Opening a bank account for a minor

My 17 yr old daughter wants a bank account where she can deposit her babysitting money. You'd think this wouldn't be a big deal, but no. She can't open it on her own, I have to go with her. Not only do I have to go with her, we need to drag her Dad along as well, or dig out the custody papers that say I don't need him. Being a foreigner, I will also need a Meldebescheinigung and a residence permit and a passport. Daughter needs to bring ID as well, of course. This is just stoopid. Why all the bureacracy? Why can't she just open the account herself? She's old enough to earn money, she should be old enough to bank it, you'd think.
Is this just the PostBank, or are all German banks this difficult about this?

Tell me about it... They say it is to prevent money laundering.

Ah, is that primarily run by teenagers?

Teenagers, usually...I would assume. I'm sure they've done their research.

Don't waste your time at PostBank. Go to the Dresdner Bank for some real service. I highly recommend the one in Max Webber Platz. They are super nice there and easy to work with. And most of the peeps there speak great English.

It won't help, they still won't let her open an account on her own. It's not the banks fault, it's the law, I'm having to do the same thing for my 15 year old daughter, we have to get a copy of her mothers passport, so they can fill in the forms and then we have to send the forms to her Mum to sign and then we have to go to the bank again to finally open the account. I was just as bloody annoyed with it as well, but at least the girl in the bank, Sparkasse by the way, said we could come outside the normal banking hours, as I'm at work when they are normally open.

You can't have a bank account in the states under the age of 18 either without parents consent. I got my first bank account when I was like 12 or 14, but my Dad had to cosign.