Bob, no doubt someone can come up with dire sounding laws for any and all european countries. It would be the same for the USA, if a foreigner were about to come here, and asked "is metal detecting allowed in the USA?" He might see ARPA, or hear of mel fisher's hassles, read about state parks or whatever, and might conclude "gee, I guess there's no md'ing in the USA"
All I know is this: there are German guys posting old coins they find there. So obviously it's going on. Maybe it's just like it is here: If you were raiding obvious historical sites, asking dumb questions, showing off ancient coins to archies, etc.... then, just like here, you can probably find people to tell you "no you can't"
