Lothar König (pastor)

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Lothar König during a speech at "Köln ist sich quer" in April 2017
At a church service (2013)

Lothar König (born March 11, 1954 in Leimbach , Nordhausen district ) is a German Protestant pastor . In 1989/90 he organized GDR Monday demonstrations in Merseburg and headed the Young Community (JG) in Jena from 1990 to 2019 . He campaigns against right-wing extremism in the Federal Republic of Germany and warned early on of the development of neo-Nazism in Jena into right- wing terrorism .

On the anniversary of the air raids on Dresden in 2011, he took part in a demonstration against right-wing extremists, as a result of which the Dresden public prosecutor charged him with “serious incitement to breach the peace ”. This and the following criminal case (2013) made König known nationwide. After false testimony by witnesses and serious errors or legal violations by the prosecution were uncovered, the process was broken off and finally discontinued in 2014.

König has been married since 1971 and has four children. His daughter Katharina König-Preuss is a member of Die Linke in the Thuringian state parliament . His sons Tilman and Karl-Friedrich König are filmmakers.

Training and first pastor's position

König grew up on a farm in the village of Leimbach (southern Harz). In the 1960s, under political pressure, his parents joined a production cooperative. King's older brother was born in 1949 and died that same year. His sister, born in 1952, was severely disabled and died in 1959.

König went to school in Nordhausen. From the second grade onwards, he campaigned for former war refugees from Silesia . In fourth grade, he overdrawn a picture of GDR head of state Walter Ulbricht and was reprimanded for it. In 1969 at the age of fifteen he painted “21. August '68 Dubcek ”on a house wall to show solidarity with Alexander Dubček , the initiator of the Prague Spring who was violently overthrown . The German People's Police and the Ministry for State Security (MfS) then searched his parents' house. He was publicly reprimanded at school. Then he joined the Free German Youth (FDJ). His classmates voted him FDJ secretary, but the SED leadership dismissed him after three days. König had to leave school after the tenth grade and was not admitted to high school. He did his military service in the NVA . Some of his friends were imprisoned for opting for total conscientious objection .

Then König was trained as a cutting machine operator. In 1975 he began a two-year training course as a Protestant deacon in Eisenach . After graduation, he studied Protestant theology in Erfurt and Jena from 1977 . In addition to the Bible , Dorothee Sölle and liberation theology, he also read works by Karl Marx , Leon Trotsky and Rudi Dutschke .

In Erfurt he already took part in the “Open Youth Work”. This ecclesiastical concept should appeal to young people who have been culturally excluded from the GDR state and from bourgeois Christianity , and include their lifestyle and creativity. In 1981, König demonstrated in the GDR against the NATO double resolution and experienced the rapid collapse of the peace movement at the time when the resolution was implemented. Since his student days he had close relationships with the JG Stadtmitte in Jena. The MfS counted its members and contacts to the GDR opposition, monitored them closely and often constructed offenses in order to be able to prosecute young people.

King became pastor of the Evangelical Church in the ecclesiastical province of Saxony . From 1986 he worked in Merseburg and built up a JG there. With this he became involved against the GDR state power and organized Monday demonstrations. The MfS put an extensive file on him with eavesdropping protocols.

City youth pastor in Jena

In 1990, König became youth minister in the youth community. With her he campaigned against the growing neo-Nazi scene in a prefabricated housing estate in Lobeda and in the Winzerla district . He observed the radicalization of neo-Nazis in the vicinity of the local "winegrowers' club". The JG became a refuge for young people who were threatened and attacked by neo-Nazis because they were leftists or because of their appearance. In 1993 they permanently injured King's then 15-year-old daughter Katharina. Since then, König has been collecting all available information about the right-wing scene in Jena. The JG regularly publishes information brochures on this. In 1997, König was seriously injured by a fraternity and left a scar on his forehead. He had rushed to the aid of a youth who had been attacked by three fraternity members in front of the JG house. The case against the perpetrators was dropped for lack of evidence and witnesses; the JG witnesses were rejected because of bias.

