuseum/homepage.htm
>To my knowledge, the current director of the museum is Prof. Dr. Olivier.
>
>I hope, this information is of some value for you.
>Sincerely, Joachim
>