An Irishman's Diary: Crime and Punishment
How blind is German justice in these times of war and pestilence?
Greetings from the alpine foothills of Germanic lands currently host to the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship. While war rages on Europe’s periphery, an international football tournament is our current mass circus entertainment in modern-day Colosseum. The spectacle offers Germans and fellow EU citizens a sportingly nationalistic distraction from the everyday declining purchasing power of the Euro in their pockets, and from the increasingly open talk of re-militarisation and bellicosity of their politicians.
However beautiful ‘the beautiful’ game may be, it is not the subject of this post, which instead focuses on some recent German court cases (the year the Bundesrepublik Deutschland celebrates the 75th anniversary of its constitution), and which would likely given Kafka cause to blush. For German truth is becoming stranger than fiction.
“Justice is blind” means the legal system is (supposed to be) impartial,
i.e. objective and unbiased.
@micLIBERAL
A couple of weeks ago, a case taken by the state prosecutor against a Twitter user @micLIBERAL was finally decided in a district court in Cologne. The prosecution was for posting a collection of public quotations from politicians, journalists, doctors, and assorted media talking-heads. He posted the offending quotations two years ago in summer 2022 under the hashtag #Wirhabenmitgemacht #Wirhabenausgegrenzt (my translations: We were complicit, We discriminated ).
Recall, summer 2022 was a period of warm relief as most Covid-19 pandemic restrictions had been lifted and the tabled mandatory vaccination law, a last-gasp of political pandemic hysteria, had failed to pass in the Bundestag in spring. For some, this respite offered a moment to reflect upon, and chronicle the questionable positions professed by many public figures during the preceding long winter of discontent, and the longer-term pandemic panic. Michael Z. aka @micLIBERAL was one of those.
To be quite clear, his thread of Twitter posts consisted of verbatim quotations of statements already in the public domain (often themselves Twitter posts) published and broadcast by newspapers, radio, television, etc. Below, you can view a collage of many of the quotations, here I translate a choice few to offer a taste of the sentiments expressed:
#WeWereComplicit
"No opponent of vaccination will be treated like an enemy of the state. He is just, hopefully soon, no longer allowed to go out among the people because he is a dangerous social pest.” - Rainer Stinner (politician, Munich)
“Whoever doesn’t get vaccinated is an anti-social freeloader” - Eckart von Hirschhausen (medical doctor and popular tv personality)
Headline: Unvaccinated nurses are “angels of death” - Juliane Bogner-Strauß (Austrian politician, ex-minister)
“Discrimination against unvaccinated is ethically justified” - Thomas Beschorner and Martin Kolmar (Professors of Business Ethics)
Headline: Boris Palmer pleads for "preventive detention" and pension cuts for unvaccinated people - Boris Palmer (Mayor of Tübingen)
Headline: Unvaccinated: by March “vaccinated, recovered, or unfortunately dead” - Karl Lauterbach (current Federal Health Minister)
“The unvaccinated are guilty of infecting vaccinated” - Stephan Weil (Minister President of Niedersachsen)
“It’s important to send a clear message to the unvaccinated: you are gone from social life!” - Tobias Hans (Minister President of Saarland)
Harmless, scurrilous, or unscrupulous, regardless of what one’s personal opinion of such sentiments expressed toward the unvaccinated and those critical of pandemic politics and its vaccination campaign, the case against @micLIBERAL makes an objective mockery of constitutional protections on free speech. For the case against @micLIBERAL rested on the tenuous assertion that such a compilation of statements (already in the public domain) could constitute a hit-list of sorts, a type of hate speech, or incitement to hatred, in that it potentially endangered those whose own words he had quoted.
That’s right, the state prosecutor was prosecuting a relatively unknown Twitter user for reminding the public about public statements made by prominent public individuals, for fear some bad people might do bad things to the public people who willingly made those public statements. Actual violence, or actual incitement to violence is (of course) to be condemned, and should be dealt with by the law, but this was absurdist state over-reach lifted directly from absurdist theatre.
Thankfully, the presiding judge recognised this perversion and attempted weaponisation of the law for the “offence” of factually posting public pontifications, and he accepted the lucid constitutional arguments presented by @micLIBERAL’s lawyer. Case closed, justice prevails - or so you might think. The state prosecutor subsequently indicated he would appeal the court’s decision thus subjecting Michael Z. to further tribulations of the legal system and prolonging his stress.
@CJHopkins
Next up is the razor sharp American satirist and dramatist, C.J. Hopkins who made Berlin his home two decades ago to escape what he perceived as the growing facism of a US government hell-bent on exploiting the aftermath of 9/11 to push through all manner of increasingly authoritarian restrictions on civil liberties and launch his homeland into and open-ended War on Terror, wreaking death and destruction on Afghanistan, Iraq along the way.
