"nullum crimen sine lege, nulla poena sine lege":

"Insult" On the state of the art in current Germany.

Richard Albrecht, PhD.

,,Whenever I think over Germany at night, I can´t sleep any longer tight."

(Heinrich Heine, 1844: Deutschland ­ ein Wintermärchen)

,,Any executioner nowadays has got an honourable tenure profession. Why should,

consequently, not every honourable civil servant latently bear a hangman ? ­ But

civil servants don´t kill human beings ! ­ That´s exactly what they´re doing, Kafka

replied, they are virtually transforming developable living human beings into dead

registrationnumbers which are not able to develop any longer." (Franz Kafka, 1917:

Gespräch mit Gustav Janouch)

,,Justice is living at a floor to which judiciary has no entry." (Friedrich Dürrenmatt,

1985: Justiz. Roman)

I.

Some sixty years ago a refugee scholar, Dr Franz Leopold Neumann, a former

democratic lawyer representing the small social and democratic sector of the legal

profession in Weimar Germany and her culture (Gay 1969) before the Nazi gang

overtook power, in his first USbook 1942 named the very reduction of professional

judges in NaziGermany (Neumann 1944²; 1966³: 444, 447, 458) police official,

adminstrative official, mere policeman. Moreover, Neumann characterized what

was running in Germany at that time as a graphic violation of the traditional basic

principle of "old Europe" based on: ,,nulla poena sine lege, nullum crimen sine lege"

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­ no crime without law, without law no punishment [and no punishment without

guiltiness]. The very reason of that empirical involution of justice, right, and law, and

its dramatic consequences, lays, indeed, in the permanent ignorance of what

Montesqieu (16891755) called "

separation of powers

" (originally "la puissance

séparée"[1]) ­ which, in German/y, is stupidly translated as "Gewaltenteilung" (i.e.

"division of powers"), even from those prominent figures, representing the legal

profession in Germany like Dr Carlo Schmid (1948) , and Dr Ernst Forsthoff (1992²):

"Gewaltenteilung" in fact is not only a as cretinistic as confusing translation of what

has to be translated as "Gewaltentrennung"[2] leading to permanent rubbish talk

within the academic world but also to sustainable denial of a relevant aspect of legal

normatively, producing a pathological mechanism named "selective ignorance"

whenever social psychologists discuss the cloudy issue as a matter of moral and

intellectual obscurity.

II.

As an experienced German social scientist who is both still alive and still living

within Germany Today, I worked out, in 2005, the very meaning of this setting in the

field of a petty little crime named ,,insult" ("Beleidigung") and so called "abusing"

radical critique (,,Schmähkritik") which is in a broader sense regarded as a human

statement or action affronting other human/s. Until now, "insult" is not defined

within the German penal law (which merely contains a hint on the penalties) but

obviously punished by "independent" professional judges as lifelong civil servants

none of them ever had, until now, applied the basic principle ,,nullum crimen sine

lege, nulla poena sine lege, sine culpa nulla poena" in this specific field. This is the

truth, the only truth, and nothing but the very truth characterizing the actual status

of justice in current Germany within this specific field: no individual professional

judge did, since the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was, in 1949, founded, ever

refuse to condemn anybody who was prosecuted because of "insult" ­ a petty little

crime which is, until now, written down, and proclaimed, as such but not definitely

defined in § 185 of the current German Penal Law ...

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3

It is true that current German Penalty Law (GPL) does nor include the statutory

offences wellknow in Imperial Germany (

Deutsches Reich

until 1918) named "insult

of the Emperor" (at last His Majesty Wilhelm II: "Majestätsbeleidigung") or

"subversive instigation" of public enemies against the state ("Staatsfeindliche

Hetze") in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) until 1989. The very blank within

actual GPL, however, means that, in principle, every administrative body may

reclaim for being affronted by any either public or private verbal attack/s labelled as

"insult" of the authority ­ an absurd and bizarre situation: When you are calling any

public prosecutor agency as such, for example, "a criminal association" without

naming anybody of her agents whenever the chief public prosecutor feels one of his

officers

could be meant,

in current Germany you may be publicly accused of "insult"

and, finally, condemned valid.

III.

