German judges wear a robe in court, the Amtstracht. In 2015 the Bavarian justice system published a press release of the local court in Augsburg about a lawyer who had appeared without one. The robe, it said, marks judges and lawyers as independent organs of the administration of justice. Denn die Person tritt hinter dem Dienst an Gesetz und Recht zurück. For the person steps back behind the service to law and justice.
On 18 February 1970 the Federal Constitutional Court upheld the duty of lawyers to wear the robe. The court said that the robe contributes to jener Atmosphäre der Ausgeglichenheit und Objektivität, that atmosphere of balance and objectivity. This, it said, is of at least indirect use in finding the truth and the law in a trial.