The first rule of New Normal Germany is, you do not compare New Normal Germany to Nazi Germany. If you do that, New Normal Germany will punish you.
It will sic the Federal Criminal Police on you. It will report you to its domestic Intelligence agency. It will ban your books. It will censor your Tweets. It will prosecute you on fabricated “hate-crime” charges.
I know this, because that’s what happened to me. I broke the first rule of New Normal Germany. I compared New Normal Germany to Nazi Germany. I did it with the cover artwork of my book.
Yes, that’s a swastika on the cover. A swastika covered by a medical mask. I tweeted that artwork in 2022. The German authorities prosecuted me for that, and have convicted me for that. So, now I’m a “hate criminal,” and an “anti-Semite,” and a “trivializer of the Holocaust.”
That’s the second rule of New Normal Germany. You never, ever, display a swastika. Displaying a swastika is not “in Ordnung.” Displaying swastikas is totally “verboten.”
Unless you are the Health Minister of New Normal Germany, and you’re comparing your political opponents to the Nazis. Or unless you are a popular German celebrity, and you’re comparing the Russians and their supporters to the Nazis.
Or unless you are a mainstream magazine, and you’re comparing German populists to the Nazis.
In which case, displaying a swastika is fine. And is not “verboten.” And definitely not a “hate crime.”
And that’s the third rule of New Normal Germany. If you agree with the government, obey their orders, and parrot their propaganda, you are not a “hate criminal.” If you are the government, like an actual minister in the government, like the Minister of Health, you’re definitely not a “hate criminal.” And, if you are part of government’s propaganda apparatus, needless to say, you’re also not a “hate criminal.”
However, if you criticize the government, or if you compare the government to Nazi Germany, and if you do that using your book-cover art featuring a swastika behind a Covid mask, then you’re absolutely officially a “hate criminal,” and an “anti-Semite,” and a “trivializer of the Holocaust.”
Here’s how Das Kammergericht, Berlin’s superior or appellate court, explained that in their press release, after they overturned my acquittal in District Court:
“The swastika, one of the main symbols of the banned National Socialist Workers’ Party (NSDAP), is used here exclusively to express criticism of the federal government’s Corona policy; A clear departure from the ideals of National Socialism cannot be seen in the posts in question. The comparison of Corona measures, which are supposed to be embodied by the use of mouth-and-nose coverings, with the Nazi terror regime symbolized by the swastika represents a trivialization of National Socialism and the National Socialist genocide of millions of Jews, but not a criticism of it.”
I remember when the presiding judge read that out in court. I remember it distinctly, because the judge to her right, the bespectacled woman with the short white hair (see the photograph of the courtroom above), was glaring at me with bone-chilling hatred. We got into a staring contest, which she eventually won, because I couldn’t take it for very long. After a minute or so, I started having flashbacks of scenes from The Pianist, Roman Polanski’s film, and of the eyes of medical-mask-wearing Germans when they saw the protest message I wrote on the mask I was forced to wear in grocery stores in order to buy food during the roll-out of the “New Normal” in 2020-2022. That protest message read, “Befehl ist Befehl,” which roughly translates as “orders are orders,” and was the Nazis’ infamous defense at Nuremberg (i.e., “I was just following orders”). If you have never been surrounded by mobs of medical-mask-wearing Germans glaring at you with seething, utterly bone-chilling hatred … well, let me assure you, it is quite an experience. I experienced it, daily, for over two years.
I experienced it again in Das Kammergericht, where my acquittal, back in January, was summarily overturned at the insistence of the Berlin Public Prosecutor. Yes, they can do that in New Normal Germany.
I’m going to spare you the procedural details, and legal arguments, and descriptions of the ham-fisted anti-terror-style security protocols that Das Kammergericht ordered in effect for my trial. If you want to read about that, Aya Velázquez covered it in her recent extensive report, and Dr. Clivia von Dewitz, a German judge and expert on the Nazi-symbol-ban statutes, covered the legal questions in this article before, and this other article after, the trial. I haven’t translated that second article (as I did the first), but here’s an excerpt …
“With this decision, the German judiciary is once again moving away from the principles of a liberal democracy, which thrives on the exchange of conflicting beliefs and opinions as well as criticism of government actions. If Der Spiegel and Stern are permitted to use swastikas on their magazine covers, the same freedom must apply to those who criticize the government. When, as here, the judiciary begins to apply double standards, and condemns obvious criticism of the government via the use Nazi symbols, and conducts a trial under inappropriate ‘anti-terror conditions,’ one has to ask oneself how far the judiciary in Germany has departed from fundamental democratic principles. In response to the court’s ruling that such posts are not covered by freedom of expression or freedom of art, what, if not that, is freedom of expression or freedom of art? An American married to a Jew can hardly be accused of ‘trivializing National Socialism’ or of ‘not expressing an explicit rejection of National Socialism.’”
