A date for the case has yet to be announced. Daschner's lawyer, Eckart Hild, said the charge would be contested as the police chief had acted within reasonable bounds to try to save the boy's life.
Meanwhile Hans-Ulrich Endres, the lawyer for kidnapper Gaefgen, has protested against the decision to file the milder charge and said he hoped the "true dimension" of the case would come to light in court.
Gaefgen, who had been seeking a ransom of 1 million euros (US$1.25 million) from the boy's family, was sentenced to life imprisonment in July last year, but Endres said he would be appealing to the constitutional court in Karlsruhe against the sentence in view of the police threat of torture.
"Should Karlsruhe prove me right, Magnus will be free in three years and have a claim to damages," he told Focus magazine.
Daschner has meanwhile been transferred from Frankfurt to other police duties in nearby Wiesbaden. He could face a jail sentence of between six months and five years on conviction.
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