Berlin antiwar activist Heinrich Buecker is facing a fine or up to three years in prison for making a public speech against Germany's support for the war in Ukraine.
Here is a video on Youtube of the speech in German. A transcript translated to English and provided by Buecker is below.
Buecker has posted about this on his blog here. He has written: "According to a letter from the Berlin State Criminal Police Office dated October 19, 2022, a Berlin lawyer has accused me of having committed a crime. One [It?] refers to the  § 140 StGB "Reward and approval of criminal offenses". This can be punished with imprisonment for up to three years or with a fine."
The relevant law is here and here.
Here's a robot translation of the law:
Rewarding and endorsing crimes
Any person who: one of the unlawful acts referred to in  § 138 (1)
numbers 2 to 4 and 5 last alternative or in  § 126 (1) or an unlawful act
under  § 176 (1) or under  §Ã‚ § 176c and 176d
1.rewarded after it has been committed or attempted in a criminal manner, or
2.in a manner that is likely to disturb the public peace, publicly, in a meeting or by disseminating content (Â § 11 paragraph 3),
shall be punishable by imprisonment not exceeding three years or by a fine.
Whether a "Berlin lawyer" accusing you of a crime results in a criminal prosecution is unclear, but apparently it does result in a long-delayed letter from the police and a formal investigation into a crime. And it very clearly should not.
Heinrich has been a friend and ally and active off-and-on with World BEYOND War and other peace groups for years. I've disagreed with him quite a bit. As I recall, he wanted President Donald Trump heralded as a peacemaker, and I wanted a mixed review noting Trump's good, bad, and hideously awful points. I've tended to find Heinrich's positions overly simplistic. He has a great deal to say about the wrongs of the U.S., Germany, and NATO, pretty much all of it accurate and important in my opinion, and never a harsh word for Russia, which seems an inexcusable omission in my opinion. But what does my opinion have to do with prosecuting someone for talking? What does Heinrich Buecker's opinion have to do with prosecuting him for talking? It should have nothing whatsover to do with it. There's no screaming fire in a crowded theater here. There's no instigating or even advocating violence. There's no revealing of precious government secrets. There's no slander. There's nothing but an opinion that someone dislikes.
Heinrich accuses Germany of a Nazi past. That's a touchy subject everywhere, including in the United States, as the New York Times mentioned yesterday, but in Germany it's denial of the Nazi past that can get you prosecuted for a crime (or fired if you're the ambassador from Ukraine), not recognition of it.
Heinrich, however, discusses the Nazis currently active within the Ukrainian military. Are there fewer of them than he thinks? Are their demands less decisive than he imagines? Who cares! What if they didn't exist at all? Or what if they have determined this entire disaster by blocking Zelensky's early efforts toward peace and putting him effectively under their command? Who cares! It's not relevant to prosecuting someone for speaking.
Since 1976, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has required of its parties that "Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law." But not a single nation on Earth has complied with that. The prisons have never been emptied out to make room for the media executives. In fact, whistleblowers are imprisoned for revealing war lies. And Buecker is in trouble, not for propaganda for war but for speaking against propaganda for war.
The problem is, no doubt, that in war thinking, any opposition to one side of a war equals support for the other side, and it's only the other side that has any propaganda. This is how Russia views opposition to Russian warmaking, and it's how many in the United States view opposition to U.S. or Ukrainian warmaking. But I can write this in the United States and not risk prison, at least as long as I stay out of Ukraine or Germany.
One of many points on which I disagree with Heinrich is on how much he blames Germany for the world's ills; I blame the United States more. But I credit the United States with not being so awful as to charge me with a crime for saying that.
Will Germany be investigating Angela Merkel too? Or its former Navy Chief who had to resign?
What is Germany afraid of?
Translated Speech Transcript:
June 22, 1941 - We will not forget! Soviet Memorial Berlin - Heiner Bucker, Coop Anti-War Cafe'The German-Soviet War began 81 years ago on June 22, 1941 with the so-called Operation Barbarossa. A war of plunder and annihilation against the USSR of unimaginable cruelty. In the Russian Federation, the war against Germany is called the Great Patriotic War.
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