Wieduwilt's week on Norbert Bolz: Every house search of columnists strengthens the AfD

Police raided the home of conservative columnist Norbert Bolz because he dared to make an ironic remark online. You can do that, but then you shouldn't complain about a lack of trust in the government.

The state's relationship to overreach is similar to that of nicotine addicts to cigarettes: It simply can't keep its hands off, even though it knows it's not good for it. Especially when things get stressful! Then, it can happen that the state's proverbial hand slips. As in the Bolz case.

Norbert Bolz is a columnist and writes things that today can probably safely be described as "right-wing conservative." He places himself on the right wing of the SPD, as it once was. And he has what one would call a sharp pen: He condenses contemporary moments into the smallest linguistic space. For example, when he included the phrase "Germany awake" in a tweet.

That was in January 2024. The "taz" newspaper claimed to recognize that "Germany is awakening," namely by initiating a ban on the AfD and a petition ("Stop Höcke"). A "good translation of 'woke,'" Bolz came up with, namely: "Germany awaken!"

Tabooing brown sludge

"Germany Awakens" is now, however, a slogan of the "Sturmabteilung (SA)," and its public use is generally considered punishable (Section 86a of the Criminal Code). Criminal law doesn't mess around here; it wants to make this brown filth taboo without any ifs, ands, or buts. There were even grotesque cases in the past in which a crossed-out swastika was prosecuted. So the Berlin public prosecutor's office searched Bolz's premises.

Actually, we've come a long way today. We've had a "moron" debate, we've had an embarrassing American documentary about Germans' joy in house searches. Germans' trust in the government has a lot in common with Wile E. Coyote: It's in free fall.

Should a prosecutor then insist on a house search in the case of a clearly ironic post on X? The author of which is known and easily reachable by email and phone? Under these circumstances, isn't it intrusive—legally speaking, disproportionate—and, in non-legally speaking, utterly stupid—to send the police to the man's house?

Lawyers also have an agenda

But prosecutors and judges aren't aseptic justice machines that spit out a collection of legal statutes after inputting the facts. Lawyers have convictions, some even have a political agenda, and sometimes these impulses break through the veneer of the rule of law like naughty weeds.

Bolz is by no means the only victim. Loyal readers of this column know that a Berlin prosecutor twice tried to convict me for a phrase. Two courts then recommended that he read Article 5 of the Basic Law: Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press – and rejected his request. A house search was not carried out, which pleased me and my lucky cat at the time.

Speaking of public prosecutors: Die Welt is currently defending itself against a vicious Düsseldorf law enforcement agency that is seriously demanding a cease-and-desist declaration from the media outlet under press law. This is a legal remedy normally used by celebrities and politicians, but not by the state.

Judge in Rage Mode

We're all a little stressed right now. The pressure is rising, and with it the temper of the judiciary. Just this week, a Bonn regional court, the 13th Civil Division, illustrated this in a case involving, well, data protection. The portal "Beck Aktuell" was the first to report on it; here's the verdict in full .

Somewhat out of the blue, the judges went into rage mode and launched into a political polemic against the US government, as if they were not a civil court but civil columnists: The Trump administration is "openly right-wing extremist-populist" and has "anti-democratic, anti-constitutional, autocratic, and even fascist tendencies."

Right-wing extremists, the lawyers rant, have always been the "greatest enemies of individual freedom." Then, in passing, they pull a socio-historical finding out of their briefcase: "Furthermore, right-wing extremists are generally the most corrupt kind of politicians, because the ideological foundation of right-wing extremism is unreasonably exaggerated (national and individual) egoism."

Things are so heated that even logic is on fire - because if there is such a thing as "unreasonably excessive egoism," what is then reasonably excessive egoism?

Justice anger strengthens the AfD

The judges of the wrath chamber should take note: If they were really columnists, a house search might be imminent. The American embassy has already expressed its displeasure. But at least: In the hell of favors that is LinkedIn, many people are clapping their hands who have always wanted to show Trump and the stupid Americans what they're made of, and who, thanks to the justice system, are now allowed to show courage for free.

One would expect political restraint from civil servants. Anyone who has to appear before a judge or prosecutor wants to be treated objectively, in accordance with the rule of law. Judges and prosecutors are currently gambling away this reputation, much to the delight of those right-wing extremists whom they presumably intended to harass with their well-intentioned outbursts. And they are strengthening the AfD.

The AfD has been wallowing in real and perceived state abuses for years – for example, when the nationalist-right-wing extremist AfD powerhouse, Björn Höcke, chants "Everything for Germany," sometimes in full, sometimes in part, before then wrangling with the embarrassed judiciary to great jeers. This is the lifeblood of populists: They're up there, we're down here.

Brown past, brown future

In these battles, the AfD is taking advantage of the fact that more and more people are taking an ahistorical view of SA slogans: Many no longer know what "Everything for Germany" and "Germany Awaken" stand for. Some even deliberately want to draw a line under not only the Third Reich, but also Germany's historical responsibility. Right-wing extremists are rubbing their hands together: because the reinterpretation of the Nazi past is the beginning of any attempt to build a Nazi future.

Perhaps the public prosecutors in Berlin and Düsseldorf, as well as the Bonn Regional Court, could consider how their well-intentioned rage is affecting the reputation of the judiciary—preferably before the next politically motivated attack. The freedom that Western democracies pride themselves on isn't much to be seen in such cases. How, then, are they supposed to promote it?

By the way: The EU wants to enforce hate speech even more strictly in the future and is amending its treaties to this end. Speech and deeds are to be treated equally and, above all, punished equally. This foreseeable attack is also likely to affect American and local right-wing populists.

The road to right-wing extremist takeover of power is paved with good intentions.