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In Bavaria it used to be "recommended but not obligatory" to use winter tyres between Nov-Mar. However if you were involved in an accident and were not using winter tyres, you were considered to be partially responsible (by both police and insurance), regardless of the actual circumstances.
About 2 years ago it became compulsory to use winter tyres. All season are allowed, but not recommended.
Most people (myself included) have two sets of wheels/tyres and just take the car to the dealer in Nov/Mar to swap them over. The dealer stores the "unused" set until required. Most dealers charge a nominal fee for this, but some (mine for example) do it for free if you're a good regular customer. I usually combine it with a winter/spring check by the dealer.
Other people of course do it themselves, but then you need to somewhere to store the wheels/tyres you're not using. Yet other swap the tyres and keep the same wheels, but this is more of a pain.
The amount of snow we get here varies from a lot to none (depends on the year and how close you are to the mountains). Even when it does arrive, the local farmers are well organised to keep at least the major routes around town free of snow. But it's always cold here in the winter - minus 15C (5F) is not uncommon, and in those conditions the winter tyres are a huge help.
Having used them here, I personally would never be without them in future, in any location that gets below 5C (41F)
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