Maligning German politicians online?

November 13, 2025 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: Censorship, Freedom, Freedom of Speech, Germany, Internet, Social Media Leave a comment

The nerve. That ought to be strictly verboten – in Germany.

Oh. Thank goodness. It already is.

Germany news: Internet freedom in decline — Self-censorship and robust use of anti-defamation laws are on the rise in Germany, says the Freedom House agency.

Germany has witnessed a decline in internet freedom, an annual study by Freedom House said on Thursday.

The Washington-based democracy promotion group surveyed freedom on the internet in 72 nations for 2025, in a global landscape marred by persistent authoritarian repression and backsliding in western democracies when it comes to imposing growing curbs online.

Freedom House said that Germany fell by three points in the internet freedom score to a total of 74.

“Americans don’t accept limits on freedom of expression”

September 16, 2025 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: AfD, Freedom of Speech, JD Vance, Political Parties, White House Leave a comment

Not even on that yucky awful terrible German AfD.

Top AfD politician makes surprise visit to White House – Vice President JD Vance has spoken out against the far-right AfD’s political exclusion in Germany…

A White House official confirmed the meeting and said that representatives of the national security council, the vice president’s office and the State Department attended.

The talks focused on democratic participation and election procedures in Germany, according to the AfD and White House officials. AfD politician Joachim Paul, whose candidacy was disqualified by a German court earlier this year, was presented as a case study in what the AfD describes as the narrowing of political freedoms in Germany.

At the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance raised eyebrows by questioning Germany’s political “firewall” against the AfD, a political agreement by other forces not to include the far-right party in governance. Mainstream parties say the policy is intended to avoid a repeat of country’s Nazi era.

German of the day: Redefreiheit war gestern

April 18, 2025 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: Censorship, Freedom of Speech, German, Germany, Languag Leave a comment

That means free speech was yesterday.

The threat to free speech in Germany – One of the freest countries in the world takes a hammer to its own reputation.

Freedom of expression jeopardized by coalition agreement?

A paragraph in the coalition agreement is now causing new concern online about the right to freedom of expression. “The future black-red coalition does not respect freedom,” according to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. According to Cicero magazine, the potential new government is “alienated” from the “responsible citizen” and Die Welt warns of a new “kind of truth law.”

Free Speech Is A Frightening Prospect

November 20, 2022 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: Censorship, Free speech, Freedom of Speech, German, Germans, Germany, Government, Twiiter Leave a comment

For the German government. Look, if we allow people to say and to think anything they want, well, they just might.

And if we can no longer ensure that German citizens think the correct thoughts, they might just refuse to do what we tell them to do. And who knows where that could lead to?

Germany watching developments at Twitter with growing concern – The German government is watching developments at Twitter with growing concern, a government spokesperson said on Friday.

“Of course, we are observing this with great interest and growing concern … but at the moment there is no new (government) position,” the spokesperson told a regular government news conference.

Limits?

November 12, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: AfD, Censorship, Free Press, Free speech, Freedom of Speech, German, Germans, Germany, Political Parties Leave a comment

Who places the limits and where?

There are no limits. Germany, of all countries, must understand that. Others placed limits on them in the past. On at least two occasions. The results were sub-optimal.

Germany Struggles To Define Limits of What Can Be Said – A debate over the limits of free speech is exploding in Germany, with the left and the right seeking to outdo each other. The political debate has grown intense in this polarized country, but it’s also more vital than ever.

Two-Thirds of Germans Afraid to Say What They Think?

German Of The Day: Mundtot Machen

July 12, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Censorship, Consensus, Free speech, Freedom of Speech, German, Germans, Germany, Groupthink, Islam, Language, Muslims, Political correctness, Political Parties, Social Democracy, SPD Leave a comment

That means to make “mouth-dead,” as in to silence someone.

“Groupthink requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking.”

On its third try, Germany’s center-left Social Democrats (SPD) will be able to kick controversial anti-Islam author Thilo Sarrazinfrom its ranks, an arbitration court ruled on Thursday. The former Berlin senator intends to appeal the ruling.ConCo

“We will try to take the case to all stages of the state and the federal arbitration court of the SPD and, beyond that, if necessary, all the ordinary civil instances of the district court of Berlin, the Court of Appeals and Federal Supreme Court, then the Federal Constitutional Court,” defense lawyer Andreas Köhler said. “In the meantime Dr. Sarrazin will continue to be an astute and attentive member of the SPD.”

