A Visit by the German Thought Police

CJ Hopkins

Photo by Markus Spiske: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-in-black-police-uniform-4682719/

Three armed Berlin police officers arrived at my door this morning with a warrant to search my apartment. They conducted the search, interrogated me and my wife, and confiscated my computer.

The search warrant was issued in connection with a new criminal investigation of me by the Berlin State Prosecutor. Once again, as in 2023, I am accused of disseminating pro-Nazi material, the pro-Nazi “material” in question being my book, The Rise of the New Normal Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020-2021).

Unlike the previous charges against me, which were based on two Tweets featuring the cover artwork of the book and opposing the so-called Covid measures, this new criminal investigation is based on my publication and distribution of the book.

The book was banned by Amazon in Germany, Austria, and The Netherlands in 2022. Until today, there was never any proof that it had been officially banned in Germany by the German authorities, although it was removed from distribution in Germany at the same time that Amazon banned it. It remains available in all other countries, and is distributed globally by Amazon and Ingram Content Group.

Today’s visit puts any doubt about whether the book is officially banned in Germany to rest. It is officially banned. And I am being criminally investigated and intimidated by the German authorities for the “crime” of writing, publishing, and distributing it.

This new investigation, the search of my home, and confiscation of my computer are blatantly unconstitutional, a brazen violation of my rights as an author and publisher under Germany’s Basic Law (Grundgesetz).

I will of course be taking legal action to defend those rights.

I’ll write more about today’s visit and the new investigation in due course, after I get set up on my new computer. In the meantime, if you are a member of the press, or if you’re someone with broad “reach” on social media, I would be grateful if you would help spread the word. I am severely “visibility-filtered” (i.e., censored) by both X and Facebook, so this Substack is really my only means of getting the word out.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who has supported me and/or covered my case over the past two plus years. As many of you are aware, my original prosecution is still under appeal at the German supreme court. I had assumed their decision, however it turns out, would finally be the end of this nightmare.

Obviously, I was wrong.

CJ Hopkins is an award-winning American playwright, novelist and political satirist based in Berlin. His plays are published by Bloomsbury Publishing and Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. His dystopian novel, Zone 23, is published by Snoggsworthy, Swaine & Cormorant. Volumes I and II of his Consent Factory Essays are published by Consent Factory Publishing, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amalgamated Content, Inc. He can be reached at cjhopkins.com or consentfactory.org.