Lèse-Majesté? German Vacationers 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.

After some initial hesitation, the couple, both of them convinced Covid sceptics, resolved to tell Drosten what they thought of him, which was not exactly complimentary. For their trouble, they would be the targets of a police investigation under Germany’s so-called lèse-majesté statute and were recently convicted by a German court of having insulted the country’s Covid oracle.

For a blow-by-blow of their encounter with Christian Drosten and some reflections on their case, see my new article at The Daily Sceptic here.

And, by the way, why does any modern, democratic country even have a lèse-majesté law?