NEWS FROM BERLIN
Berlin becomes a stronghold of protest
The Education and Science Union (GEW) Berlin has called on employees of the state of Berlin, including employees in municipal daycare centres, state schools, district offices and state universities, to take part in a warning strike on January 29. This also applies to employees at the Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus, the Lette-Verein and student employees at universities. The chairman of GEW Berlin, Gökhan Akgün, criticised the conditions in Berlin’s education system. GEW’s regional chair, Felicia Kompio, also stated that Berlin would play a central role in the nationwide protest. The warning strikes are intended to increase pressure on the federal states. Source: tagesspiegel
Berlin Court of Appeal overturns acquittal for “From the river to the sea”
The Berlin Court of Appeal has overturned an acquittal by the Tiergarten District Court for the use of the pro-Palestinian slogan “From the river to the sea” and referred the case back to another division of the district court. According to the Court of Appeal, the court in Tiergarten had made several legal errors in its previous ruling. Among other things, it criticised the district court’s ruling for lacking justification and for misinterpreting the relevant criminal law provisions on the use of symbols of terrorist organisations. Source: rbb
A guide to painful holds
Berlin’s police chief Barbara Slowik Meisel has stated that “the Berlin police do not train in pain holds.” However, internal documents show the opposite: the Berlin police’s “Operational Training Manual” teaches controversial pain holds. The handbook explains to police officers how they should behave in various operational situations—and how they can inflict pain on people in a targeted manner. Frag den Staat published relevant excerpts from the textbook. Pain holds are pressure and leverage techniques that can cause extreme pain and even nerve damage. The Society for Civil Rights considers these techniques to be a serious violation of fundamental rights. Source: fragdenstaat
NEWS FROM GERMANY
Söder believes Germany should merge some federal states
At CSU’s winter meeting, Bavarian state premier Markus Söder has said Germany should merge some of its 16 federal states to make the federal system more efficient. He also said that ideally there would be fewer and larger states, and that the current federal system, in which some larger, wealthier states financially support smaller states, could not continue. “Larger entities are more successful than smaller ones,” Söder concluded. More broadly, Söder called for an end to the Berlin-Bonn Act, which was introduced during the German reunification period to move the seat of the federal government to Berlin. Source: iamexpat
Trial against the “Saxon separatists”
The trial against the ”Saxon Separatists” started on Friday in Dresden. The prosecution does not consider the name to be a coincidence, as the abbreviation “SS” is an allusion to National Socialism. According to the investigation, the “Saxon separatists” was founded in 2020 in Brandis (Saxony). Three of the defendants were still minors at the time. The group is accused of getting ready for a “Day X”, in order to eliminate the free democratic basic order in an armed struggle. For this reason, all defendants are accused of high treason. The group’s lawyer, Martin Kohlmann, also belongs to the extreme right-wing spectrum—as state chairman of the “Freie Sachsen” (Free Saxony) party. Source: dw
CDU business lobby attacks right to part-time work
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has repeatedly complained that many people are no longer working properly and that their “work-life balance” is too important to them. And with this attitude, economic recovery cannot happen. This inspired the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT) in the CDU to submit a motion to their party conference at the end of next February. Its title: “No legal right to lifestyle part-time work.” In it, the group calls for the right to part-time employment to be restricted. The group’s proposal stipulates that part-time workers should only be eligible for social benefits such as basic income support, child allowance and housing benefit if there are “special reasons.” Source: nd
Controversial millions in funding AfD from the state coffers
The AfD often makes use of the victimisation approach, complaining, for instance, about how other parties stigmatise it. However, a look at the party’s financing provides a different picture, as the AfD benefits significantly from state party financing. From 2025 to early 2029 alone, i.e. during this legislative period of the German Bundestag, the AfD will receive a total of around half a billion euros in state funds. In the case of the AfD, that is particularly controversial once the party is being monitored as a “suspected right-wing extremist organization” and is even listed as “confirmed right-wing extremist” in three federal states. Source: dw
Welfare state in Germany is to become more citizen-oriented and digital
The federal government wants to work with the states and local authorities to comprehensively reform the welfare state in Germany. Its commission, made up of representatives from the federal government, the federal states and local authority associations, has formulated a total of 26 specific recommendations. Among other things, social benefits are to become more accessible and less complicated. For example, child benefit is to be paid automatically after birth in future. A digital portal is to be created for all social benefits, and responsibility will lie with two authorities instead of four in future. Some of the proposals can be implemented already in 2027. Source: tagesschau
“One of the most demonised people in Europe”
High-ranking Thuringian AfD politicians, including Secretary General Daniel Haseloff, invited right-wing extremist Martin Sellner to a meeting in the state parliament. “He is one of the most demonised people in Europe. I wanted to form my own opinion,” Haseloff wrote in on X. Haseloff told the German Press Agency that they had discussed Sellner’s remigration concept and that of the Thuringian AfD—Including their differences. Sellner is considered a leading figure and former head of the Identitarian Movement, which is classified as right-wing extremist by the German domestic intelligence service. Source: bz
“Gaza equals Auschwitz” is Holocaust trivialisation
A 40-year-old man was fined for equating Israel’s warfare in Gaza with the Holocaust in a post on Instagram. He must now pay €6,000. The Tiergarten District Court found the man guilty of incitement to hatred by trivialising Nazi crimes under Section 130 (3) of the Criminal Code. The verdict is not yet final. The current case resembles that of a Gaza activist who had also been convicted by the Tiergarten Magistrates’ Court under the same of the German Criminal Code because she had held up a poster at a Gaza demonstration with the question: “Haven’t we learned anything from the Holocaust?” She was acquitted by the Regional Court in October 2025. Source: lto
