Marc-Andre,

thanks for your comment!

Note that setlocale() can also be used to query the current locale,
according to my manpage on a Debian GNU/Linux system and also
according to IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 (POSIX).

This problem report is not invalid in both point.
You cannot deny a), the inconsistency having code that is not allowed a few sections before in the description is appared.
b) also is a problem that occurss on a freshly installed Python
on a freshly installed German Windows version.
Same on Debian Sarge, depending on the default locale.
So if I use the functions according to the documentation,
this will just break in the real world which is not robust.

I know that it is probably hard to make this more robust,
but it is possible depeding on how the interface of this module
should look like. 

Note that in your remark you believe that Germany_Germany 
call fails,
but this is the one that succeeds because it is the locale
this Python version on windows has set and which setlocale
has returned. It is getlocale() that returns a value which
cannot be used for setlocale() again, despite the documentation.
This makes getlocale() useless for the purpose of getting a locale
setting that could later be reused as input for setlocale.
As setlocale() can do this as well, getlocale() seems to be superfluous.

Best Regards,
Bernhard