Over the past three years, more than 1,300 citizens in Germany have faced legal proceedings for allegedly insulting public officials (European Conservative).
The surge in cases, particularly under the current coalition government led by the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens, and Free Democrats (FDP), has prompted a nationwide debate over the limits of free speech.
Data obtained by Apollo News shows a sharp increase in such cases, with Green Party ministers Robert Habeck, the vice chancellor, and Annalena Baerbock, the foreign minister, filing a combined total of over 1,300 complaints. Many of these involve comments, memes, or social media posts deemed defamatory under Section 188 of the German Criminal Code.
One of the most controversial cases involved a 64-year-old pensioner from Bavaria, Stefan Niehoff, whose home was raided by police last week after he posted a meme calling Habeck an “imbecile.” Niehoff described the early-morning raid, during which his devices were confiscated, as reminiscent of practices in authoritarian regimes. According to prosecutors, the raid was prompted solely by the meme, which was interpreted as an effort to undermine Habeck’s role in government.
Habeck defended the action, asserting that such insults go beyond acceptable criticism. Earlier this week, he called for tighter regulations on social media to combat disinformation and enforce “rules of decency and democracy.” Critics warn that such measures curtail legitimate dissent and satire.
Under Section 188 of the German Criminal Code, defaming “a person involved in public political life” publicly or via the media, in a way that “may make [the person’s] public activities substantially more difficult” is a criminal offence, is punished more harshly than defamation of a private person, seemingly clashing with the European Court of Human Rights’s well-established principle that public figures ought to tolerate more criticism than average citizens, not less. The maximum penalty is imprisonment for three months to five years. Slander under the same conditions can result in six months to five years behind bars.
The use of this provision to prosecute alleged insults has increased nationwide. In Münster, investigations rose from 17 in 2021 and 2022 combined to 137 in 2024. Halle witnessed similar growth, with cases jumping from 11 in 2022 to 81 so far this year.
The law, introduced during Angela Merkel’s tenure, allows politicians to file complaints if they believe defamatory remarks impede their official duties. Convictions can result in fines or prison sentences of up to three years. Critics say the law grants politicians disproportionate protection, stifling open criticism and satire.
Earlier this year, a Bavarian woman was fined €900 and had her home searched after sharing a meme that satirised statements by leading government officials, including Baerbock and Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Authorities deemed the meme a criminal offence despite its satirical nature.
German entrepreneur Michael Much faced a fine of €6,000 for making fun of various Green Party politicians.
During last autumn’s state elections in Bavaria, Much hung posters on his garden fence depicting Green Party leader Ricarda Lang sitting on a steamroller, and hinting that the politician — who, in the words of PG Wodehouse, undoubtedly “likes to get her money’s worth out of a weighing machine — was “too fat” to do good politics.
Police searched his house and confiscated the posters, with prosecutors arguing in court that his actions were “impertinent and defamatory, even dehumanising” to Ms Lang. Thankfully, following the hearing the presiding judge acquitted Much, and stated that “[p]oliticians have to accept criticism, and ministers have to accept even more criticism. If Mr Much is an entrepreneur… dissatisfied with politics, he is allowed to express it.”
The German authorities have also recently attempted to force Gab, a free speech software company, to release personal data identifying a user of its platform who they accused of hate speech for making comments about the portly Ms Lang that “denigrate her weight”.
According to the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt), the user’s comments represented an attack “on the honour of the political”, as well as a show of disrespect.
“Through the sexualised and denigrated representation of ‘Ricarda Lang’, the user attacks the honour of the political and shows his own disrespect (section 185 of the German criminal code”),” the letter addressed to Gab’s founder and CEO Andrew Torba stated.
“With this insult the user publicly insults a person in the political life on the grounds of the insulted person’s position in the public life,” it explained, before adding: “In order to fulfil its legal prescribed duties, the Bundeskriminalamt would like you to supply the customer/registration details on the above-mentioned data as quickly as possible.”
In response, a distinctly unimpressed Torba posted a statement to the company’s website in which he essentially referred the authorities to Private Eye’s response in the case of Arkell v Pressdram, before moving to reassure Gab’s users that the request would not be complied with and that his team “stands firm in its belief that free speech is a fundamental human right”.
