I should add that one consequence of this is that bankruptcy carries a real stigma in Germany. If you defraud people and can't pay damages and have to declare bankruptcy, you can't just change your name and continue defrauding people.
Also you can't just change your name. You can legally change your name, but it is a rarity and you have to give compelling reasons for it and is usually seen with suspicion if people hear about it. This is one of the reasons it took comparatively long for Germany to allow transgender people to pick a new name.
Changing the name is so foreign a concept in Germany that instead of allowing inmates who served their time to start fresh with a new name, the German way was to institute the right to be forgotten, to make it possible to expunge damaging references in search engines and even the paper record to a certain extent.
This is also why Germans tend to be reluctant to open an account with some web site if they have to give their real name. That feels like a boundary, an actual commitment.
Also you can't just change your name. You can legally change your name, but it is a rarity and you have to give compelling reasons for it and is usually seen with suspicion if people hear about it. This is one of the reasons it took comparatively long for Germany to allow transgender people to pick a new name.
Changing the name is so foreign a concept in Germany that instead of allowing inmates who served their time to start fresh with a new name, the German way was to institute the right to be forgotten, to make it possible to expunge damaging references in search engines and even the paper record to a certain extent.
This is also why Germans tend to be reluctant to open an account with some web site if they have to give their real name. That feels like a boundary, an actual commitment.