Emmanuel Thomas I Friday, June 16, 2023
BERLIN – A schoolteacher in Berlin who was fired for comparing Germany’s coronavirus vaccination policies to the Nazi regime has won a severance payment in court.
The regional labour court upheld the August 2021 firing of the 62-year-old teacher but ordered the state of Berlin to pay him €72,000 in severance.
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the man had posted several videos online in which he compared vaccination to atrocities committed by the Nazis.
One video showed the gate of a Nazi concentration camp, which were often inscribed with the phrase “work sets you free,” altered to read “vaccination sets you free.”
In another video, the vocational teacher claimed that compulsory vaccine requirements had worse consequences than the regimes of Adolf Hitler, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin or Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong.
The court decision came after an earlier settlement agreement, in which the man would accept his termination in exchange for a €50,000 severance payment, failed.
The court said it had not been able to rule out the teacher’s “interpretation of expressing sharp criticism of the coronavirus policy.” Therefore, it could not be clearly established whether the fundamental right to express one’s opinion had been violated.
The teacher’s lawyer, Tobias Gall, described this as “a triumph for freedom of opinion and art.” At the same time, he expressed his incomprehension that the state did not agree to the settlement and that higher costs would now be borne by the taxpayer.
