Forgery of documents: when is signing someone else's name a crime?

This is where the practical core lies, and this is where care is needed: there is no rule of thumb for when signing in another person's name is acceptable.

Three situations that occur constantly in everyday life have to be distinguished.

First, open representation. Someone who signs for another person and makes that clear, for example by an addition such as "on behalf of" or "as representative" together with their own name, is making a declaration of their own as a representative. There is then no deception about the issuer.

Second, concealed signing in another person's name. Someone who writes another person's signature so that the document looks as though that person signed it themselves creates the appearance of a different issuer. Whether the consent of the person whose name it is changes anything about that, and on what conditions, is a difficult legal question that the case law answers in a differentiated way. It cannot be answered across the board, and you should not rely on oral agreement curing everything.

Third, the blank signature. Someone who receives a signed but not yet completed paper and fills it in contrary to what was agreed is in a problem area of its own. Here too, the details decide.

If you are in one of these situations, the sensible order is: first know the file, then explain. Under § 136 Abs. 1 Satz 2 StPO (Satz means sentence; StPO is the Strafprozessordnung, the German Code of Criminal Procedure), you are free to comment on the accusation or to make no statement on the matter, and you may consult a defence lawyer at any time, including before your interview. A common mistake in document cases is the well meant written statement that is the very thing which proves that the document was used.

Alongside § 267 StGB there are further offences that are often overlooked in everyday life. Most of them are found in the same section of the Criminal Code, the one on document forgery; one of them deliberately sits elsewhere.

§ 268 Abs. 1 StGB covers the falsification of technical records, with imprisonment of up to five years or a fine. Under § 268 Abs. 2 StGB a technical record is a representation of data, measured or calculated values, states or sequences of events which is produced wholly or partly automatically by a technical device, which allows the subject matter of the record to be identified either generally or by those in the know, and which is intended to serve as proof of a legally relevant fact. All three elements belong to the definition; if one of them is missing, the provision does not apply.

§ 269 StGB makes the falsification of data relevant as evidence an offence where such data are stored or altered in such a way that, if perceived, a document that is not genuine or has been falsified would exist. The sentencing range corresponds to that of § 267 Abs. 1 StGB, and § 269 Abs. 3 StGB declares § 267 Abs. 3 und 4 StGB to apply accordingly. In addition, § 270 StGB provides that the wrongful influencing of data processing ranks equally with deception in legal relations. These two provisions are the reason why purely digital events can be covered as well.

§ 271 Abs. 1 StGB concerns causing false entries to be made in official documents, books, data files or registers, with imprisonment of up to three years or a fine. Related to it, § 348 Abs. 1 StGB does not sit in the chapter on document forgery but among the offences committed in public office: it is directed at public officials who, within their area of responsibility, record a legally relevant fact falsely, with imprisonment of up to five years or a fine.

§ 274 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 StGB covers the suppression of documents, that is, destroying, damaging or suppressing a document with the intention of causing detriment to another, with imprisonment of up to five years or a fine. One element is often read over: the document must either not belong to the offender at all, or not belong to them exclusively. Someone who destroys a document that belongs to themselves alone is not covered by that provision.

Separate provisions apply to identity papers. § 276 StGB makes it an offence to obtain false official identity documents, in the basic case with imprisonment of up to two years or a fine, and where committed on a commercial basis or as a member of a gang with three months to five years. § 281 StGB concerns the misuse of identity papers, that is, using a document issued for another person in order to deceive in legal relations, with imprisonment of up to one year or a fine; under § 281 Abs. 2 StGB, health certificates and other documents used in dealings as identification rank equally with an identity paper.