Are Germans a Subset of Themselves?

As regular readers know, we’re against “hate speech” laws of any kind. Let citizens speak their minds, limited only by the traditional prohibitions against libel, slander, fraud, and incitement.

But if there are going to be laws forbidding hateful speech, they should apply to everyone, and not just those who insult the Culture Enrichers. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

What’s interesting about the following article is that a recent decision by a German court opens up exactly this possibility: persons of German background may be covered by statutes that up until now were only used to protect Turks, Arabs, Africans, etc.

The article was translated from the German by JLH, who has this to say about it:

Here is an example of how PC interpretation of law — with the help of lawyers and bureaucrats — hog-ties ordinary citizens. There is evidence here that some German are getting tired of being second-class citizens in their own country. It’s also nice to know that English and American jurisprudence isn’t alone in its use of obfuscatory gobbledygook.

And the translation from Politically Incorrect:

Are Germans a subset of themselves?

“Pig-gobblers,” “German sluts” or S**t-Germans” — those are only some of the hate speech terms youths with an immigrant background use to denigrate Germans.

It recalls the pensioner from Munich shortly before Christmas 2007, who was not only brutally beaten, but also called a “S**t-German.” Or an incident that occurred in Berlin in January 2008. A group of youths of Turkish and Arab origin abused passengers at a bus stop as “S**t-Germans” and attacked them physically.

The state’s attorney in Berlin saw no legal way to proceed against the perpetrators for ethnic harassment according to paragraph 130 StGB. The protection of the law extends only to “portions of the population” to which, according to precedent, (ethnic) Germans as a whole do not belong. Therefore, comments hostile to Germans are not legally perceived as ethnic harassment, but, at most, as (simple) insult. On the other hand, a German in this country who harbors hatred for foreigners has to reckon on a stiff penalty for ethnic harassment.

The countrywide voter organization ANGRY CITIZENS wished to remedy this unequal treatment, and submitted a petition to the Bundestag [Parliament], proposing that, in future, hate speech against Germans would also be interpreted according to 130 StGB. Over 11,000 citizens — among them, many PI readers — signed this petition.

The petition was rejected. To be sure, the announcement of the justice ministry which communicated the rejection contained two interesting statements.

Among other things, it says: “Basically, there is nothing against the assumption that Germans can be regarded as part of the population in the sense of 130 StGB.”

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A remarkable statement. since state attorneys, courts and legal scholars still maintain that the Germans in their entirety are not part of the population and therefore not protected by the anti-ethnic-harassment paragraphs.

A few paragraphs later, the statement becomes even clearer. “The petition committee considers the penalties of 130 StGB to be proper and is of the opinion that the regulations offer sufficient possibilities for punishment of corresponding crimes, quite independent of the nationality or origin of the perpetrator or the victim.”

In plain language, this means:

Not just foreign minorities, but also Germans are protected from ethnic harassment under 130 StGB. At least according to the legal interpretation of the justice ministry, which has joined the Bundestag (in this opinion).

ANGRY CITIZENS intends to send the committee’s document to all district attorneys in Germany. Every prosecutor will be informed of the judicial possibilities offered by 130 StGB for prosecution of anti-German hate speech.

Moreover, ANGRY CITIZENS intends to contact leading teachers of criminal law and interpreters of the penal code and advise them of the Justice Ministry’s statement in respect to 130 StGB. If the content of the committee’s statement on 130 StGB finds its way into the relevant legal literature, that would contribute to a new assessment of hate speech against Germans.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.