[lazyasciiart]

Germany does outlaw requesting photos on a job application, so they clearly see some kind of problem with it. But attitudes today are not the ones to look at when trying to figure out why it became a common practice in the past.

[em-bee]

yup, i noticed that. things are changing. however, i was arguing about the reason why the practice started. and i still strongly doubt that racism is the one. not that there aren't racist germans, but because with a few exceptions in germany a picture doesn't tell anything more about race that a name wouldn't already tell.

if i were to speculate for the real reason then it is whether the applicant looks presentable. german office culture is rather uptight. it is also likely that it started on the candidate side, and that people realized that including a picture would make them stand out more.