Here's a list of the codes NFPA publishes [2]. The NEC is NFPA 70.
Checking a few random ones, the ones that were not obsolete or withdrawn are available for online free reading. That includes several past editions. E.g., for the NEC the free online access includes editions going back to 1968.
(Old editions are sometimes relevant because local codes often lag in adopting the latest version).
[1] https://www.nfpa.org/Codes-and-Standards/All-Codes-and-Stand...
[2] https://www.nfpa.org/Codes-and-Standards/All-Codes-and-Stand...
> if you create an account at the publisher's site, nfpa.org
If you need to create an account, that’s only free as in beer, but not free as in libre, which in my opinion every law/code should be
The government actually has a contract with DIN (first signed in 1975, last updated in 2020): https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/804880/5d66359e36df84...
With the stated purpose of "freeing the government from having to make up its own standards".
So Germany has basically avoided the need to pay for a National Instition for Standards, by offloading that cost to everybody who actually wants to read the standard.
> VDE is an association of many private companies, they could basically make a new norm, that some kind of cable, devices or such is now required, and you have to comply!
This is not correct, though. The norm would still have to be directly mentioned in any kind of legal document, or at least in any requirements by a third party (e.g. a bank that won't give you credit for a house if you don't promise to follow given building standards) to have any binding effect on you. The government also has people sitting on these standardization gremiums.
The main issue is that our German government sees value in overboarding standardisation and all those fees because they create revenue and jobs and make life harder for small companies. They want as many strong, big players backed by as many "reputable" standardisation agents (aka "consulting agencies") possible to influence the rest of the world. DIN and VDE are not just nuisances. They're powerhouses of German know-how transfer and influence in the world. Lots of DIN norms even have to be automatically taken over by most other European countries through CEN.