Volksverhetzung

Incitement of the People (Volksverhetzung) is defined by § 130 (Incitement to hatred) Section 1 of the Criminal Code:[1][2]

Although freedom of speech is mentioned by Article 5 of the Basic Law (Germany's constitution), said article basically protects any non-outlawed speech. Restrictions exist, e.g. against personal insults, use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations, or Volksverhetzung. For any hate speech to be punishable as Volksverhetzung, the law requires that said speech be "qualified for disturbing public peace" either by inciting "hatred against parts of the populace" or calling for "acts of violence or despotism against them", or by attacking "the human dignity of others by reviling, maliciously making contemptible or slandering parts of the populace". "Germany places strict limits on speech and expression when it comes to right-wing extremism" or anything reminiscent of Nazism.[5] Hate speech on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity also is banned in Germany.[6]

Offences contrary to § 130 of the Criminal Code committed abroad, whether by German nationals or foreigners, can be pursued as a domestic crime when they so act as if they had been committed within the country, affecting the public peace in Germany and violating the human dignity of German citizens. It is sufficient, for example, that criminal content on the Internet, for example in the form of a HTML page, can be accessed from Germany.[7] Hence, for example, the jurisdiction of German courts can be applied for offences of sedition (Volksverhetzungsdelikte) committed abroad. Such an example was the conviction of the Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel by the District Court of Mannheim in February 2007, who was convicted of inciting propaganda he had published from the US and Canada on the Internet.

Historically, the Karlsbader Beschlüsse of the German Confederation under Austria and led by Metternich included democratic ideals as well as agitation for one, unified German state as Volksverhetzung.

Similar laws exist around the world, for instance:

• In Austria, Verhetzung is a criminal offense with similar legal elements under section 283 of the Penal Code.
• In the UK, incitement to ethnic or racial hatred is a criminal offense under Sections 17–29 of the Public Order Act 1986.
• In Ireland, the corresponding law is the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act.
• A similar law exists in Sweden as hets mot folkgrupp ("agitation against a population group"), second section 16th chapter 8§ of the criminal code.[8]
• The Finnish criminal code includes a similar law, which calls the crime kiihottaminen kansanryhmää vastaan ("incitement against ethnic groups") in the Finnish version, hets mot folkgrupp in the Swedish version: 11th chapter ("On War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity"), 8§.
• The Russian Criminal Code such a law called the "incitement of ethnic hatred", which refers to actions aimed at inciting ethnic or racial hatred (Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Article 29 of the Constitution states that: Propaganda or campaigning inciting social, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity. The propaganda of social, racial, national, religious or linguistic superiority.

• Incitement to ethnic or racial hatred
• Verbotsgesetz 1947

• Timmermann, Wibke K (2014). Incitement in International Law. Abingdon, Oxon, England: Routledge. ISBN 9781138020801.
• Günther, Klaus (2000). "The Denial of the Holocaust: Employing Criminal Law to Combat Anti-Semitism in Germany". Tel Aviv University Studies in Law. 15 (1): 51–66.
• Stein, Eric (1986). "History against Free Speech: The New German Law against the 'Auschwitz'—and other—'Lies'". Michigan Law Review. 85 (2): 277–324. doi:10.2307/1288738. JSTOR 1288738.

• The German wording of Section 130
• English translation
• Translation provided by Prof. Dr Michael Bohlander. Translation completely revised and regularly updated by Ute Reusch