Now, here’s what I call hilarious:

Friedrich Schiller got a TV fee demand, notwithstanding his death about 200 years ago. It was sent to a high school named after him:

Despite receiving a letter from the school’s headteacher, in which he pointed out that “the addressee is no longer in a position to listen to the radio or watch television”, a second reminder was sent by the GEZ [the agency collecting the fees], telling the poet that he would be exempt from the fee only if he could prove he owned no TV or radio sets, but that otherwise he was obliged to pay his contribution.

Well, after some discussion and the aforementioned second letter, things were resolved. But I would have liked to see where this was going.

And the headmaster of the school – my new personal hero:

“I told the GEZ that Herr Schiller has not been with us for quite some time … and included his curriculum vitae with my letter,” Michael Binder, the headteacher, said.