Now, CJ is an incorrigible provocateur, scathing satirist, and deep thinker. If you want your prose dripping in acerbic wit, and your unrelenting critique of post-modern, globalist, all-consuming capitalism to be barbed with uncomfortable reflections on our collective trajectory to bland meaninglessness, he’s your only man. Needless to say, during the pandemic, Hopkins was one of the first to have his spider sense twitch alarm signals of government over-reach and dutifully began chronicling what he perceived as burgeoning totalitarianism in his adopted homeland of Germany, as well as much of the western world.
As you can imagine, a man of such forthright outspokenness might ruffle some feathers, but Germany is a constitutional democracy, and even satirists, while rarely beloved, are afforded the protections of free speech and all that, right? Well, CJ is a cheeky chappy and so he adorned the front cover of his collection of pandemic essays, (released in spring 2022) with a swastika thinly veiled by a surgical mask - did I mention he is provocative?
The potential problem is the that use of the swastika has long been banned in Germany unless it is used in an educational, artistic, or scholarly context, and should in no way praise or glorify Nazi ideology or the Third Reich. Essentially, it’s use must not “further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.” However, CJ Hopkin’s socio-political satirical writings are so blatantly anti-fascist, in this case warning of parallels between the rise of the bio-medical security state apparatus during pandemic Germany and the totalitarianism of Germany’s political past, that they should obviously be exempt from such restrictions. In fact, the title and book cover are a play on the best-selling history of Nazi Germany by the American historian William L. Shrier. His scholarly book is called “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” and looks like this (with Hopkins’ book cover alongside for comparison):
There were no issues with his book cover until CJ went and quoted the German Federal Minister of Health, and prominent pandemicist, Karl Lauterbach, in a tweet (right in image below) accompanied by a cropped screenshot of the book cover:
“Masks always also send a signal”
- Karl Lauterbach, August 2022
This was preceded by another tweet (left in image above) with the same cropped book cover and the following text:
“The #Masks are symbols of ideological conformity. That’s all they are. That’s all they ever were. Stop behaving as if they were ever anything else, or get used to wearing them.”
- @Consent_Factory aka CJ Hopkins, August 2022
Shortly afterward, his tweets were removed by Twitter, and his book was removed from sale on Germany Amazon and other German online booksellers. He had been reported by the ominous-sounding Hessen CyberCompetenceCentre (“Hessen 3C”, a quasi department of the Interior Ministry of the Federal State of Hessen) to the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt), which launched a criminal investigation. Then he was served with accusations from a Berlin state prosecutor of “disseminating propaganda, the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.” I kid you not.
Hopkins has written extensively on his trial at his own substack and I shall add at the end of this post his closing statement from his trial which took place in January. He was, by the way, acquitted. But then the state prosecutor promptly lodged an appeal so the system is not finished putting him through its Kafkaesque wringer quite yet.
Justice is blind can refer to the principle of equal application of the law,
regardless of societal status, wealth, position, or political connections.
To add insult to injury, depicted below are two recent magazine covers from mainstream German current affairs publications, Der Spiegel, and Die Stern. Both of which thought nothing of gratuitously exploiting the swastika in recent coverage of a media and political furore over drunken socialites singing xenophobic lyrics at a spring party bash at a well-to-do holiday destination in northern Germany on the Island of Sylt. The magazines were ostensibly warning of parallels between modern mores and Germany’s political past, though if you ask this Irishman, they were just trying to flog magazines and the sensational symbolism was uncalled for. Either way, no state prosecutor has coming knocking on their doors. Meanwhile politicians made hay with the unsavoury anti-foreigner sentiment and sensational press coverage as it offered another welcome distraction from their overwhelmingly unpopular coalition government of Greens, Liberals, and Social Democrats.
@Witzbold
Even your unassuming Witzbold has been subjected to German machinations of pandemic law. Suffice it to say I was caught up in a heavy-handed kettling by riot police while walking along the main pedestrian shopping street of my provincial Bavarian town Christmas 2021. Without any actual evidence, other than my presence at the location of a simultaneous mass protest, the city authorities (on advice from the local police) sought a maximum penalty of a few hundred Euro for infringment of local pandemic ordinances prohibiting assembly and marching demonstrations. It took almost two years in my instance for the case to be resolved and this Irishman was ultimately acquitted after being forced to lodge appeal after appeal, refusing to pay the fine, and demanding a day in court. Though, in the end the judge deemed a day in court unnecessary.
In his written decision (from a closed session based solely on the documentary evidence) he, in not too unsubtle fashion, expressed his sharp disapproval of the shoddy police work and an over-enthusiastic prosecutor for ever bringing the case to his desk in the first place. He decried their utter lack of evidence and their ignorance of basic law principles, for example, that expressing unpopular opinions about pandemic politics (which I did while the police wanted to take my mugshot!) does not a criminal make.
