opposed by the interests of the individual with regard to privacy. This
right is, as the Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly for 30 years, a
personal and inherent right that every person is entitled to. The fact
that personal privacy merits protection has been recognised by a
number of provisions under the Constitution as well as by numerous
provisions in a general legal context.
Priority of
interests must
be weighed
Municipality
follows
recommendation
36
There are differentiations with regard to this fundamental right. The
highly personal and private core area that can be described as “the
private sphere of the individual” is fully protected. Invading this area
is not permitted without authorisation under the law, respectively,
under the Constitution. Protection of privacy, however, is not absolute. Often private interests in the preservation of integrity of belongings and possessions ("Integritätsinteressen") are opposed to the
interests of others or of the general public. In these cases, it must be
individually weighed, which interests have priority. Furthermore, the
inconvenience or disturbance must reach a certain level of intensity.
When installing traffic mirrors the municipality must examine if the
interests of traffic safety and thus of the general public can be safeguarded even without this intrusion into rights that are protected
under the Constitution. If it does not do this and if the mirror enables
a view of the private living area from the street, the municipality is
violating the right of the individual to have their privacy respected.
The AOB recommended to the municipality of Berndorf to install the
mirror at the same location, but at a lower height. It could be assumed that this would no longer enable an unobstructed view of the
main window of the house of Ms. N.N. The municipality followed the
AOB’s recommendation and the assumption proved to be correct.
With the new position of the traffic mirror, the needs of the residents/
neighbours were accommodated without the traffic mirror losing its
function.
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