— Clivia von Dewitz, Berliner Zeitung
Or you can read Eugyppius, another German, writing in English in The Daily Sceptic, or Boris Reitschuster, yet another German, reporting in German, or The Epoch Times, or this excellent piece by Milosz Matuschek, which focuses on the legal arguments.
Or, if you’d prefer to hear from the enormous Goebbelsian keyboard instrument that is the majority of the mainstream German press, and you’re able to read German, you can read all about how seditious and insane I am in Der Tagesspiegel, Die Tageszeitung, and the Legal Tribune Online, a legal journal. For some reason I can’t possibly fathom, Der Spiegel were rather reserved in their coverage. I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact that they had printed that big fat swastika on their cover.
It was rather surprising that the mainstream German press turned up to cover the proceedings, as they had been studiously ignoring the story. Maybe the court’s PR people contacted them, or maybe they just smelled blood in the water.
In any event, the atmosphere in Room 145a of Das Kammergericht was dripping with sanctimonious, fascistic authority. It was clear from the outset that the three-judge panel were there to teach a “Covid denier” a lesson, and remind the German public what happens when you break the rules of New Normal Germany. The judges had clearly already decided to overturn my acquittal, so the rest was just theater, which, apart from my attorney’s lengthy arguments, and my statement to the court, mostly consisted of the judges radiating imperious contempt and seething hostility down at us from the bench like an enormous three-headed Gila monster. The prosecutor had mumbled two or three sentences in a monotone at the outset of the trial. She didn’t bother to attempt to appear to present an actual legal argument, as that would have ruined the fait-accompli mise-en-scène effect they were obviously going for.
I have to give the courtand the prosecution credit for their dramaturgy. The point of staging a public trial like this — which the prosecution demanded, which is unusual at the appellate level — wasn’t to pretend to be carrying out justice. It was a show of force. A demonstration. A public humiliation ritual. And, all things considered, they staged it well.
It’s embarrassing, but, the truth is, they got to me. At some point during the bizarre proceedings, I started experiencing waves of disturbing flashbacks from 2020-2022, when hate-drunk New Normal Germans were chasing down maskless passengers on regional trains like the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and goon squads (i.e., the German police) were savagely brutalizing anyone who protested against the “Corona measures,” and government leaders, the state and corporate media, and the vast majority of the German masses were fanatically persecuting “the Unvaccinated” with a fervor not seen since the bad old days.
Those flashbacks looked a little something like this …
… so I was a little disoriented as I left the courthouse.
It has taken a few days, but I’ve mostly recovered. After consultations with my fearless attorney, I’ve decided to submit my case to the Bundesverfassungsgericht, i.e., Germany’s supreme court, because … well, at this point, I kind of have to. If I don’t, the precedent the New Normal German authorities are trying to establish will stand, and the right to freedom-of-expression in Germany will have become nothing but a sick fascist joke.
And, yes, that right is guaranteed in the Grundgesetz (i.e., the German constitution). It isn’t quite the 1st Amendment, but it’s good enough for Germany, and I’m not willing to let it be distorted and made a mockery of by a bunch of fascists, not without a fight.
If you want to help me fight that fight, which is going cost about 12,000 Euros in legal fees, plus whatever expenses I incur along the way, you can contribute to my rebooted “legal defense fund.” If you do, please note the disclaimer at the bottom.
My heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has already contributed! Your engagement and generosity has overwhelmed me once again. I did not want this fight, but now it has to be fought. If it were just about me, it wouldn’t matter that much, but it isn’t just about me, and it matters, greatly. It is a fight that it is being fought throughout the West, not just in Germany and the USA, and the UK, and Ireland, and Australia, but everywhere that people are fighting to defend constitutional rights and democratic principles.
I don’t know whether I will win my fight, but I know we will win the bigger fight. As I said in my statement to the court, totalitarianism, fascism, never wins. Not in the long run. History teaches us that. And it is history that will judge us all in the end.
