German Tourists Found Guilty of Insulting Christian Drosten on Camping Trip

One of the most picaresque, but in many ways telling, episodes of Germany’s Covid experience occurred on the placid shores of the idyllic Ellbogensee (Elbow Lake) in northeastern Germany. It was here, on June 25th 2022, that Maik S. and his wife Kathrin W., two vacationers from Berlin, had the surprise of their lives. By this time, most of the Covid measures which had severely restricted the lives of Germans or forced them to get vaccinated to enjoy basic liberties had been lifted, and there, standing right in front of them at their favourite campsite, was the very man whose supposed scientific authority had been so often invoked to justify those measures: none other than Germany’s ‘star virologist’ Christian Drosten.

“We were totally gobsmacked,” Kathrin told a court in the little town of Waren in April, “that this person was walking around the campsite without a hat pulled down over his eyes and sunglasses, without police protection”.

What happened then the couple has recounted to Uwe Krüger, a blogger who has covered the episode in far greater detail than any mainstream German media. According to the couple’s recollections, Maik’s first reaction was to take a photo and post it on a Telegram group, seeking confirmation from his friends that it really was Drosten. Later that evening, still evidently having trouble believing his eyes, he walked up to the man who looked for all the world like Christian Drosten, and the following dialogue ensued.

Maik: Are you Herr Drosten?

Drosten: Yes.

Maik: You dare to come to this campsite?

Drosten: Why not?

Maik: Because you’re a criminal!

At this point, Maik is supposed to have turned around to other campers and shouted, “Look here please people! That’s Herr Drosten: the biggest criminal who’s running around free in Germany!”

The couple’s description of the initial altercation is largely concordant with reports in the German press, except that according to the press reports Maik is also supposed to have called Drosten a “transhumanist” (sic.) and a “mass murderer”. The couple does not recall him having used the latter term. In any event, the other campers were apparently unmoved by Maik’s appeal, with one man, according to their recollections, just shaking his head and a woman responding that it was Drosten’s right to be there.

And that was the end of matters, until the next day, when, still per the couple’s recollections, their friend Franziska, who was vacationing with them, went up to Drosten to ask him how there could be video of him claiming that masks were ineffective in preventing COVID-19 transmission and yet, shortly thereafter, he would support a mask mandate. To this, Drosten is supposed to have responded, “You have rubbish in your head! Check your sources! You’re watching rubbish!”

When Franziska then noted that she works in a daycare centre and that all her colleagues have been constantly sick since they got vaccinated, Drosten is supposed to have responded, “That’s your fault, because you’re not vaccinated!” At this point, on the couple’s account, Franziska broke into tears and returned to her friends.

Round three would take place later that same day on the beach. On the couple’s account, this time it was Drosten who would go on the offensive, taking the initiative to come over to them and tell them that he was going to call the cops, since they had “traumatised” his child by calling him a “criminal” in the child’s presence. Drosten was vacationing with his then four-year-old son. But Maik and Kathrin and Franziska also had small children with them, and, on their account, while Drosten’s son appeared unfazed by the fracas, their own somewhat older children (eight- and 10-years-old respectively) were frightened by Drosten’s aggressive behaviour.

In any case, Drosten’s remark appears to have struck an unpleasant chord for Kathrin, since she proceeded to launch into a tirade about the effects of lockdown on children. “What?” she recalls saying, “Your child is traumatised? Our children are traumatised! My daughter didn’t get an end-of-school trip with her daycare group. They were suddenly kept in separate rooms.”

At this point, Maik decided to get in a blow, arguably a low one. “How are you able to do all that really?” he asked Drosten, “You don’t even have a real doctorate.”

The allusion was to the controversy over the validity of Drosten’s doctorate, which was driven by the investigations of Markus Kübacher, a specialist in cases of academic fraud, and which I have covered on the Daily Sceptic here. Not surprisingly, things appear then to have escalated between Maik and Drosten, and, after Kathrin advised Drosten to “piss off”, the group of vacationers decided to gather their things and move to another beach.

But Drosten did not “piss off”. Instead, on the couple’s account, he came running after them in his swim trunks. According to Kathrin, she now took out her cellphone and, pointing it at Drosten, warned him, “I’m filming you, Herr Drosten!”

This is perhaps why, per Krüger’s report, police would seize both Kathrin’s and Maik’s cellphones from them two weeks later, turning up at their trailer at six in the morning while the couple was still on vacation. At the same time, police raids were being conducted at both their apartment and Franziska’s apartment back home in Berlin.

For Christian Drosten did indeed call the cops, and police officers would already be waiting for the trio of Berlin vacationers when they returned to their trailer on that day in June 2022 on the shores of the Ellbogensee.

In April of this year, Maik and Kathrin were found guilty by the court in Waren of having “insulted” Christian Drosten. They were given “probatory fines”, meaning that if they do not commit any other ‘crimes’ in the year following the judgment they will not have to pay them. As the ostensible ‘main perpetrator’, Maik received the heavier fine.

Yes, proffering ‘insults’ is a crime under German law – which might lead one to believe that Germany must be the most polite, well-mannered country in the world.

It is not clear from the news reports whether the couple was charged under section 185 of the German Criminal Code – the, so to say, ‘simple’ insult statute – or section 188, which provides public figures special protection against ‘insults’ and which is commonly referred to in German discussions as the lèse majesté law.

It would appear that the vacationers were suspected of having committed lèse majesté against Drosten and that the initial investigation was conducted on this premise – hence, the police raids – but that they were ultimately only charged with ‘simple’ insult. This, at any rate, is what we can infer from the fact that, according to Krüger, the raids were ultimately found by another court to have been uncalled-for.

Moreover, the text of Germany’s lèse majesté statute requires that the insult be public or made in a public gathering, whereas Maik’s and Kathrin’s remarks to Drosten could not have been heard by more than a few other campers or beachgoers.

It is also worth noting that, according to Krüger, a specific charge of defamation, relating to Maik’s jibe about Drosten not having a real doctorate, was dropped from the indictment after the academic-fraud specialist Markus Kübacher sent two files worth of evidence to the prosecutor’s officer.

But perhaps the most obvious question which the episode raises is: why does Germany even have a lèse majesté law? In modern, liberal democracies, after all, public figures usually enjoy lesser protection against abuse, not greater. One need only think, say, of all the times Anthony Fauci is depicted as a criminal or a rat nowadays in social media (especially by Elon Musk).

Protecting the state against the citizenry is not a good look; and in the case of Germany’s ‘star virologist’ – who in Germany is often referred to rather as the country’s ‘state virologist’ [Staatsvirologe] – this appears to be precisely what is happening.

Translations by the author. Hat-tip to Stefan Homburg for the reference to Uwe Krüger’s blog post.

Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack.