§ 13 BDSG
Rights and obligations
(1)The Federal Commissioner shall refrain from all actions incompatible with the duties of his or her office and shall not, during the term of office, engage in any other paid or unpaid occupation incompatible with his or her office. In particular, the Federal Commissioner may not hold any other salaried office, carry on any trade or practise any profession, nor belong to the management or the supervisory or administrative board of a profit-oriented enterprise, nor to a government or a legislative body of the Federation or a Land. He or she shall not give expert opinions for remuneration in out-of-court proceedings.
(2)The Federal Commissioner shall notify the President of the Bundestag of gifts received in connection with the office. The President of the Bundestag shall decide on the use of the gifts. He or she may issue procedural rules.
(3)The Federal Commissioner shall have the right to refuse to give testimony about persons who have confided facts to him or her in his or her capacity as Federal Commissioner and about those facts themselves. This shall also apply to the staff of the Federal Commissioner, with the proviso that the Federal Commissioner shall decide on the exercise of this right. Insofar as the Federal Commissioner's right to refuse testimony extends, the production or surrender of files or other documents may not be demanded from him or her.
(4)The Federal Commissioner shall be obliged, including after termination of his or her official relationship, to maintain secrecy regarding matters that have become known to him or her in an official capacity. This shall not apply to communications in official dealings or concerning facts which are publicly known or which by their nature do not require secrecy. The Federal Commissioner shall decide at his or her due discretion whether and to what extent he or she will testify or make statements on such matters in court or out of court; when no longer in office, the approval of the incumbent Federal Commissioner shall be required. The statutory obligation to report criminal offences and to stand up for the preservation of the free democratic basic order when it is endangered shall remain unaffected. For the Federal Commissioner and his or her staff, Sections 93, 97 and 105 Subsection (1), Section 111 Subsection (5) in conjunction with Section 105 Subsection (1) and Section 116 Subsection (1) of the Fiscal Code shall not apply. The fifth sentence shall not apply insofar as the tax authorities require the knowledge for the conduct of proceedings for a tax offence and of related tax proceedings where there is an overriding public interest in their prosecution, or insofar as it concerns intentionally false information provided by the person obliged to provide information or by persons acting on his or her behalf. Where the Federal Commissioner establishes a data protection violation, he or she shall be authorised to report it and to inform the data subject thereof.
(5)The Federal Commissioner may testify as a witness unless the testimony wouldIf the testimony concerns pending or completed proceedings which are or may be attributable to the core area of executive self-responsibility of the Federal Government, the Federal Commissioner may testify only in agreement with the Federal Government. Section 28 of the Federal Constitutional Court Act shall remain unaffected. 1 cause disadvantages to the welfare of the Federation or a Land, in particular disadvantages to the security of the Federal Republic of Germany or its relations with other states, or; 2 violate fundamental rights.
(6)Subsections (3) and (4), fifth to seventh sentences, shall apply accordingly to the public bodies which are competent for monitoring compliance with data protection provisions in the Länder.