In 1996 the Jena police raided the JG to prove König drug trafficking . The allegations turned out to be untenable. In 1997, Thuringia's Interior Minister Richard Dewes apologized for the action.

Under König, the JG Jena developed into a decided opponent of the right-wing extremist scene in Thuringia. On July 18, 1998, she prevented Rolf Schlierer ( The Republicans ) from appearing in Jena. In response to this, armed and masked neo-Nazis attacked the youth group more often, disrupted a punk concert and threatened anti- fascist youth and Africans in the city center. A leaflet signed by the Thuringian Homeland Security , among others , claimed that the king was helping autonomous people in acts of violence and protecting them from criminal prosecution. On October 10, 1998 André Kapke ( NPD Thuringia) marched with around 50 neo-Nazis unannounced to the house of the JG. They tried to storm it so police had to intervene. On October 17, 1998, 40 neo-Nazis, this time registered, demonstrated again under police protection in front of the JG building. Kapke described König as a “protector of left-wing terror”. Neo-Nazis collected signatures against the JG in districts they dominated. König stated that they wanted to “divert attention from their own violence and their inhuman worldview” in order to “weaken the social acceptance of JG and any anti-fascist work”. The convention of the Jena church district expressed its solidarity with him and the JG.

In 1998, after the neo-Nazis Uwe Böhnhardt , Uwe Mundlos and Beate Zschäpe went into hiding , who then founded the terrorist group National Socialist Underground (NSU), König pointed out a possible accomplice in Jena to police investigators. The investigators denied a connection. In 2012 it turned out that König's suspicions were correct.

Jena's city administration temporarily cut the city subsidies from the JG because (according to König 2017) their reports on right-wing extremism in Jena were considered "pollution of the nest". Schools have also denied the problem. The few social workers in the winegrowers club were overwhelmed and insufficiently supported. When right-wing youth professionalized and politicized around 1995, it was too late. Despite the awareness that has arisen since 2000, there is a lack of initiatives against the right in many places. The then Lord Mayor Peter Röhlinger (FDP) asked the regional bishop to transfer the king. In 2002, however, the JG received the Julius Rumpf Prize of the Martin Niemöller Foundation for its commitment against neo-Nazis and the work with homeless young people and migrants , and in 2003 the Federal Youth Promotion Prize and the Dieter Baacke Prize . The JG takes part in the protests against the transport of nuclear waste in Germany . Since 2004, König has also been active in local politics as a city councilor for the “Citizens for Jena” faction.

König and the JG took part in the protests against the G8 summit in Heiligendamm in 2007 with his blue VW bus ("Lauti") that had been converted into a loudspeaker truck . König used the bus as a means of communication, repeatedly calling on the demonstrators to stay together and calling on violent groups to stop collecting stones: it contradicts the declared majority will of the demonstrators for nonviolence , and police officers are also people. He called on them to respect the right of peaceful protesters to demonstrate in the approved areas. In this way he continuously contributed to de-escalating tensions between the police and protesters. This induced the head of operations to use the "Lauti" for his announcements. A video tape from the JG documents the process.

Since 1993, König has been participating in protests against the marches by right-wing extremists in Dresden who misuse the annual commemoration of February 13, 1945 for historical revisionist propaganda . On February 13, 2009, around 6,500 neo-Nazis from all over Europe roamed through Dresden unhindered. That is why various anti-fascist protest groups joined forces in the alliance Dresden Naziffrei and called for non-violent sit-ins at traffic junctions in 2010 and 2011 in order to effectively prevent the march of the right-wing extremists. The JG Jena participated in this concept and worked to ensure that other church groups also supported blockades instead of just human chains and vigils far away on the marching route of the right-wing extremists. On the other hand, as in previous years, the police opted for a large cordon of the city center to keep neo-Nazis and counter-demonstrators away from each other. She tried to break the blockades by force, but was unable to lead the right-wing extremist meeting through the city in 2011. On February 19, 2011, according to the organizers, more than 21,000 people, according to the police, 12,000 people took part in the blockades of around 3000 right-wing extremists. As a pastor and pastor , König accompanied young people from the JG with his VW bus.

