The Berlin public prosecutor is investigating one of the best-known critics of the state corona measures. On Monday, a special task force (SEK) from the Berlin police moved into the apartment of doctor and entrepreneur Paul Brandenburg. He shared that himself. His phones were confiscated. “On legal advice, I will not comment on the details for the time being,” he said.
But what Paul Brandenburg initially concealed: Not only cell phones were confiscated, the investigators also found firearms, as a spokeswoman for the Berlin public prosecutor explained.
According to the information, Brandenburg has been under investigation for two weeks “on suspicion of violating the War Weapons Control Act,” said the spokeswoman. “During this action, data carriers, other evidence and firearms were confiscated.”
Brandenburg later explained in his Telegram channel: “The statement by the public prosecutor’s office requires the classification that I have been a sports shooter and hunter for many years. All guns were in my possession legally; none was a so-called weapon of war.”
Brandenburg became known throughout Germany in the course of the corona pandemic. He is considered a severe critic of the Covid 19 measures, rejects the obligation to wear a mask and has repeatedly described the members of the federal government as “fascists”.
Twitter blocked him, YouTube deleted his vaccination card video
The short message service Twitter blocked Brandenburg’s account after it had repeatedly spread false information. According to the 44-year-old, “from a medical point of view, there has never been a corona pandemic in Germany”. Brandenburg mainly reaches its audience via its own video channel, a podcast format and the messenger service Telegram, where it is followed by over 24,000 people.
The doctor also received a lot of attention for a published video in which the doctor describes how to fake a vaccination card. Both Twitter and YouTube deleted the post. At the height of the pandemic, several corona test centers in Berlin were operated by Brandenburg. He has also appeared several times in so-called alternative media, which also have connections to the lateral thinker scene.
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One day after the raid, Brandenburg published a video interview on social networks in which the doctor spoke to him about the police operation. According to this, the officials broke off the 44-year-old’s door early on Saturday morning and overpowered him.
Brandenburg does not give any details about the background to the search, but speaks of an “escalation level that this regime has now reached”. The comments under the interview with Brandenburg almost exclusively contain statements of solidarity with the doctor.
SEK officials insulted as “Stasi” and “Gestapo”
The SEK officials are insulted either as “Stasi” or “Gestapo”, a user writes: “Get a visit from state terrorists? (…) Antidote highly recommended. AK47 always helps, with a 50 drum.”
Boris Reitschuster, former Moscow correspondent for Focus and a popular journalist in the scene of critics of the measures and opponents of vaccination, also reports on his blog about the deployment in Brandenburg.
Without knowing the background to the raid, Reitschuster writes: “Even if I don’t know enough to make a final assessment, the suspicion arises that a critic of the government and its corona policy is being intimidated here, as well as the judiciary and the police be instrumentalised.”
As early as April, Brandenburg reported that he had received a summons from the state security police. He is accused of “delegitimizing” the state and making contempt for its elected representatives outside of the permissible freedom of expression. In the end, he would even call for violence, Brandenburg quoted as saying.
Editor’s note: The Tagesspiegel reported on Brandenburg in May 2021. In doing so, he had been brought close to the “shut everything up” campaign, which was not the case. The Tagesspiegel has therefore invited Brandenburg to an interview.
