BERLIN (LifeSiteNews) — German police raided the home of a conservative professor over a tweet criticizing woke ideology.
The raid was carried out Thursday morning in Berlin at the home of publicist and media scholar Norbert Bolz, who taught media studies at the Technical University of Berlin until 2018.
The raid is part of an investigation into the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations, as outlined in Section 86a of the German Criminal Code.
On January 20, 2024, Bolz published a post on X in which he wrote, “Good translation of ‘woke’: Germany, wake up [German: ‘Deutschland erwache’]!”
He quoted an article from the leftist Taz newspaper, which also used the slogan. The left-wing daily newspaper originally used the phrase in the headline of an article: “AfD ban and Höcke petition: Germany awakens. [German: ‘Deutschland erwacht’]”
The German phrase “Deutschland erwache“ – “Germany awakens” – was a line from the “Sturmlied,” a song from the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party. Even though Bolz apparently used the phrase in a critical and sarcastic manner and quoted the leftist newspaper, the public prosecutor decided to issue a search warrant for his home and investigate him for using the phrase of a banned organization, namely the Nazi Party.
A spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office told Apollo News: “The investigation is ongoing. No further information can be provided in order to protect the investigation.”
Bolz is a well-known political commentator who frequently appears on talk shows and has over 91,000 followers on X.
Media lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel, who is advising the emeritus media professor, condemned the raid in a statement given to Apollo News: “What we are witnessing here is an alarming loss of control by the criminal justice system, which has now apparently also affected the Federal Criminal Police Office. When a renowned media scientist like Professor Bolz has to endure a house search because of a clearly ironic tweet, then something is fundamentally wrong in our constitutional state.”
“It cannot be that the leading authorities are apparently no longer able to distinguish between criminal propaganda and permissible expression of opinion,” he added.
Bolz expressed his dismay over the house raid in a statement given to Nius: “I usually write and talk about this world. It’s scary when this reality suddenly comes knocking on your door. I can’t say that I’m shocked—that would mean I didn’t expect it. But the fact that it is exactly as the critical diagnoses describe it is creepy in every respect.”
German authorities are known for conducting house raids on citizens for online posts, especially those that go against mainstream left-wing orthodoxy. Last year, German police raided the home of an elderly German man for sharing a meme calling the then vice-chancellor of the Green Party a “moron.”
