Peace activist sentenced for criticizing German war policy in Ukraine Justus Leicht a day ago The Berlin-Tiergarten District Court sentenced peace activist Heinrich Bücker in January for speaking out in public against Germany’s war policy in Ukraine. The verdict is a massive attack on the basic democratic rights of freedom of speech and assembly. It is reminiscent of the persecution of anti-militarists in the Weimar Republic who—like Carl von Ossietzky—opposed the rearmament of the Reichswehr (armed forces).
Bücker is a member of the Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime–League of Anti-Fascists (VVN-BdA) and the Left Party. He runs the COOP Anti-War Café in Berlin, where anti-militarist events are held regularly. On June 22, 2022, he gave a speech at the Soviet Memorial in Berlin’s Treptow Park on the 81st anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, in which he condemned the cooperation of German politicians with former Nazi collaborators in Ukraine and expressed understanding for the views of the Russian president.
Heinrich Bücker during his speech on the 81st anniversary of the German attack on the Soviet Union [Photo by Screenshot AntikriegTV] As a result, the judge at the local court, Tobias Pollmann, sentenced Bücker to a fine of €2,000, or 40 days imprisonment. His criminal offence under Section 140 of the Criminal Code had consisted of “publicly approving a crime of aggression (Section 13 of the International Criminal Code) in a manner likely to disturb the public peace at a meeting.”
The verdict was issued as a summary penalty order, which does not provide for an oral hearing of the defendant and examination of witnesses. The defendant can appeal within two weeks of the issuance of the penalty order, which Bücker reportedly did. If he had not done so, the penalty order is considered a final judgment, and appeals against it are then no longer possible.
The penalty order states that Bücker, in his speech, approved “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in violation of international law, the illegality of which you knew.” To prove this, a longer paragraph from the speech is quoted, the entire wording of which is documented here (in German).
In the quoted paragraph, Bücker opposes cooperation with far-right forces in Ukraine:
It is incomprehensible to me that German politicians are again supporting the same Russophobic ideologies on the basis of which the German [Nazi] Reich found willing helpers in 1941, with whom they closely cooperated and jointly carried out murder. All decent Germans should reject any cooperation with these forces in Ukraine against the background of German history, the history of millions of murdered Jews and millions and millions of murdered Soviet citizens in World War II. We must also vehemently reject the war rhetoric emanating from these forces in Ukraine. Never again must we as Germans be involved in any form of war against Russia. We must unite and oppose this madness together.
In this context, he called for understanding for the Russian point of view:
We must openly and honestly try to understand the Russian reasons for the special military operation in Ukraine and why the vast majority of people in Russia support their government and their president in it. Personally, I very much want to and can understand the view in Russia and that of Russian President Vladimir Putin. I have no distrust of Russia, because the renunciation of revenge against Germans and Germany determined Soviet and then also Russian policy since 1945.
How and why Bücker thus “agrees” to the invasion of Russia, the Berlin District Court did not elaborate with a single syllable. The request to understand and comprehend the reasons for something is quite different from consent. Otherwise, the work of psychiatric evaluators would be as impossible as that of historians, sociologists, mediators or even police investigators. Any effort to understand the actions of others would be deemed complicity.
Because Section 140 of the Criminal Code severely impinges upon the fundamental right to freedom of expression under Article 5 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court has set high standards in its case law. Punishment for a statement is already unlawful if “the interpretation leading to the conviction has been taken as a basis without other, equally possible interpretations having been excluded with convincing reasons.” In doing so, the courts must also consider “the context and other circumstances surrounding the statement, based on the wording.”
The context in which Bücker expressed himself was admitted by the district court itself: at a commemorative event for the war of extermination against the Soviet Union, he opposed a renewed war by Germany against Russia and the support of a regime that hardly concealed its place in the tradition of Hitler’s Ukrainian allies at the time.
That this is no exaggeration was underscored by the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, just days before Judge Pohlmann signed his sentencing order.
On the anniversary of the birthday of fascist mass murderer Stepan Bandera, the Rada published a picture of Valery Salushnyi, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, under a portrait of Bandera. Bandera was quoted as saying, “The complete and final victory of Ukrainian nationalism will be won only when the Russian empire no longer exists.” The Rada added, “We are currently fighting against the Russian empire. And Stepan Bandera’s guidelines are well known to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.”
Since the war began, the German government says it has supported Ukraine with arms deliveries worth €2 billion. Another €2.2 billion is already firmly planned for 2023. In the media and in official discourse, any criticism of this war policy is being suppressed. Even the call for a negotiated settlement is considered treason.
Against this backdrop, in a passage not quoted by the court, Bücker said, “All the friendly relations [between Germany and Russia] that have been built up with great effort are now in danger of being severed, indeed potentially destroyed.” And he called for “standing up for a prosperous, reasonable and peaceful neighbourliness with Russia in Europe.”
The district court convicted Bücker of advocating peace with Russia and opposing support for the right-wing, anti-Russian regime in Ukraine. From this, to infer approval of a Russian war of aggression is something that presumably only German judges and prosecutors could come up with.
