Mistakes Were Not Made: Covid-Critical Judge Matthias Guericke's Lessons from Covid

Judge Guericke didn't lose his job and didn't have his 2020 ruling dissecting the mandates overturned, yet he speaks to us with clarity and authority on the lessons learned

Another day, more absurdities from the best Germany of all times. Today, we’ll revisit the fate of judge Matthias Guericke whose Covid-critical stance resulted in public defamation and persecution by state officials.

Mr. Guericke is no stranger to these pages, as it was him who penned the account of a low-level judge who was similarly persecuted for permitting the administration of last rites during the depths of the ‘Dark Winter’:

Judge Anna K. was Sentenced for Permitting Last Rites during the 2020 Lockdown (Part 1)

Judge Anna K. was Sentenced for Permitting Last Rites during the 2020 Lockdown (Part 2)

The translation of the below content is mine, as are the emphases and [snark].

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Corona Critical Judge Subjected to House Search

In a 19-page judgement, Matthias Guericke dissected the Thuringian Corona Ordinance issued in spring 2020 down to the last detail. He then came under massive pressure.

By Claudia Marsal, Nordkurier, 31 March 2025 [source]

It was at the beginning of 2021 when media first became aware of a previously relatively unknown judge from Weimar. The Nordkurier also reported on Matthias Guericke at the time and contributed to a popularity that he would have gladly done without, as he admitted in an interview with the editorial team at the weekend.

Judge’s Life Went Haywire

According to media reporting at that time, the now 55-year-old ‘suddenly found himself in a spin cycle that was quite severe’. But what had thrown the life of the lawyer, who spoke to almost 100 people in the ‘Malchow Format’ series on Sunday, off the rails? The starting point was one of countless fine proceedings for violating the Corona Ordinances, wrote the Nordkurier at the time:

In April 2020—in the middle of the first lockdown—a man had celebrated his birthday with seven friends from different households in a backyard in Weimar. He was caught, ordered to pay 220 euros to the state coffers and lodged an appeal. Currently almost hopeless in Corona Germany.

To his great surprise, the man from Weimar, Thuringia, won his appeal.

Dissected 19-Page Sentence

‘And what’s more: in his 19-page ruling, district court judge Matthias Guericke dissected the Thuringian Corona Ordinance issued in spring 2020 down to the last detail. Using studies and official figures from the RKI, among other things, he scrutinised the legal basis of contact restrictions at the time and came to the conclusion that they were ineffective, disproportionate, and unconstitutional—and therefore null and void [oh, look, what we knew back then before the information ‘leaked’ out…]. In addition, the judge ‘found that the contact ban violated human dignity’, wrote the Nordkurier, adding:

In the last paragraph, Guericke even spoke of a ‘catastrophic political mistake with dramatic consequences for almost all areas of people’s lives, for society, for the state and for the countries of the global South’.

For many people, this was a real sensation.

The tendency of German courts to dismiss even the most substantiated objections and constitutional complaints and to confirm ordinances and measures almost blindly has become the rule in this country at least since the amendment of the Infection Protection Act in November, other lawyers had repeatedly complained, the article said at the end of January 2021: And now this!

Storm of Indignation Erupted

Afterwards, however, a storm of indignation broke out, recalls Matthias Guericke. The reprisals, which were obviously intended to reprimand the judge, went as far as a house search. ‘But the ruling has still not been overturned’, he notes in March 2025 [and this tells you all about the dishonesty and uselessness of the judiciary to this day]. And contrary to expectations, he survived the subsequent hounding by most of the media—‘in one book I was even dubbed a right-wing judge’—quite well, summarised Guericke, who studied theology as well as law and comes from a very religious church musician household, at the weekend in Malchow.

Fortunately, he remains unchallenged at Weimar Local Court to this day and his colleagues are aware of his clear stance on this issue, Guericke said: ‘I’ve never really had to worry about my job.’ [good for you]

Unlike his colleague Christian Dettmar (62): the Weimar family court judge had cancelled the Covid rules in schools in a much-discussed decision at the time. Following a judgement by the Federal Court of Justice, he subsequently lost his post—and with it his pension. The Erfurt Regional Court had previously sentenced him to two years’ probation for obstruction of justice because, according to the judgement, he had made his decision at the time in a biased manner [I’ll report on this case soon—let’s just note here the Schrödenger’s Cat-like state of the rule of law™ in Germany: it’s possible, apparently, to have both features coexist: one judge dissects the Covid mandates and nothing happens while the other, Christian Dettmar, declares mask mandates in public schools to be illegal and lost his job, pension, etc.].

We are Not Called Upon to Retaliate

Although he was not only moved by the events surrounding his own person, but also by the fate of the colleague in question, Matthias Guericke did not call for retribution or even hatred during his sermon on Sunday. To the contrary, the man in his mid-fifties appealed to those present to continue to believe in charity. Because unlike the solidarity much praised by the state at the time, this cannot be demanded but stems from freedom [that’s a wonderful way of putting it], he made clear in his sermon:

It cannot be calculated and cannot be instrumentalised by political power. It is the only remedy against totalitarianism.

With a view to the more than 300,000 people who, according to official statistics, died alone in hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic due to visiting bans, Matthias Guericke warned that this should never be allowed to happen again: ‘That doesn’t even include the number of deaths in care homes.’

According to the theologian, the church had forgotten ‘that Francis once even embraced lepers’. [if, at this point, you’re not mad as hell, I don’t know what to tell you] He then spoke about the importance of taking personal responsibility. Matthias Guericke quoted the American [sic] publicist Hannah Arendt, who died in New York in 1975. One of the lessons she learnt from National Socialism was:

Don’t join in, make your own judgements: don’t say we, say I.

Engage in a Silent Dialogue

He encouraged visitors to always engage in a silent dialogue and to allow for doubt.

Research on previous regimes had shown that there were certain groups of people who did not succumb to the propaganda, Guericke concluded:

1. the majority of the poor who do not naively believe that the rich want to do them good;

2. people who have already lived under a dictatorship;

3. people who are anchored in external reality and trust their own observations, for example farmers and craftsmen, and

4. people who live morally and value life. Christians should belong to this group.

His conclusion from the crisis:

Independent thinking is what matters. Only this can prevent people from joining the erring masses.

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Bottom Lines

What else is there to say but—there’s nothing that destroys faith in ‘the system’ than the arbitrary application of the law.

Judge Guericke dissected the Covid mandates and his ruling was never overturned, yet the mandates were performed nonetheless.

Judge Dettmar, by contrast, ruled in a similar way, and he had his life destroyed.

Punish one individual, ‘educate’, in a Maoist sense, a hundred.

We also know that such régimes have but a certain mileage—and the 64,000 dollar question is obvious: how much longer can these contradictions persist?

Corona and the Law: The Pandemic of Inhumanity