From reading other forums and stuff it seems like removing the chime box from machines in Germany was not uncommon. I guess they did not like sounds much as the knocker had one of the wires disconnected as well. That probably means that there is (or was) a warehouse full of chime boxes somewhere in Germany.

With Bally games they were not removed. They were never installed on the production line. The story goes that the German market was big on one armed bandits, and the law allowed for the ratio of one armed bandits to pinballs was one to one. That is, for every one armed bandit, there had to be a pinball. The pinballs were not played as much, but when they were, the clients playing the one armed bandits (gamblers) complained about the noise. So the German importer asked for them to not be installed. Germany was the hub for the European market, so many games from Europe don't have chimes for this reason.