@SwordToFlamethrower
"Are the German government so naive as to think that people won't exploit the system and abuse it or do they really just not care about the safety, dignity and fairness for women and children?"
Unless you actively search for or look at specific media, there is not much additional information in-your-face about all the implications down the road, mostly the coverage is very general and not going into details about safe spaces for women and children, the healthcare implication, the fairness aspect and so on. Also, as in the discussions here about the UK, it’s mostly about TW feelings and not about the feelings of the women shoved aside.
Language confusion: the German word “Geschlecht” implies both biological and social information. Especially in literature and philosophy, the social meaning additionally to the biological was always there. One could separate the meanings by saying “biologisches Geschlecht” und “soziales Geschlecht”.
With the introduction of the gender debate, usually there was no separate German word in everyday language. People would have to use “soziales Geschlecht”, for example, but mostly the English term “Gender” was used. Though most people speak English, I am not sure really everyone twigged the complete meaning.
Stirred into this word pudding was the discussion about traditional roles, which is much older.
That way, many people who reject traditional roles for men and women (in-)voluntarily accepted the gender-changes, too. I think this is a crucial point and where it went wrong and took a wrong turn, and into regressive stereotypes.
A man who wears dresses, has long hair and likes knitting can do all that while being a man.
A woman with short hair, a pilot license, who collectors toy tractors and hates cooking can do all that while still being a woman.
Instead somehow this freedom from fixed social roles of the past and from dress codes was mixed (probably intentionally) with the trans debate.