The Berliner Zeitung Calls for a Judicial Review of the Covid Years

And thus demands to either make amends and punish the perpetrators will show whether or not Germany will become the West's first failed state

Germany’s legacy media seems, to this observer, on the cusp of breaking the omertà concerning the WHO-declared, so-called ‘Pandemic™’. If the Berliner Zeitung’s recent slate of articles is any guide, it will become increasingly hard, if not outright difficult, to avoid the offering of a few sacrificial lambs (scapegoats) to the increasingly incensed public, if only to placate the judiciary and make the latter look elsewhere.

In many ways, today’s posting follows-up on Attorney Sebastian Lucenti’s recent, long-form discussion about the legal implications of all matters Covid:

Corona and the Law: The Pandemic of Inhumanity

Corona and the Law: State of Affairs, Conclusions, and Outlook

As always, translation and emphases [plus snark] mine.

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Corona Policy: We Need Legal Reckoning Instead of Collective Repression

By Sebastian Lucenti, Berliner Zeitung, 10 Oct. 2024 [source]

First comes the legal investigation, then the political reappraisal. A response to a Spiegel article by criminal lawyer Fischer, who sees an ‘unpleasant tendency to come to terms with the past’.

In mid-August, the news magazine Der Spiegel published a column by the former Chairman of the 2nd Criminal Senate of the Federal Court of Justice, Thomas Fischer. This is undoubtedly one of the most important criminal law experts of our time, whose multifaceted biography, outstanding legal career, and decisive influence on criminal law jurisprudence over decades demand the greatest respect. Not only the Federal Constitutional Court but also the Criminal Law Senate of the Federal Court of Justice have repeatedly emphasised in their decisions the responsibility of the criminal courts to carefully and independently establish the truth by taking evidence in accordance with Section 244 II of the Code of Criminal Procedure [Strafprozessordnung] that meets the requirements of the rule of law.

This makes the position in the aforementioned Spiegel column on the lack of a need to come to terms with the corona crisis—let alone a legal one—all the more incomprehensible. With his article, Fischer responds to the FAZ article ‘We must finally come to terms with the Corona years’ [orig. Wir müssen die Corona-Jahre endlich aufarbeiten] from 7 August 2024 (authors: Svenja Flaßpöhler, Prof. Dr. Hoven, Prof. Dr. Dr Rostalski and the honorary judge of the Brandenburg Constitutional Court Dr Finck/artist name Juli Zeh) and ‘We live in the trenches of the pandemic’ [orig. Wir leben in den Gräben der Pandemie] from 14 August 2024 (author: Rostalski), which call for a comprehensive reappraisal of the corona crisis based on the findings of the exposed and leaked RKI protocols.

Mr. Fischer refers to the overburdened German intensive care units and the manipulative sensational reporting of the ‘Bergamo corpse lorries’, before concluding as follows (author’s emphasis):

In this respect, I am sorry to say. My opinion hasn’t changed in the past four years. Mistakes happen; shit happens.

In the opinion of the author of the Spiegel column, this puts the vexed ‘corona case’ to bed. Zeit Online apparently takes a similar view in September 2024. In short: Dear Spiegel and Zeit readers, please move on, there's nothing to see here.

Fictitious Case Study on the Legal Reappraisal of the Corona Crisis

The author of this guest article has published on the nature, scope, and timing of relevant factual knowledge before and after the publication of the RKI protocols and has made the following legal assessments, which may be of interest to an audience interested in facts. The following fictitious case study may also open up a new perspective on the years since 2020 and the Spiegel column of 16 August for the public—whether or not they belong to the Spiegel and Zeit readership:

According to the German government, there is a housing shortage of national significance. However, in view of the obvious emergency situation, there is not enough time to carefully determine the current housing requirements, the existing housing capacities, and apply evidence-based solution concepts. Therefore, 1,000 new tower blocks would have to be built in twelve months. To this end, the federal government is commissioning the company BMG as the centrally responsible general contractor and authorising it to engage subcontractors.

To ensure that the historic construction project succeeds in record time, the commissioned company BMG proposes to install a brand new, experimental special concrete from the company B-Tec using a revolutionary low steel content according to the calculations of the structural engineering offices 123, which are celebrated in the media and among experts. The new construction method is tested by the competent testing institute in a radically shortened, ‘time-compressed’ technical approval procedure, found to be safe, and approved for use under the condition that the responsible building supervisory authority PEI closely monitors the construction project.

Together with the BMG company and euphorically celebrated by the public television and radio stations (ÖRR [or öffentlich-rechtlicher Rundfunk]) and the other legacy media outlets, the German government announces the imminent end of the housing shortage throughout Germany.

After a few weeks, the first cracks appear in the walls and ceilings on the construction sites. The situation is discussed and recorded in a confidential crisis team between the Federal Government, the RKI architects commissioned with the planning and construction supervision and the company BMG. Despite controversial discussions, it is decided to stick to the procedure in order not to jeopardise the progress of the major construction project. Visible cracks are to be ‘opaquely optimised’ or filled immediately. The PEI continuously receives further crack reports from many construction sites, but can only check them on a random basis due to low staffing levels, but does not intervene in order to avoid public unrest.

Critical voices from building experts, structural engineers, and architectural firms, who draw attention to the cracks in various buildings, are ignored. Protests in the social media are defamed and denigrated by those involved in the construction and the public broadcaster as irresponsible scaremongering by ‘pseudo-experts’, ‘emergency deniers’, and ‘lacking solidarity’. Attempts by citizens to stop the construction project with the help of urgent legal proceedings fail. The courts declare that the RKI architects and the PEI have unique expertise. Any possible criticism of the findings of these experts had already been considered and processed in their expertise. All the necessary structural calculations were valid and the concerns expressed about the threat of structural collapse were based on negligible measurement inaccuracies on the part of the critics. Furthermore, there is a national housing shortage that requires undisturbed construction progress.

Shortly after the celebrated construction and media-accompanied occupation, a number of buildings collapsed, resulting in deaths and serious injuries. The government, the RKI architects, and the PEI immediately had the affected construction sites cordoned off with privacy fences and refused to hand over the project documents or provide further information. An autopsy of the people recovered from the rubble is not carried out for the time being, as the cause of death is unclear according to the current state of science. Regardless of this, the remaining tower blocks will not be evacuated. The decision-makers of all those involved in the construction are awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for their services to ending the national housing crisis.

A few years later, surviving dependants succeed in uncovering the construction meeting minutes, the structural calculations, and the approval documents for all the high-rise buildings that had been erected, which were initially partially redacted and later disclosed in their entirety. It becomes apparent that the special concrete and the structural design were not technically capable of absorbing the foreseeable loads permanently and without damage in the planned buildings. The integrity of the other buildings is also unclear.

A respected former judge of the Federal Court of Justice is called in to give his assessment of the case in a report before the public prosecutor's office decides whether to open an investigation.

He then summarises his final report by saying that he is sorry, but ‘shit happens’. That was the end of the matter.

Legal Reckoning with Corona Crisis Remains Essential

‘Shit happens’? Are you serious? No, Prof. Dr. Fischer, wanting to suppress things here is—if I may use the tone you have chosen—simply ‘bullshit’!

Wanting to clear up irresponsible actions and omissions—especially from a legal perspective—is not an unpleasant tendency, but the appropriate reaction for a constitutional state. And because we not only live in a state governed by the rule of law [do we?], but in particular in a democratic state governed by the rule of law [do we?], the behaviour of political and official decision-makers and scientific advisors must also be meticulously evaluated in retrospect. This is the only way to avoid similar mistakes in the future. The fact that the judiciary is able to gain a new perspective on the ‘decisions under uncertainty’ in view of the redacted RKI protocols and is ready for a legal review is shown by the intensive taking of evidence and the order of reference issued by the Osnabrück Administrative Court on 3 September 2024 [see also here]. The legal consequences of this public demystification of official information from the RKI—and thus also from the PEI and the Stiko [Standing Committee on Immunisation]—are considerable for the rest of the judiciary.

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Bottom Lines

Things are getting a bit out of hand in Germany, it would seem.

The analogy provided by Attorney Lucenti is a striking one, esp. in light of its implications for both the Covid years per se and the future of the German state in particular.

If German society continues down the path (of an ostrich, it would seem), it will disillusion a population replete with resentment for a few things, incl. high taxes, mass immigration, crapified systems, etc.

At some point, the disillusionment will become too big to obscure, and the ‘new™’ Germany will look more and more like the ‘old’ ones, esp. the former GDR.

Of all countries in Europe, Germany is perhaps the most important one in terms of size and importance; what happens in Germany, will not stay in Germany, so to speak.

We better watch this space closely as events unfold.