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Google Mapsrevolutionized how we view the world when it introducedStreet Viewin 2007, spreading throughout the world in subsequent years. However, the service wasn’t met with open arms everywhere in the world. One of the countries to shun the service early on was Germany, where privacy outcries and lawsuits led to Google halt the Street View rollout in 2011 after only covering about 20 big cities, shortly after it was launched in the country. Fast-forward to 2023, and the company is finally returning to the European country, allowing tourists and residents to explore sights and neighborhoods with up-to-date imagery.
The first 20 biggest German cities now offer updated Street View photography, helping you better plan your trip to one of Europe’s biggest countries.
Googleshared on its German Keyword blogthat the company is starting to publish imagery first shot in 2022. The company writes that starting today, you’re able to view the streets and sights of the 20 biggest cities in Street View, in addition to many more regions that are available in Street View for the very first time. Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber are just some of the cities among the supported ones now.
Previously,Google announcedthat starting June 22, Street View cars would return to Germany to make recordings all throughout the country, meant to be published in batches in the coming months. To prevent a privacy outcry like the last time, Google is working closelywith a German government privacy agency, ensuring that its imagery meets the country’s data privacy regulations. Among them is a requirement to delete older images, which means that you won’t be able to use Street View to travel as far back in time in Germany as in other countries wherever the new imagery is live.
Like in other countries, it is possible to opt out of Street View coverage with the option to pixelate your home or business. Google is starting with a blank slate, so anyone who obfuscated their house a decade ago will have to request it once more, if they still want to.
Satellite images and outdated Street View photographs used to not go together nicely, making a tram stop in front of Berlin Central Station fully disappear just until today (new above, old below)
The update to Street View was direly needed. As we covered in April 2022,Street View in Germany is hopelessly outdated, with many streets and buildings not recognizable. Google Germany itself acknowledged as much in its blog post, showing how its Munich offices didn’t even exist at all in the 2008 Street View images that were still live at the time of the first blog post. At the same time, Street View cars could still be seen on German roads throughout all these years, but the images were never published and only used to update Google Maps with more accurate house numbers, crossings, traffic lights, and lanes.
In the years since Google Street View stopped updating Germany, a lot has changed. Apple successfully and quietly launched Look Around in the country, its version of Street View for Apple Maps. A representative study cited by Google from May 2023 also shows that more than 90% of Germans have a positive or very positive reception of Street View, so this time around, Google might just be successful with Street View in the country.
UPDATE: 2025-05-30 04:58 EST BY MANUEL VONAU
Some Street View imagery is now live
The article has been updated to reflect that some of the promised Street View imagery is now live.