Some forty years ago Dr Ralf Dahrendorf identified "the role of the as public

prosecutors" as "the most relevant part within the German criminal procedure",

mentioning also the German myth declaring that juridical agency for the "most

objective administrative body in the world" (Dahrendorf 1965, 162). Unfortunately

Sir Dahrendorf forgot to connect both phrases: For the German public prosecutors

legend is as constitutive as blanketing their very role as a most powerful political

instance: German public prosecutors are in fact part of the "repressive state

apparatus" (Louis Althusser), acting as "functionaries of the public administration"

(Landtag NRW 205, 58)

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Given this societal situation, the most prominent "insult" case within current

Germany is the valid condemnation of the first Federal Minister for Culture (1998

2002) which became final September 3rd, 2004. Dr Michael Naumann, coeditor of the

German quality weekly

Die Zeit,

indeed publicly named, as guest of a TVtalkshow,

the General public prosecutor of Berlin as a high ranked political figure (Dr

Hansjürgen Karge) a "manic" guy being virtually off his trolley. All German courts

valued Naumanns sentence as "abusing" personal critique, misusing the citizens

right of free speech. Consequently, Naumann, as a well situated member of the

German political and media "elite", had to pay 9.000 Euro () as the very fee due to

his invective metaphor publicly used:

http://www.berlin.de/sen/justiz/gerichte/kg/presse/archiv/20040910.22224.html.

IV.

In 2005, a public eulogist declaimed somebody as a bold writer and mentioned

the authors fearless civil right attacks on the German judge Victor Henry de

Somoskeoy at Cologne, which lead, on the one hand, to Henryk M. Broders

condemnation for 2.500 German Marks October 22th, 1979, but also established the

very career of this guy as a prominent civilright figure not only within the German

Rhineland: http://www.schubaart.de/2005_03_20a.htm. Most recently, a journal titled

The German´s Judge Paper ("Deutsche Richterzeitung" [DRiZ] 2007) published a

short commentary written by the former militant left, now a prominent German

Jewish writer, on the state of the art of the most phantom petty little crime named

"insult":

"About four percent of German citizenship" ­ the author points out ­ "are accused

every year, most of them because of a petty crime like driving too fast or rubbish

little conflicts between neighbours over their gardenfences [...] Nevertheless most of

the German ordinary people until now did not at all realize that the juridical

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apparatus is, indeed, a social world of its own, not only a closedshop milieu but also

a hardcore bureaucratic hierarchy, still hiding from any public control. Whenever

German judges and public prosecutors are compared with other professional

groups, for example with medical doctors, the latter seem to live in a green house

whereas the first seem to belong to a secret society."

Lamentations like that one quoted from a guy who was also publicly accused of

"insult" the last year, 2006, but acquitted even by the public prosecutor who had,

some weeks before, accused him, are as usual as confusing, just reproducing what,

within the last years of the Weimar Republic, in Germany was a popular critique of

the way judges are acting against ordinary people when convicting them: "For they

know what they are doing" (Ernst Ottwalt 1931). Morever, there is, until now and

nowadays, a great variety of work ­ above all books, essays, and articles in various

media in Germany, accusing figures like public attorneys, and professional judges,

for what they do and the way they are doing their juridical business.

What was once named "the ideological state apparatus" (Louis Althusser) is still

working, doing business as usual as if any public control of the juridical apparatus

was a mere demand without any practical relevancy plotted by militant grousers,

yesterday lefties and pathological troublemakers disturbing any legitimate business

of that juridical figures when prosecuting and condemning humans ...

V.

Peter Briody, a former British captain, described the development especially of

the petty little crime in Germany named "insult" (§ 185 German Penalty Law) like

the wellknow pattern that little shit happens often, not to exaggerating that this

specific crasy little shit still happens too often: in 1927, for example, in Germany

about 50.000 cases were registered whereas fifty years later, in 1997, nearly 130.000

were. According to the German criminal statistic, a short decade later, in 2005, nearly

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180.000 "cases" of being publicly accused of "insult" were documented (including

"sexually" related "insult", in 2005 about 20.000 cases).

In a first approach Briody (2004) graphically visualizes the state of the art telling the

"insult" story of a German dissident figure known as the "Remstall rebel", Helmut

Palmer (19302004). Within the last 35 years of his life, this rebel with a cause, 1968

2003 was punished for nineteen times paying thousands and thousands of German

Marks for decades, and was imprisoned thrice (in 1968, 1978, and 1999).

VI.

