German estate agents will not go on strike today

German estate agents have decided not to go on strike today, following a campaign to call for a nationwide suspension of duties.

The campaign was intended to protest the new law capping rents and preventing the German Federation of Estate Agents members earning commissions on rental property.

“The trend is towards a strike”, Helge Norbert Ziegler, president of the BVFI, told The Local last week, but the full results found that 3,707 members voted, with 30 per cent voting in favour of action, 6 per cent against and an overwhelming 64 per cent in abstention.

The whole saga was ridiculed by the wider public, as well as some agents.

"I'm sure politicians are trembling in their boots over the economy collapsing because of an estate agent strike," said Markus Gruhn, president of a group of Berlin and Brandenburg estate agents.

On Twitter, the hashtag #maklerstreik (estate agent strike) saw a wave of jokes targeted at the strike.

"Please strike forever," said one. Another tweeted: "Imagine a strike which just makes everyone laugh."