Dieter Kleinschmidt wrote:

You have to file a flightplan in Germany if you want to fly in clouds.

Theoretically, yes. Practically, everybody knows that this is not
feasible. Just ask ATCfor a clearance, and your request will be
understood as an airborne flight plan. Whether you get a clearance to
enter cloud or not depends on the actual traffic situation and the mood
of the controller. (Controllers that are glider pilots themselves tend
to be more cooperativ than others.)

For those who don't know German airspace: Roughly spoken, between 2500
ft AGL and FL 100 airspace is E, above it's C. So the controller can
easily keep a portion of it free of motorised IFR traffic.

Stefan