Не поверил. Полез смотреть. Нашёл (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_orthography). Разумеется, ни о каких законах речь не идёт:

German spelling reform of 1996
The new orthography is only obligatory in schools. According to the decision of July 14, 1998, of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany [1] outside the schools everybody can write as before, because there is no law ruling orthography.