An extraordinary "insult"career is, most recently, absolved by Claus Plantiko,

a former highranked regular officer, since 1999 licensed as a lawyer in Bonn (the

former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany), and down there, in 2005, elected

as independent deputy of a citizens groups in an honourable capacity. Not only that

this sophisticated professional publicly demands direct elections of professional

judges by the people for time without any tenure in general but also, as a

professional lawyer when doing his job, helping and supporting his clients,

permanently reminds any professional judge he has to do with on his ­ or her very

duty, i.e. applying personally to his/her Federal Minister of Justice to be elected by

the people for time, in this way

strictu sensu

contributing to practise not only the very

separation of powers in particular but also recurring to the wellknown civilright

theorem "nemo plus iuris ad alium transferre potest quam ipse habet" which means:

nobody is allowed to delegate more responsibility (or power) to another than that

one has got himself. As a dissident, Plantiko was convicted for "insult" (and/or

"defamation") the last years, 20032006, for eight times, the last verdict became final

March 9th, 2007 condemning this civil right activist to pay 18.000 Euro (). But

Plantiko was not, as far as I know, until now jailed. Needlessly to add that the

German professional corporative organisation, the chamber of the lawyers, situated

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in Cologne, since 2002 tries to withdraw Plantikos license, and I ´m afraid this well

known policy of

Berufsverbot

will, in the end, succeed in ...

Meanwhile Claus Plantiko created an highly sophisticated juridical formula not only

for his own selfprotection but also for demonstrating his very position. Moreover, in

the philosophical tradition Ernst Bloch represents, the authors phrase should make

knowable what should be generally known according to the juridical system within

Germany Today:

"Not a word of the following juridical typeset either as a single word or within the

very context is to be interpreted in a manner that the author wants to insult anybody

by hurting the personal honour of a human on the contrary: every word of this

message just intends to realize, as soon as possible, what is empirically neglected

within current German juridical system but is basically constitutive as proclaimed,

and guaranteed, within the German constitution and her articles 1, 20, 79 [3]:

dignity

of any human, sovereignty of the people, separation of powers, rationality, and the rule of

law

."[3]

VII.

The most childish thing in Germany Today Peter Briody (2007) plastically calls

"

infantile code of honour

": "insult" in German Penal Law, and "defamation", too, is,

however, by no means a peanut affaire. According to the statistical data Briody

presents, public accusations in Germany dramatically increased not only within the

20th century in general but also progressively within the last years.

This development and "career" of "insult" in Germany in fact exemplifies an

extremely contradictory relationship: on the one hand since the German Penal Law

was created after the founding of the German

Reich

, in 1872, the petty little crime

named "insult" has never legally defined, in other words: whenever anyone in

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8

Germany is accused, and the more sentenced, for "insult" (§ 185 GPL) an obvious

violation of that leading principle of any law

nullum crimen sine lege, nulla poena

sine lege

­ is to be stated. On the other hand, however, the German juridical, and

political, authorities do not care about at all, being sustainable busy when accusing

and sentencing every year more than hundred thousand humans, actually about

180.000 in 2005. It seems as if a grounded principle of Human Rationality and the

Age of Enlightenment ­ both basic presuppositions for any democratic institutional

setting ­ has, perhaps except that short period called "Weimar Culture", never

arrived in Germany until nowadays.

VIII.

I really cannot know anything about the juridical worst case within current

Germany. But there is one thing I know for sure: Neither political corruption nor

societal corrupting is to be cured within the current juridical system as relevant part

of the general societal system as such. And that is why I take the liberty, if I may,

and remind my scholarly reader/s on what the old German radical philosopher

G.F.W. Hegel advised us, by quoting him, applying his counsel to that actual

juridical business in Germany Today:

"

The most reasonable thing children can do with their toy is to break it to pieces

."

*

[1] «Lorsque dans la même personne ou dans la même corps de magistrature, la

puissance législative est réunie á la puissance exécutrice, il n′y a point de liberté;

parce qu′on peut craindre que le même monarque ou le même sénat ne fasse des lois

tyranniques pour les exécuter tyranniquement [...] Il n′y a point encore de liberté si

la puissance de juger n′est pas séparée de la puissance législative et de l′exécutrice. Si

elle était jointe à la puissance législative, le pouvoir sur la vie et la liberté des citoyens

serait arbitraire: car le juge serait législateur. Si elle était jointe á la puissance

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9

exécutrice, le juge pourrait avoir la force d′un oppresseur. Tout serait perdu si le

même corps des principaux, ou des nobles, ou du peuple, exercainent ces trois

pouvoirs: celui de faire les lois, celui d′exécuter les résolutions publiques, et celui de

juger les crimes ou les différends des particuliers.» («De l´esprit des loi» [1748, VI/6]:

http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/De_l%E2%80%99esprit_des_lois). The central phrase

of the most famous chapter Montesquieu (1689-1755) wrote on the English

constitution (1748) is polar to any tyranny of the ancient regime: "Whenever the same

person or the same public office simultaneously holds both the legislative power and

the executive power, there cannot be any freedom and liberty. Moreover, liberty and

freedom cannot be guaranteed whenever the power to judge is not separated from

the legislative and executive powers."

