This is just some background information on Germany. The photo is not easy to read, but it says that Traffic Psychologist Wolfgang Roth can prepare you for the Medizinisch-Psychologische Untersuchung (MPU). This is going on all over Germany. It is also known as the Idiotentest.

If you lose your driving licence for drunk driving here, for example, you have to do this psychological test to decide whether you can get your licence back. According to Wikipedia (German – there is an English Wikipedia article too, but it is much shorter), the test takes from three to four hours. It consists of medical tests, a ‘psychological conversation’ and some tests on the computer. I was told once that it included the Rohrschach test, but apparently there are some apocryphal stories about what it contains. It says that in Russia, every driver has to pass a test like this every three years.

People get very exciting about this test – here are some on Toytown Germany:

a) The MPU, or Medizinisch Psychologische Untersuchung, is a scandalous piece of legislation considered extremely suspect by Road safety and Psychology professional alike, and frowned upon by Brussels.

b) There are not hundreds of thousands, there are about 100.000 a year, and there are 50 million people with a license. And about half of the cases are related to drunk drivers having lost their license and have later to undergo examination wether their drinking habits have changed if they want their license back. Anythin wrong with that? Not for me.

Anyway, there was a judgment – a preliminary ruling – of the CJEU on 26 April holding that it’s OK for someone who’s lost their licence for drunk driving in Germany to get a new licence in another EU country. This is probably the decision (Case C‑419/10).

I got the impression from surfing the Web that a company in the Czech Republic is already offering a new driving test, and even one with a ‘positive MPU’ – that is, you cannot fail the MPU.

Trivia: Wikipedia has pictures of the first German driving school in 1906. Further investigation indicates that the first British woman to pass a driving test did so in 1900. She had to go to France – there was no driving test in Britain till 1935.

Here’s a site (in German) where you can get assistance and more information on the subject.