alt Hacker NewsGerman copyright law has no Fair Use. There are copyright exemptions for private or academic use, but commercial use has no such exemption. Books have special protection even according to § 53 (4) b).
And yes, it's the duplication which is illegal, not the publication of them.
It does not have "Fair Use" directly, but things like parody or commentary are allowed to use portions of copyrighted work. There a quite a few paragraphs detailing exceptions: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_urhg/englisch_ur...