Jakub Wolinski seems like a quiet man, not the kind who goes looking for a fight. And yet he has decided to take Germany to court over its checks at the German-Polish border.

Wolinski, 37, has been positively surprised by the response to his case but also a little stressed. "Thankfully, I have my family at home," he says smiling, adding that his family helps him unwind.

Born in the Polish border town of Zgorzelec, Wolinski has been living in the German town of Görlitz for some time now. Zgorzelec and Görlitz are on the opposite banks of the Lusatian Neisse River and are like two parts of one city separated by the river.

He works for a large German company and commutes regularly between the two neighboring countries. Wolinski often gets stopped at the border, perhaps because he drives a minivan with tinted windows.

In their search for migrants illegally entering the country, German police officers often focus on vehicles like this.

"I use this vehicle for private purposes. Children's car seats are in the back, and my papers state where I am registered. I don't know on what basis the police might assume that I could be smuggling people across the border," he told DW.

Germany and Poland are part of the Schengen area, which includes 29 European countries that have abolished checks at their shared borders. The rules governing travel within the area are contained in the Schengen Borders Code.

Wolinski says that he is not aware that the rules in the Schengen Borders Code do not apply to minivans and that these vehicles may be checked more often than others.

Although he has been stopped at the border and checked many times, Wolinski........

© Deutsche Welle