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A court in the German town of Lindau has imposed a €8,400 fine on a man for tweeting three words on X: “Alles für Deutschland” (All for Germany).
The “perpetrator,” Andreas M., had written “That’s exactly why I vote for the AfD. Everything for Germany” in a comment in July of last year.
In November, police conducted a dawn raid on his home, seizing laptops, phones, and hard drives under suspicion of violating Section 86a of the Criminal Code, which bans the use of symbols or slogans associated with unconstitutional or terrorist organisations.
Prosecutors had originally sought a seven-month prison sentence for the man, but the court imposed a €8,400 fine. Both sides have appealed the ruling.
Andreas M. maintains he had no knowledge that the phrase was used by Nazi era Stormtroopers, and said he had used the slogan satirically in support of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.
But politicians and the courts in Germany are unfamiliar with satire.
Andreas M.’s case joins an ever-growing list of judicial decisions that appear intent on criminalizing obvious satire—especially when it targets politicians from the mainstream parties.
As we previously reported, Stefan Niehoff, a 64-year-old retiree, had his house raided and was ultimately fined €825 after retweeting a meme that branded then-Economy Minister Robert Habeck a “professional moron.”
A woman was fined €1,800 for posting a photo of former Health Minister Karl Lauterbach appearing to give a Nazi salute.
Police raids across Germany recently targeted 170 individuals over social media posts. Authorities are prosecuting alleged “hate speech.”
A right-wing journalist, David Bendels, was sentenced to seven months’ probation for mocking former Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
On the insistence of Faeser, the interior ministry last year banned the anti-establishment Compactmagazine for “inciting hatred” and “aggressively propagating the toppling of the political order.” Last month, a court overturned the ban.
The events depict a worrying trend, with free speech being censored through dawn raids, legal threats, and financial penalties. The ruling elites are undoubtedly trying to silence conservative and right-wing voices, a policy in line with their attempts at stigmatizing the second-largest party in Germany, the anti-immigration AfD.
As europeanconservative.com columnist Lauren Smith recently wrote:
What we are witnessing in both Germany and the UK is the steady normalisation of censorship—of the state deciding which opinions are acceptable and which must be punished. Insults, satire, criticism of the government, and even poorly worded jokes are being treated as serious crimes, while violent offenders continue to roam free. We are quickly re-entering an era where expressing the ‘wrong’ opinion could ruin your life or even put you behind bars.
