German doesn't use the serial, or Oxford comma. Basically, it is a comma coming before the co-ordinating conjunction at the end of a list. For instance:
I went on a tour of Germany, France, Italy, and Ireland.
Most of the time, it adds nothing to the sentence as it could be written:
I went on a tour of Germany, France, Italy and Ireland.
Without any ambiguity. The problem comes when the co-ordinating conjunction could be see as an apposition to the other elements of the list:
The interview included his two ex-wives, Nick Nolte and Kevin Bacon.
Without the serial comma, the sentence could be read to suggest that Nick and Kevin were the ex-wives. A solution to this is:
The interview about Mr. Thomas' life includedstatements by his two ex-wives, Nick Nolte, and Kevin Bacon.
Which removes any ambiguity.
Many style guides suggest that since it is sometimes needed to remove ambiguity, it should be used as a default but I would argue that you just re-write the damn sentence so that you avoid the ambiguity as you shouldn't have to rely on a comma to make your meaning clear.
The interview about Mr. Thomas' life included statements from his two ex-wives as well as his good friends: Nick Nolte and Kevin Bacon.
Personally, I dislike seeing the serial comma with a passion and along with using cliches, I tend to avoid them like the plague.
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