In a blog post today Raphael Leiteritz, (Product Manager at Google Maps Europe) gave us the great news that StreetView images from Germany will be available this year. German newspaper Zeit claim it will happen in November.

The 20 largest cities will be part of this first release in Germany: Berlin, Bielefeld, Bochum, Bonn, Bremen, Dortmund, Dresden, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Hannover, Köln, Leipzig, Mannheim, München, Nürnberg, Stuttgart and Wuppertal.

Due to privacy issues, Google has developed a new service where anyone can make their own house unrecognizable before the pictures will go online. This is only if you live in the cities mentioned above. You can report it until September 15.