In addition to the “approval” of a crime, a conviction under Section 140 of the Criminal Code also requires that it be “likely to disturb the public peace.” That this was the case, the district court reasoned in convoluted and barely comprehensible language thus:
Your speech has the potential—as you at any rate accept—to shake confidence in the rule of law and to inflame the psychological climate in the population, in view of the considerable consequences that the war will also have for Germany, the threats on the part of the Russian leadership specifically against Germany as a NATO member in the event of support for Ukraine, and not least in view of the presence of hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine who have found refuge in Germany.
Translated into understandable language, this means that anyone who criticizes German war policy shakes the confidence in the state and agitates the population. That is why they must be punished.
To accuse Bücker of “disturbing the public peace” is obviously absurd. In his speech, he promoted peaceful coexistence with Russia and warned against rehabilitating fascist ideas.
The WSWS and the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) categorically reject the war that Germany and NATO are waging against Russia in Ukraine. We therefore have no sympathy for the Putin regime, which represents the interests of the Russian oligarchs and is based on the most reactionary traditions of Russian nationalism.
But that is not what the verdict against Bücker is about. Rather, it is meant to intimidate and silence any opposition and protest against German militarism. It is enough to oppose the demonization of a nation that has just been marked as an enemy and to advocate “understanding” and “peaceful neighbourliness” in order to make oneself liable to prosecution. The sentence must therefore be rejected.
The criminal order against Bücker joins ever newer attacks on democratic rights. In Berlin, on May 8 last year, the day of liberation from fascism, the display of the Soviet flag—under which, not least Auschwitz was liberated—was banned by the police at Soviet monuments.
This was shortly followed by a ban on all Palestinian demonstrations on Nakba Day. A few months later, the Bundestag (federal parliament) tightened up the incitement of the people paragraph; now, anyone who questions alleged war crimes committed by a country that has just been demonized faces punishment.
The Berlin Administrative Court and the Higher Administrative Court have given their blessing to the fact that the SGP is being spied on by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as Germany’s domestic intelligence agency is termed, and slandered as “left-wing extremist” because it argues “for a democratic, egalitarian, socialist society.”
The SGP has declared war on this attack on democratic rights and has filed a constitutional complaint against the scandalous rulings. This is “of the utmost political significance,” the SGP has stressed, “because the government and the courts want to make an example of the SGP. In the face of the proxy war that the German government is waging against Russia, the most extensive rearmament since Hitler, and ferocious attacks on workers through galloping inflation, wage theft and mass layoffs, the aim is to silence anyone who speaks out against this aggressive class policy or even calls it by its name.”
This is now confirmed by the action against Bücker.
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..and that 2003 invasion was not just an act of aggression - unlike the Ukraine invasion it was based on a pack of transparent lies and enabled by the countless thousands of politicians and journalists who served as fervent cheerleaders. Cheerleaders who also never missed an opportunity to smear and vilify (as traitors, naive peaceniks etc) those of us who opposed the war and exposed the lies.
And to anyone who believes it would be absurd and far too late to prosecute and convict that majority of journalists and politicians who facilitated that illegal, lies-based invasion of Iraq - think again: Israeli prosecutors - as we all know - successfully pursued and imprisoned WW2 Nazi collaborators, concentration camp guards and the like for 70+ years after the fact.
Here's one particularly notorious - and topically ironic - example from the 1980's and 2012 - courtesy Wikipedia:
"John Demjanjuk (born Ivan Mykolaiovych Demjanjuk; Ukrainian: Іван Миколайович Дем'янюк; 3 April 1920 – 17 March 2012) was a Ukrainian-American who served as a Nazi camp guard at Sobibor extermination camp, Majdanek, and Flossenbürg." "Demjanjuk became the center of global media attention in the 1980s, when he was tried and convicted in Israel after being misidentified as Ivan the Terrible, a notoriously cruel watchman at Treblinka extermination camp. In 1993 the verdict was overturned. Shortly before his death(in 2012), he was tried and convicted in Germany as an accessory to 28,060 murders at Sobibor. "
An "accessory" ?
So is being a lowly "accessory" more or less heinous than being an eager accomplice, a complicit cheerleader, a powerful, influential pro-war and pro-lies propagandist and an avid war and war-crime facilitator (in 2003) ?
WUR announces dissertation competition on the subject "Madness as an Pandemic Disease"
A worthwhile posting, marknadim, thanks. This one sentence pretty well summarises the article
The German government is celebrating the 90th anniversary of Hitler’s coming to power by sending German Leopard battle tanks to fight Russia.
World University of Reality.
To our students: Your new assignment is to write a medico-philosophical dissertation on the subject "Madness as an Pandemic Disease" Ten thousand words should suffice and must not be exceeded. Entries will be judged on literary merit, scientific robustness and moral discernment.. Historically important philosophers and physicians from any age or culture, for example. Confucius, Hippocrates, Jesus Christ or Martin Luther King should be appropriately quoted and analysed. to support your thesis. As academics examining this issue we here have to admit we are unfortunately fortunate to live in an age where you should have little difficulty in affirming the truth of this thesis. In fairness to rationality, those refuting the thesis will be severely marked down.
