In reply to Bellie:
As far as I know, mountain shelters in Germany are either the staffed/serviced type or emergency-only huts, with nothing comparable to bothies. So I'd be inclined to be charitable and put this down to ignorance rather than selfishness.
I've spoken to visitors, including a German guy last year on Skye, who've expressed real astonishment about the way that bothies work. There's the (certainly apocryphal) story of the group of French walkers who decided to overnight at Fords of Avon, and to save weight took only waterproofs plus money to get at bed and meal at the refuge...