04-18-2007
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Moderator
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Member Since: Apr 2003
Location: 51st parallel
Posts: 8,209
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Re: EU aims to criminalise Holocaust denial
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Originally Posted by ThorHammer
I was responding to the examples you brought up. These cases you brought up here infringe on the rights and liberties of other people. In the case of child porn, the child is not able to give concent, and therefore it is illegal. The case of praising Al Quaida is not illegal and is protected by the constitution, the offer of money to kill the President is illegal because you are solliciting for the murder of someone. Same case with the bank; you are threatening physical violence againt another person and property, therefore violating their rights under the constitution. I know the Germans are making the case of holocaust denial being incitement, but I cannot see how someone getting up on a podium and saying "the holocaust never happened" incites anyone.
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Well, interestingly the law about "Holocaust denial" was introduced in in the 1990ies. As far as I know it was a reaction on a decision of the German Constitutional Court that holocaust denial isn't protected by the basic right of freedom of speech. If the other requirements are met, it can constitute a case of "Volksverhetzung". Germans are obviously quite sensitive about this topic, given the catastrophe that started in this country in the 1930ies. As I tried to explain earlier, it's also a reaction on the experience of the failure of the Republic of Weimar after WWI and the rise of the Nazis, where hate speech, propaganda obviously played a very important role. Including "twisted history" like the "Dolchstoßlegende" ("stab-in-the-back legend").
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Volksverhetzung (official translation from German: "agitation of the people") is a concept in German criminal law that bans the incitement of hatred against a minority of the population. It often applies in, though it is not limited to, trials relating to holocaust denial in Germany. Guilty of Volksverhetzung is who
in a manner that is capable of disturbing the public peace:
1. incites hatred against segments of the population or calls for violent or arbitrary measures against them; or
2. assaults the human dignity of others by insulting, maliciously maligning, or defaming segments of the population[1]
Volksverhetzung - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Although freedom of speech is guaranteed by Article 5 of the Grundgesetz (Germany's constitution), some restrictions exist, e.g. against personal insults, use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations, or Volksverhetzung. Volksverhetzung includes the spreading of nazism, racist, or other discriminating ideas.
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The Dolchstosslegende (German: Dolchstoßlegende, literally "Dagger stab legend" often translated into English as "stab-in-the-back legend") refers to a social myth and persecution-propaganda theory popular in Germany in the period after World War I through World War II. It attributed Germany's defeat to a number of domestic factors instead of failed militarist geostrategy. Most notably, the theory proclaimed that the public had failed to respond to its "patriotic calling" at the most crucial of times and some had even intentionally "sabotaged the war effort."
The legend echoed the epic poem Nibelungenlied in which the dragon-slaying hero Siegfried is stabbed in the back by Hagen von Tronje. Der Dolchstoss is cited as an important factor in Adolf Hitler's later rise to power, as the Nazi Party grew its original political base largely from embittered WWI veterans, and those who were sympathetic to the Dolchstoss interpretation of Germany's then-recent history.
Dolchstosslegende - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Last edited by Malvolio; 04-18-2007 at 10:48 AM.
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