We are allowing you one month to forward your completed thesis - please contact the WUR web pages for further details. The one month time limit is designed to ensure, as best we can, that we'll have time to review your efforts, announce the results and publish the top three papers before the first salvo of ICBMs land nearby. Good luck to all contributors.
which hides the complicity of the respectable fascists in jobbing the nazis into office.Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
That article was interesting until this pip jumped out ..
The WSWS and the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) categorically reject the war that Germany and NATO are waging against Russia in Ukraine. We therefore have no sympathy for the Putin regime, which represents the interests of the Russian oligarchs and is based on the most reactionary traditions of Russian nationalism.
Some knee jerk sloganeering (shake head)
Re: That article was interesting until this pip jumped out ..
To be fair, they are Trots.Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Re: That article was interesting until this pip jumped out ..
I pretty much agree with that bit personally - i reject the war nato are waging for all the obvious reasons we know about here, but i'm also not a particular fan of the russian state/government in itself - this (state=bad (and especially capitalist state=bad)) shouldn't be surprising for follower of anarchist ideas. Asking about what i'd speak up about in a more 'public' space, or relative support in the current context would be something else, but i'm not going to pretend i would be OK with living in capitalist, 'section 28'-equipped russia just because i think nato are the bigger baddy (I wouldn't want to live in eg poland for similar reasons). Btw I'm not a trot (though i have got them at the moment if that counts)
Re: That article was interesting until this pip jumped out ..
I guess I have some sympathy with you having your Gordian knot regarding the two ‘baddies’, but this is very much a personal view, and does not help one to analyse the situation in geopolitical terms. It’s kind of ‘plague on both of their houses’ which avoids clear-eyed analysis. At the end of the day, we all live in one type of state or another.
In principle, I hope, you do realise that RF state does not have much choice. Get crushed, dismembered and thus exploited by the west or engage the state to move onto war economy footing. Now I am not aware of any oligarchs participating in this since RF military industrial complex is nationalised. Hence my point. And now to quote again:
The WSWS and the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party, SGP) categorically reject the war that Germany and NATO are waging against Russia in Ukraine. We therefore have no sympathy for the Putin regime, which represents the interests of the Russian oligarchs and is based on the most reactionary traditions of Russian nationalism.
By the by, that last (bolded) sentence, is not a continuity of an idea in this article. There is no conclusion that one can reach from the previously written material, and then starting with ‘Therefore ..' it looks like a ‘clamp on’ sentence as though the political commissar had a hand at editing this piece (I bet he was German (unless it was a committee) hehe).
Now, back to ‘which represents the interests of the Russian oligarchs’. Putin and his government have been clipping the wings of the criminal oligarchic class since day one of his admin. That was the whole point of changes Putin has introduced since Yelsin’s time. Not to take this on board is to be either west’s shill or an ignoramus. I’d probably tend to go for the latter. So, in my opinion, it is clear that this particular part of the slogan is BS.
We are also supposed to just accept this part of the slogan as given: ‘most reactionary traditions of Russian nationalism’. I haven’t seen any analysis made by them. You have interpreted this to mean having ‘section 28’ imposed on their society. Only perhaps as a by-product imo. Russia has been always socially conservative, during and after the dissolution SU. Prior to that, historically, Russia has been defined by the Orthodox Church. I think it would be perhaps closer to what they meant by reactionary (as an atheist I have always been of the view that religion is the opiate of the masses – however, I am tolerant, as long as there is no material exploitation). Meanwhile, contrast Pussy Riot phenomena which was used as a propaganda by the west. When Russians (Pussy Riot) go anarchy, they are serious. It didn’t go down well since they had their ‘plucked chicken’ show in the church. Anyway, RF is not woke : ).
This split in the international boss class is to out advantage
Obviously one state is no better than another but the Americans are so unspeakable that an alignment with the RF could save us all from the fate intended for the Syrians.Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
The "Oligarchs" were already in place before Putin took power. Effectively a gangster legacy of the Yeltsin years that had by hook or by crook, taken over massive state resources for their own benefit. The notion that they were "based on the most reactionary traditions of Russian nationalism." seems a most unlikely ideological take for what were essentially a "Comprador" capitalist elite who as such of course not only won the approval of the western powers but were welcomed with their dirty billions into western capitalist elite circles with open arms. As such they most certainly didn't represent "Russian Nationalism" and indeed as soon as Putin (who could indeed be said to do) took power they became his first target as he started clawing major assets and revenues back within the control of the state. The idea that they are all "Putins oligarchs" is of more recent vintage: I suppose it makes it easier for the West to steal their billions of overseas assets if they can be seem as linked with the Putin regime.
-Of course that why we are also fed so much junk on this subject. If anyone has solid online references on this it would be appreciated.
As you can see from my response to SB, just above your post, I have interpreted that statement differently. The reactionary nationalism part, I thought, related to the 'cultural-political' sphere and not and not to the economic part i.e. oligarchy and the rest.
I clearly remember someone saying how CIA had a desk (in Kremlin, I think?) directing the fire-sale of Soviet assets during drunken Yelsin's inglorious years.
on February 2, 2023, 12:41 am