Who are the Brain Police?

It’s Not Nice To Fool Mother Nature

September 17, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Angela Merkel, Chemnitz, Crime, Fake News, Freedom of Speech, German, Germans, Germany, Journalism, Media, Migrants, Murder, Refugees, State Television Leave a comment

Or fool with her, I should say. Aka The Empress of Europe. Aka Mutti.

Get in the sack, Mr. Maasen. Come on, get in the sack. It’s time to sack you. You criticized my choice of words. You suggested I have a hand in Germany’s fake news industrial lying press complex. I don’t have a hand in it. I run the damned thing. It is time for you to go.

Rival political factions have been locked in a bitter war of words ever since Mr Maasen, the head of domestic intelligence service the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) contradicted Mrs Merkel over the veracity of a video appearing to show foreigners being attacked on the streets on Chemnitz by neo-Nazi extremists.

Laut einem Bericht lässt Kanzlerin Merkel Verfassungsschutzchef Maaßen fallen – ohne Rücksicht auf dessen Chef Innenminister Seehofer.

Germany Really Pissed Off At Twitter Now

March 15, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Crime, Erdogan, Free speech, Freedom of Speech, German, Germany, Hacking, Laws, Legislation, Turkey, Turkish, Twitter Leave a comment

Tired of being called Nazialmanya by unidentified Twitter-types, the nation of Germany is now moving forward at full speed to punish Twitter ITSELF for allowing such reprehensible name calling to take place.

“As a country, I have feelings, too,” said the federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. “And you can bet that I’m going to see to it that not cleaning up certain types of hate speech like pronto-or-practically-immediately-already will be criminalized because, well, just about everything else here that has not been expressly permitted has already been criminalized, too. So there.”

Hundreds of Twitter accounts from media outlets to celebrities including popstar Justin Bieber, were hacked Wednesday, branded with the Turkish flag and messages being sent out in Turkish.

Charges Dropped Against German Comedian Because He Wasn’t Being Funny On Purpose

October 5, 2016 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Helplessness, Higher Education, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Comedians, Comedy, Erdogan, Freedom of Speech, Jan Boehmermann, Justice, Law, Satire, ZDF Leave a comment

He was only being funny by accident, investigators say, so that’s OK.

If he had been funny while trying to be funny on purpose, however, this guy would have been up Scheiße Creek without a paddle. Germany comedy is no laughing matter, folks.

Prosecutors have been praised in Germany for dropping a criminal probe into a poem perceived as insulting by Turkish President Recep Erdogan. Satirist Jan Böhmermann’s wording unleashed a diplomatic row last April…

In a three-page declaration Thursday, the prosecutors said their investigation had not established a deliberate intent to insult (insult comedy = to be funny, or can be), sufficient to lead to a criminal conviction.

Es ist enorm wichtig für mich als Künstler in solchen Zeiten einen starken, selbstbewussten öffentlich-rechtlichen Sender mit klarer, unabhängiger Haltung hinter sich zu wissen.

Censorship Is For Everyone

April 5, 2016 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Censorship, Freedom of Speech, German, Germans, Germany, Justice, Language, Law, Lawsuits, Rammstein, State Control Leave a comment

Just like Liebe.

Hey, you know the deal here in Germany: Anything that is not expressly allowed is strictly forbidden. Or at least very, very, very suspicious. You know, like free speech?

Rammstein has filed a lawsuit against Germany for having temporarily indexed the album “Liebe ist für alle da,” said a spokesperson of the Bonn Regional Court on Monday (04.04.2016). The rock band is seeking 66,000 euros (nearly $75,000) in damages.

In 2009, the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons, a German governmental agency responsible for listing works that could potentially harm youths, had decided that one of the songs of the album, “Ich tu dir weh,” as well as the pictures in the booklet accompanying the CD, were “brutalizing” and “immoral.” The entire album was indexed.

Once a work gets listed by the organization, it may not be advertised and can only be sold under strict conditions – limiting its potential success.

Ist alles, was nicht ausdrücklich verboten ist, erlaubt?

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Tag Archives: Freedom of Speech