A while ago they made a change to an existing law to increase the minimum sentence from 6 months to 1 year, probably mostly for reasons of political posturing rather than any deep analysis. They were warned it would have absurd consequences, but did it anyway.

Now it was changed back to how it was before, because of exactly what was predicted.

It's doesn't reflect well on the German government, but it also doesn't deserve the amount of histronics it generated.