[2] The German wikipedia-version is following this falsified trait, in a cretinistic

manner translating instead of «Gewaltentrennung» - "Gewaltenteilung" (like

"Arbeitsteilung", i.e. "division of labour",

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gewaltenteilung;

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Secondat%2C_Baron_de_Montesquieu). -

The English version correctly translates «separation of powers»

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_powers;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_the_Laws;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Secondat%2C_baron_de_Montesquieu).

Moreover, "Encyclopaedia Britannica" also translates correctly "separation of

powers" in her entries "Montesquieu" and "liberalism". Finally, "Enc. Brit." has not

got an entry for "insult" in particular although "insult" is mentioned several times in

other contexts. (2004: 2nd CD-Rom-edition)

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[3] ,,Kein Wort dieses Schriftsatzes, weder als einzelnes noch i.V.m. anderen, darf

dahin ausgelegt werden, daß es die Persönlichkeit oder Ehre irgendjemandes

beeinträchtige, vielmehr dient jedes ausschließlich der möglichst zügigen

Verwirklichung der im Justizwesen z.Z. real inexistenten, nach Art. 79 (3) GG aber

GG-rechtsstaatskonstitutiven Verfassungsgrundsätze: Menschenwürde, Volks-

hoheit, Gewaltentrennung, Rationalität und Recht, s. Art. 1 und 20 GG."

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References

Richard Albrecht, The Utopian Paradigm ­ A Futurist Perspective; in: Communications, 16 (1991) 3,

283-318; Tertium - Ernst Bloch´s Foundation of ´The Utopian Paradigm´ As a Key Concept Within

Cultural and Social Sciences Research Work; kostenfreie Netzversion beim GRIN-Verlag (i.e.

this

text is completely free of charge and can be downloaded actually):

http://www.grin.com/en/fulltext/phg/25119.html; Bürgerrechte und Staatspflichten in Deutschland:

Entscheidungen des deutschen Bundes(verfassungs)gerichts und ihre Konsequenzen;

this text is

completely free of charge to be downloaded

via

Universitas-online, 11.2003:

http://www.hirzel.de/universitas/archiv/buergerrechteneu.pdf;

,,Beleidigun

g" als justitielles Konstrukt

von Verfolgerbehörden. Forschungsbericht und Material/ien zum Stand der Dinge in der

Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Anfang 2005

["Insult" within Current Germany, 2005. A radical look

on a petty crime]

;

this text is

completely free of charge to be downloaded

:

http://www.hausarbeiten.de/faecher/hausarbeit/jul/25339.html;

Beleidigungsfarce

:

this text is

completely free of charge to be downloaded

: http://de.geocities.com/earchiv21/beleidigungsfarce.htm;

StaatsRache. Texte gegen die

Dummheit im deutschen Recht(ssystem)

(München: GRIN Verlag für

akademische Texte, 2005, iii/149 p. [= e-Buch]); das Vorwort ist kostenfrei online beim GRIN-Verlag

(

the preface of this book is

free of charge to be downloaded

):

http://www.wissen24.de/vorschau/36391.html; ,,Beleidigung" ­ Verfassungsbeschwerde [an das

deutsche Bundesverfassungsgericht 31.12.2005];

this text is

completely free of charge to be

downloaded

: http://www.grin.com/de/fulltext/juh/26983.html; Menschenrechtsbeschwerde [an den

EGMR 31.8.2006];

this text is

completely free of charge to be downloaded

:

http://www.grin.com/de/fulltext/juj/26984.html. - Wilma Ruth Albrecht,

Harry Heine. Ein Lesebuch.

Aachen: Shaker, 2007, ii/112 p. ([= Berichte aus der Literaturwissenschaft], ISBN 978-3-8322-6062-

0). - Hannah Arendt, Elemente und Ursprünge totaler Herrschaft [1951]; dt. Neuausgabe: München-

Zürich: Piper, 1986 [=Serie Piper/SP 645]. - Vilhelm Aubert, The Hidden Society [1965]; with a new

introduction by Howard S. Becker. New Brunswick (N.J.): Transactions Books, 1982. - Hermann

Avenarius, Die Rechtsordnung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Eine Einführung; Bonn: bpb, 2002³ [

= Schriftenreihe Band 370]. - Peter Briody, The Silence of the LLAMS - Human Rights Violations in

Germany;

this text is completely free of charge to be downloaded

: http://www.miscarriage-of-

justice.net [2004]; Die Protagonisten eines infantilen Ehrenkults. Die Beleidigungsgesetze in

Deutschland;

this text

is

completely free of charge to be downloaded

:

http://www.beschwerdezentrum.de [2007

]. -

Ralf Dahrendorf, Gesellschaft und Demokratie in

Deutschland. München: Piper, 1965. - Peter Gay, Weimar Culture: The Outsider As Insider; in:

Donald Fleming; Bernard Baylin (eds.), The Intellectual Migration. Europa and America, 1930-1960.

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12

Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1969, 11-93. - Edmund Haferbeck; Detlef Winter, Die

Rechtsbeugermafia; Schwerin: Roter Oktober, 1999. - Landtag NRW: Petitionsausschuß, Fünf-

Jahres-Bericht, 13. Wahlperiode, 2000 bis 2005, Düsseldorf 2005. - Franz Neumann, Behemoth. The

Structure and Practice of National Socialism 1933-1944; 1944²; US-Taschenbuchausgabe New York:

Harper & Row, 1966³. - Ernst Ottwalt, Denn sie wissen, was sie tun, Ein deutscher Justiz-Roman.

Berlin: Malik, 1931. - Claus Plantiko, ´Richterwahl auf Zeit durchs Volk´. Ein Plädoyer mit

Konsequenzen. Kritisch-rechtswissenschaftliche Studie zur berufsrichterlichen

Legitimationsproblematik [2004];

this text is completely free of charge to be downloaded

:

http://www.hausarbeiten.de/faecher/hausarbeit/juh/24886.html. - Egon Schneider, Logik für Juristen.

Die Grundlage der Denklehre und der Rechtsanwendung; Berlin-Frankfurt/Main: Franz Vahlen, 1965

[5., neubearbeitete und erweiterte Auflage 2001].

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© author [2007]

The Author

Dr.rer.pol.habil.

Richard Albrecht

, PhD., is an experienced social psychologist,

political scientist, and, 2002-07, managing editor of the smart independent online-

magazine for Human and Civil Rights in Germany:

http://de.geocities.com/earchiv21/rechtskulturaktuell.htm. As a scholar, Richard

Albrecht is basically interested in another paradigm, enabling cultural and social

scientists sketching projective perspectives for future sciences, and sciences gaining

future (as sketched in his piece "Past, Present, Future: Aspects of an Integrative

Concept for Social Scientists": http://www.wissen24.de/vorschau/39890.html). As

an early protagonist of the "Bremen School", Richard Albrecht worked out relevant

aspects in his essay

The Utopian Paradigm

, first published in 1991; the ´theoretical´

part of this piece is online: http://www.grin.com/en/fulltext/phg/25119.html. As a

social psychologist, the author is basically interested in human actions and acting

human. ­ Richard Albrechts book on the German

State as Revenger

appeared as the

authors first e-book (2005), the preface is free of charge:

http://www.wissen24.de/vorschau/36391.html. In 2006 the author published

Völkermord(en)

and

Armenozid

as the first two volumes of his trilogy

Genozidpolitik im

20. Jahrhundert

(Aachen: Shaker, 2006 [ = Allgemeine Rechtswissenschaft]). The third

volume:

,,Wer redet denn heute noch von der Vernichtung der Armenier ?" ­ Adolf Hitler

vor den Oberkommandierenden am 22. August 1939

("Who is, after all, today speaking

about the destruction of the Armenians ?" ­ What Hitler really said when talking to

his Supreme Commanders, August 22th, 1939) is forthcoming (2007).

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14

Richard Albrecht

D.53902 Bad Münstereifel

dr.richard.albrecht@gmx.net

http://linxkultur.de -> http://rechtskultur.de

http://de.geocities.com/earchiv21/murdering.people.htm

http://de.geocities.com/earchiv21/rechtskulturaktuell.htm

http://www.grin.com/de/search?searchstring=6760&search=id_autor&page=0

---