Germany’s gradual slide toward a police state was made blatantly clear when criminal investigators knocked on the door of a 72-year-old pensioner in Baden-Württemberg—not because of a violent crime or fraud, but due to a satirical letter.
Karlheinz Falkenstein mailed a handwritten complaint to state finance minister Danyal Bayaz (of the Greens party), mocking a €9.50 penalty from the tax office. The fine had been issued because the pensioner had submitted his tax return six days late.
In his letter, Falkenstein complained that money was being taken from the “little man,” while billionaire tax evaders were getting off scot-free.
Falkenstein had illustrated his letter with drawings of robber barons and highwaymen, intended as satire, but the officers apparently took the incident seriously.
Weeks later, two plainclothes police officers appeared at his home, reportedly in response to a suspicion that the letter constituted a threat or insult serious enough to warrant an investigation.
The case is symptomatic of the state of affairs in Germany: ordinary citizens are being pursued by authorities for mockery, satire, and ridiculing politicians. The case illustrates how the ruling elites are weaponising law enforcement to quash dissent.
As we recently reported, a court in the German town of Lindau imposed a €8,400 fine on a man for tweeting three words on X: “Alles für Deutschland” (All for Germany).
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 repeatedly prosecuting expressions of dissenting opinion that they label ‘hate speech.’
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 Compact magazine for “inciting hatred” and “aggressively propagating the toppling of the political order.” In June, a court overturned the ban.
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) recently confirmed that prosecutions against “perpetrators” of “hate speech” have surged from roughly 2,400 in 2021 to over 10,700 in 2024—a nearly fourfold increase.
One survey found that 43% of citizens now feel uncomfortable expressing political opinions publicly, compared to just 16% in 1990.
