A man in Bavaria had his house raided by police after retweeting a meme mocking German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck of the Greens party.
On November 12, at 6 am, the 64-year-old poster was woken by two police officers with the Schweinfurt force in Bavaria after the local court in Bamberg had ordered his home and car be searched for mobile phones and other digital devices.
Police confiscated the man’s tablet. His daughter, who reportedly has Down’s syndrome, was there at the time.
The court had decided that the man had published an image on X in June 2024 that showed an image of Habeck above a slogan reading: “Professional moron”.
The meme played on the German phrase “Schwachkopf Professional”, which closely resembled the well-known shampoo brand “Schwarzkopf Professional”.
Ich finde ja, dass so viele wie möglich dieses Bild hier tweeten sollten. #Schwachkopf pic.twitter.com/lxsSoO4d8I
— Joana Cotar (@JoanaCotar) November 13, 2024
The man allegedly shared the meme on his X account, which at the time had 901 followers.
According to the court document, the public prosecutor stated “public interest” in pressing criminal charges as the retweet was “punishable as an insult against people of political life”. It potentially constituted “incitement of the people”.
Publicly insulting a politician has been a criminal offence in Germany since 2021 when a set of laws “against hate and hate speech” were passed under then-chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Schweinfurt police confirmed the raid and said it was part of a nationwide “day of action against internet criminality”.
Also on November 12, Hamburg police raided the apartments of five people charged with denying the holocaust and posting Swastikas on social media.
Habeck, along with other Greens politicians, has made wide use of the regulation penalising insults against politicians.
In April 2023, he signed a criminal complaint against popular German journalist Rainer Meyer who had tweeted that Habeck’s appearance “would not stand out negatively in a group of train-station alcoholics”.
"ein Wirtschaftsminister, der mit seiner äusseren Erscheinung in einer Ansammlung von Bahnhofsalkoholikern nicht negativ auffallen würde"
— Don Alphonso (@_donalphonso) February 17, 2023
In May 2024, Meyer was acquitted by an appeal court that ruled his tweet constituted “an expression of opinion covered by freedom of speech”.