Fortunately, the local state prosecutor did not object to my acquittal and I’d like to think of him withdrawing from the judge’s chambers with his tail between his legs had he tried. Lest you think my own case is a demonstration that the German legal system does work, is fair and impartial, I’d reply - jein. That is, a blend of Ja and Nein. Sure, I fought the law and I won, but the real punishment is the legal process itself.
The Process is the Punishment
Laying awake at night wondering. Paranoid wondering, like, would the police come and seize electronic devices. Wondering should I hire a lawyer, what would it would cost. Would a guilty verdict be publicised in local press, or would the town grapevine relate news to my employer, parents at my kid’s school? Would the local police brand me as a potential enemy of the state? Would the legal correspondence (to which I absolutely had to respond within a time limit) come while I was on holiday? Should I just pay the few hundred Euro (a tacit admission of guilt) and let the bastards win? Such stressful thoughts and the time spent on preparing and submitting legal documents, dotting i’s and crossing t’s, that process in itself is a punishment, a tax on one’s nerves and time.
The process is the punishment
While my own low-key case related to a relatively minor civil misdemeanour, both CJ Hopkins and Michael Z have written about the stress and even deterioration of health and mental well-being in the face of their high profile criminal prosecutions. And mostly just because of their unpalatable political opinions and temerity to openly critique the prominent persons and leaders of the land. Sounds medieval.
Interestingly while writing this article, I have learned that the original description of justice being blind dates back to the Late Middle Ages in Germany. Contrary to our modern interpretation of the blindfold symbolising impartiality it was originally more sarcastically suggesting that judges were blind to the reality and iniquities of the day. Perhaps not so off the mark, after all.
Closing Statement
At this point you are invited to read the monumental closing statement made by CJ Hopkins in his trial for tweeting his criticism of face-masking at the German Health Minister with a satirical image of a surgical mask veiling a forbidden symbol of totalitarianism:
Berlin District Court, January 23, 2024
My name is CJ Hopkins. I am an American playwright, author, and political satirist. My plays have been produced and received critical acclaim internationally. My political satire and commentary is read by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. 20 years ago, I left my own country because of the fascistic atmosphere that had taken hold of the USA at that time, the time of the US invasion of Iraq, a war of aggression based on my government's lies. I emigrated to Germany and made a new life here in Berlin, because I believed that Germany, given its history, would be the last place on earth to ever have anything to do with any form of totalitarianism again.
The gods have a strange sense of humor. This past week, thousands of people have been out in the streets all over Germany protesting against fascism, chanting "never again is now." Many of these people spent the past three years, 2020 to 2023, unquestioningly obeying orders, parroting official propaganda, and demonizing anyone who dared to question the government's unconstitutional and authoritarian actions during the so-called Covid pandemic. Many of these same people, those who support Palestinian rights, are now shocked that the new form of totalitarianism they helped usher into existence is being turned against them.
And here I am, in criminal court in Berlin, accused of disseminating pro-Nazi propaganda in two Tweets about mask mandates. The German authorities have had my speech censored on the Internet, and have damaged my reputation and income as an author. One of my books has been banned by Amazon in Germany. All this because I criticized the German authorities, because I mocked one of their decrees, because I pointed out one of their lies.
This turn of events would be absurdly comical if it were not so infuriating. I cannot adequately express how insulting it is to be forced to sit here and affirm my opposition to fascism. For over thirty years, I have written and spoken out against fascism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism etc. Anyone can do an Internet search, find my books, read the reviews of my plays, read my essays, and discover who I am and what my political views are in two or three minutes. And yet I am accused by the German authorities of disseminating pro-Nazi propaganda. I am accused of doing this because I posted two Tweets challenging the official Covid narrative and comparing the new, nascent form of totalitarianism that it has brought into being -- i.e., the so-called "New Normal" -- to Nazi Germany.
Let me be very clear. In those two Tweets, and in my essays throughout 2020 to 2022, and in my current essays, I have indeed compared the rise of this new form of totalitarianism to the rise of the best-known 20th-Century form of totalitarianism, i.e., Nazi Germany. I have made this comparison, and analyzed the similarities and differences between these two forms of totalitarianism, over and over again. And I will continue to do so. I will continue to analyze and attempt to explain this new, emerging form of totalitarianism, and to oppose it, and warn my readers about it.
The two Tweets at issue here feature a swastika covered by one of the medical masks that everyone was forced to wear in public during 2020 to 2022. That is the cover art of my book. The message conveyed by this artwork is clear. In Nazi Germany, the swastika was the symbol of conformity to the official ideology. During 2020 to 2022, the masks functioned as the symbol of conformity to a new official ideology. That was their purpose. Their purpose was to enforce people's compliance with government decrees and conformity to the official Covid-pandemic narrative, most of which has now been proven to have been propaganda and lies.
