I think they were worse, because for one reason it's hard to translate rhymes at it is. But the more aparant reason is that in the German synchronisation they were spoken like it was a parody. In the English original the 'witches' seem to take their spells serious at least when they speak them. Parody and bad translations are quite typical of German synchronisations (and TV) in some shows. Often fantasy or sci-fi shows like this aren't taken serious (well, I can't blame them that much considering 'Charmed'), so the translation is done careless (plus there's the matter of tight schedule in TV).
It's not the first US-show I've seen bad synchronisations of. I've seen some weird mistranslations in Star Trek for example. (Not to mention that a conservative program did censor the episode where Spock was horny because they considered the show kid's TV in the 70ies or 80ies...)
I wonder if there's an issue of fantasy and sci-fi not having the same status in German literature & TV as it has in the UK or US. There isn't much of a German (original) fantasy or sci-fi book market apart from children's literature and imports from the UK or US for example. I'm no expert and just guessing though, maybe someone here knows more about it?
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