"Idiot" Robert Habeck: How a Bavarian pensioner was made an enemy of the state

"Idiot" Robert Habeck: How a Bavarian pensioner was made an enemy of the state Wiebke Hollersen • 5 hours • 3 minutes reading time House search at six in the morning: Stefan Niehoff with his daughter Alexandra, who was born with trisomy. The man is 64 years old, a pensioner, he lives near Bamberg, he looks after his daughter, who was born with a disability. Like most Germans, he spends his free time on the Internet. This was his downfall this week. Stefan Niehoff posted a picture on the X platform some time ago, via retweet, that was reminiscent of the logo of a shampoo brand. But the picture showed Robert Habeck, the Green Party's vice chancellor. And under the picture it said: "Idiot". Habeck then reported Niehoff for insult. The Berliner Zeitung reported. On Tuesday of this week, the police came to Stefan Niehoff to search his house. The exact background was initially unclear. Did the police really only show up at Niehoff's house because of the anti-Habeck post? Or had the pensioner posted even worse things on the Internet? After all, the house search took place as part of a nationwide "Action Day against anti-Semitic hate crime on the Internet", coordinated by the Federal Criminal Police Office. Now, research by the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) has brought more clarity to the case. The pensioner was known to investigators because of another, open investigation, writes investigative journalist Ronen Steinke in the SZ. However, he did not make any anti-Semitic comments. In the newspaper Welt, Niehoff himself reported on the police visit to him and on his life. Niehoff is said to have posted a historical black-and-white photo "showing an SS or SA man holding up a sign that reads 'Germans don't buy from Jews'," writes the SZ. The investigators apparently did not pay attention to the context - or misunderstood it. At the time of Niehoff's post, there was a debate about a boycott of the Müller dairy. The entrepreneur Theo Müller is said to be close to Alice Weidel, the head of the AfD, which had incited activists against the company. The pensioner had spoken out on the subject, the SZ continued. He commented that boycotts are always wrong. And posted the photo as a historical comparison - without in any way endorsing boycotts against Jews. The accusation of anti-Semitism is pointless. "The doorbell rang at six fifteen," Stefan Niehoff told the world about the day of the search. His time matched that in the police report. He went to the front door in his pajamas and with bare feet. He used to be a Bundeswehr sergeant, he lives with his daughter Alexandra, who is 33 years old and has Down syndrome. Niehoff also had his photo taken with his daughter. He voluntarily handed over his Samsung tablet to the police officers, whom he describes as nice. There was no real house search. The pensioner told the reporter who visited him at home that he had taken part in protests during the Corona pandemic because he believed that the state was restricting personal freedoms too much. At the time, he even hung a GDR flag on his house because he believed that the Federal Republic was moving closer to a dictatorship. He has since distanced himself from the CSU, which his family had traditionally voted for, and the SPD. Today he votes for the AfD. Stefan Niehoff told the Welt reporter that he had no plans to hire a lawyer. He could not imagine that the "idiot" meme could really be punished. It remains to be seen whether the use of the photo from the Nazi era to criticize the call for a boycott against the Müller company could come back to haunt him legally. In September, an artist was convicted in Berlin for expressing his criticism of the pandemic measures with a swastika image. The use of a swastika to criticize the corona measures in Germany is illegal, decided the 2nd Criminal Senate of the Berlin Higher Regional Court. The Berliner Zeitung reported.