Mask mandates do not work against airborne viruses. This had been understood and acknowledged by medical experts for decades prior to the Spring of 2020. It has now been proven to everyone and acknowledged by medical experts again. The science of mask mandates did not suddenly change in March of 2020. The official narrative changed. The official ideology changed. The official "reality" changed. Karl Lauterbach was absolutely correct when he said, "The masks always send out a signal." They signal they sent out from 2020 to 2022 was, "I conform. I do not ask questions. I obey orders."
That is not how democratic societies function. That is how totalitarian systems function.
Not every form of totalitarianism is the same, but they share common hallmarks. Forcing people to display symbols of conformity to official ideology is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Declaring a "state of emergency" and revoking constitutional rights for no justifiable reason is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Banning protests against government decrees is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Inundating the public with lies and propaganda designed to terrify people into mindless obedience is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Segregating societies is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Censoring dissent is a hallmark of totalitarianism. Stripping people of their jobs because they refuse to conform to official ideology is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Fomenting mass hatred of a "scapegoat" class of people is a hallmark of totalitarianism. Demonizing critics of the official ideology is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Instrumentalizing the law to punish dissidents and make examples of critics of the authorities is a hallmark of totalitarianism.
I have documented the emergence of all of these hallmarks of totalitarianism in societies throughout the West — including but not limited to Germany — since March of 2020. I will continue to do so. I will continue to warn readers about this new, emerging form of totalitarianism and attempt to understand it, and oppose it. I will compare this new form of totalitarianism to earlier forms of totalitarianism, and specifically to Nazi Germany, whenever it is appropriate and contributes to our understanding of current events. That is my job as a political satirist and commentator, and as an author, and my responsibility as a human being.
The German authorities can punish me for doing that. You have the power to do that. You can make an example of me. You can fine me. You can imprison me. You can ban my books. You can censor my content on the Internet, which you have done. You can defame me, and damage my income and reputation as an author, as you have done. You can demonize me as a "conspiracy theorist," as an "anti-vaxxer," a "Covid denier," an "idiot," and an "extremist," which you have done. You can haul me into criminal court and make me sit here, in Germany, in front of my wife, who is Jewish, and deny that I am an anti-Semite who wants to relativize the Holocaust. You have the power to do all these things.
However, I hope that you will at least have the integrity to call this what it is, and not hide behind false accusations that I am somehow supporting the Nazis by comparing the rise of a new form of totalitarianism to the rise of an earlier totalitarian system, one that took hold of and ultimately destroyed this country in the 20th Century, and murdered millions in the process, because too few Germans had the courage to stand up and oppose it when it first began. I hope that you will at least have the integrity to not pretend that you actually believe I am disseminating pro-Nazi propaganda, when you know very well that is not what I am doing.
No one with any integrity believes that is what I am doing. No one with any integrity believes that is what my Tweets in 2022 were doing. Every journalist that has covered my case, everyone in this courtroom, understands what this prosecution is actually about. It has nothing to do with punishing people who actually disseminate pro-Nazi propaganda. It is about punishing dissent, and making an example of dissidents in order to intimidate others into silence.
That is not how democratic nations function. That is how totalitarian systems function.
What I hope even more is that this court will put an end to this prosecution, and apply the law fairly, and not allow it to be used as a pretext to punish people like me who criticize government dictates, people who expose the lies of government officials, people who refuse to deny facts, who refuse to perform absurd rituals of obedience on command, who refuse to unquestioningly follow orders.
Because the issue here is much larger and much more important than my little "Tweet" case.
We are, once again, at a crossroads. Not just here in Germany, but throughout the West. People went a little crazy, a little fascist, during the so-called Covid pandemic. And now, here we are. There are two roads ahead. We have to choose ... you, me, all of us. One road leads back to the rule of law, to democratic principles. The other road leads to authoritarianism, to societies where authorities rule by decree, and force, and twist the law into anything they want, and dictate what is and isn't reality, and abuse their power to silence anyone who disagrees with them.
That is the road to totalitarianism. We have been down that road before. Please, let's not do it again.
How I wish I’d been there to see the look on the judge’s face as CJ delivered his speech in court (in German, above is his English translation) all the while she sat at the bench wearing her surgical mask in January 2024.
Note: Independent journalist
Signing off for now, apologies for the lack of articles, a number of half-finished pieces last autumn were scuppered before falling down the rabbit hole of Irish excess deaths (which are neither half as bad as alarmists are saying nor half as good as the Polly-Annas in official Ireland would have the public believe). Here is a taster of posts I helped author:
