Berlin police have raided the home of Norbert Bolz, a prominent right-wing writer and pundit, regarding a post he made on social media network X almost two years ago.
At 8:52am this morning, officers conducted a search of the home of 72-year-old Bolz on the basis an order issued by the Tiergarten district court.
The court had granted a request by the Berlin public prosecutor’s office that started proceedings against Bolz for suspected violations of Article 86a of the German Penal Code. That bans the dissemination and use of symbols of forbidden organisations such as the Nazi Party and carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.
The court also gave the police permission to confiscate Bolz’ personal electronic devices.
According to news site Nius today, the reason for the proceedings is a post Bolz made on X, then known as Twitter, in January last year.
Then, Bolz had ironically commented on an article by left-wing newspaper Die Tageszeitung (taz), which applauded the fact that a proposed ban of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party (AfD) was gaining traction.
“A good translation for ‘woke’: Germany, wake up!,” Bolz had written.
Hausdurchsuchung bei Prof. Dr. Norbert Bolz
Wegen der offensichtlichen Verballhornung eines TAZ Posts von Jan. 2024 bekam Prof. Bolz heute Morgen Besuch von der Polizei – Irre.
Volle Solidarität mit @NorbertBolz ..!#FreedomOfSpeech https://t.co/JDLHRcujAD pic.twitter.com/guRCQkFYUu
— Oliver Sept (@sept_oliver) October 23, 2025
Germany, wake up! (Deutschland erwache!) is a well-known Nazi party slogan dating back to the 1920s. Its use is forbidden under Article 86a of the German Penal Code.
Bolz’ defenders, though, now point out he was using the slogan ironically – using the wording of the taz article to expose how close wokeness was to totalitarian ideology, in his opinion.
Bolz told Nius – for which he also writes as a columnist – today’s police raid had been a reality check, saying: “I usually only write and talk about this world. It’s scary when this reality suddenly appears on your doorstep.
“I can’t say that I’m shocked – that would mean that I didn’t expect it. But the fact that it is exactly as the critical diagnoses describe it is creepy in every respect.”
Bolz later the same day wrote on X that a young policewoman had advised him after the raid that he should be more careful in the future. “I will do that and only talk about trees from now on,” he said.
German media law expert Joachim Steinhöfel called the raid “a worrying loss of control of our criminal justice system”, adding: “When a renowned media scholar such as [former] Professor Bolz has to endure a house search because of a clearly ironic tweet, then something is fundamentally wrong with our constitutional State.
“The irony in Bolz’ tweet is so obvious that one would have to deliberately misunderstand it in order to construct a criminal offence here.”
Steinhöfel also drew parallels with other famous judicial incidents in Germany in the past years – such as the prosecution of a pensioner who had shared a meme that likened Greens party leader Robert Habeck to a moron.
He also recalled the trial against a right-wing journalist who had posted a manipulated picture online of former interior minister Nancy Faeser wearing a T-shirt with the slogan: “I hate freedom of opinion”.
