500 Euro fine for collecting berries that grow on public ground. How fair does this sound to you? The city administration of Offenbach, a city close to Frankfurt am Main, hands out fines for collecting berries WITHOUT a permit (Pflückschein), which is priced with 10 to 20 Euro. City administration argues that public gardens have a recreation purpose (and no harvesting one).
Food prices are rising in Germany, poverty increases. Especially in areas of bigger cities who attract drug addicts and unskilled workers. The mayor probably does not want to have too many poor people in the public eye collecting food, escpecially NOT before upcoming elections in September.
Anarcho Communist solution
On the page https://mundraub.org/ (Mundraub =theft of food) you can spot fruit trees and other useful plants all over Germany.
Source for information and picture:
https://www.op-online.de/offenbach/schon-gewusst-beeren-ernte-offenbach-strafbar-8521834.html