Friedrich Schiller, one of Germany's favourite poets and playwrights, has received reminders to pay his television licence - despite having been dead since 1805.
Two notices were delivered by GEZ, a licence-collecting agency, which threatened to mount legal action against the literary hero, who is best known for his poem Ode to Joy, which was put to music by Beethoven, unless he quickly settled his monthly €17 (£14) bill.
GEZ replied saying Schiller would only be exempt if he could prove he did not own television or radio sets.
After the confusion was settled, a spokesman for the agency apologised. "We have to deal with such a huge amount of data, that something like this can happen, and the name Friedrich Schiller is not so unusual that it stood out as strange," she told The Guardian. "We will now alter his status in our computer system."
But why did they bill him in the first place?
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Two notices were delivered by GEZ, a licence-collecting agency, which threatened to mount legal action against the literary hero, who is best known for his poem Ode to Joy, which was put to music by Beethoven, unless he quickly settled his monthly €17 (£14) bill.
GEZ replied saying Schiller would only be exempt if he could prove he did not own television or radio sets.
After the confusion was settled, a spokesman for the agency apologised. "We have to deal with such a huge amount of data, that something like this can happen, and the name Friedrich Schiller is not so unusual that it stood out as strange," she told The Guardian. "We will now alter his status in our computer system."
But why did they bill him in the first place?
1 Comment Add this link to... Bury
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