The 2013 trial

Investigations according to §129 StGB

In the summer of 2011, König learned that the Saxony police were investigating him according to Section 129 for “ forming a criminal organization ”. He was suspected of belonging to an "anti-fascist sports group" that was hunting right-wing extremists in Dresden. In order to find the presumed association, the Saxony police illegally skimmed more than a million cell phone data in Dresden on February 19, 2011, including from people not involved in demonstrations, and initiated more than 600 investigative proceedings. King called the suspicion "absurd"; At that time he weighed around 100 kilograms and had been praised by the Thuringian police for his commitment against right-wing extremists. He criticized the police measures in Spiegel from August 1, 2011 as "SED methods" as he knew them from the GDR, and as a tendency towards an unjust state. Scientists, politicians and media representatives explained the investigation against the alleged "Antifa sports group" as an attempt by the Saxon police to exonerate themselves from criticism of their actions during the right-wing extremist marches. The appeal to § 129 is a pretext to be able to intervene more strongly in the fundamental rights of affected individuals.

The legal committee in the state parliament of Saxony learned at a special session on August 23, 2011 that the investigation against König according to §129 had already been initiated on February 7, 2011 and temporarily suspended on August 19, but continued to be investigated against him for "incitatory breach of the peace" has been. That is why MP Johannes Lichdi suspected that the allegation of the criminal organization was only constructed in order to be able to eavesdrop on König.

House search

On August 2, 2011, the Dresden public prosecutor Ute Schmerler-Kreuzer requested a house search of König, which the magistrate Hans-Joachim Hlavka ordered unchanged on August 8. It was carried out two days later for no apparent immediate cause, months after the alleged act. On August 10, starting at 6:00 a.m., around 30 Saxon police officers searched the offices and living quarters of König and his roommates in Jena for over four hours. The head of operations did not cite §129 as the reason, but rather a "breach of the peace" committed on February 19, 2011 according to § 125 . König was on a hiking holiday and allowed his daughter Katharina and two lawyers to observe the search by telephone. Since the police immediately searched all rooms at the same time and only subsequently showed their permission to do so, they thwarted the legally required independent witness observation. They confiscated several computers, all sound and data media, medicines, files, a flag from the St. Pauli football club, vehicle documents and the VW bus. Contrary to the usual request for administrative assistance, she did not inform the Thuringian police or Jena's city administration.

During the search, up to 600 people gathered in front of the house and expressed their solidarity with König. This started a nationwide solidarity movement. He initially suspected that the search was a reaction to the mirror report from the previous week and the criticism it contained of the illegal actions of the Saxony police.

During the 2013 trial it was found that the Saxon police had already observed his house and the JG building in July 2011 in order to prepare for the search. The Dresden public prosecutor obtained a three-month observation of the king in February 2011. The reason was a suspicion against his daughter Katharina, who was observed on her part: she and two men visited a cemetery in Dresden on February 5, 2011, where wreaths are always laid on the anniversary of the air raids. This was misinterpreted as a possible preparation for a criminal act. As part of the arranged observation, the police filmed every movement of the blue VW bus on February 19, 2011.

The search warrant subsequently served contained various interrogation protocols which the “Special Commission for the Prosecution of Criminal Offenses on February 19, 2011” (SOKO 19/2) had combined into an “interim report”. Without showing the course of the investigation, the decision named the following allegations:

  • König found himself with the VW bus in the middle of a crowd that was generally recognizable as violent and violent.
  • At 8:50 a.m. he called the crowd to advance against a police cordon.
  • At around 3:00 p.m. on the Nossener Bridge , the bus loudspeaker shouted “Cover the cops with stones” with the king's approval.
  • With König's knowledge, the VW bus was used to withdraw and hide criminal persons and to send signals to the crowd.

A police officer from Berlin testified to the first and another from Pirna to the second alleged violence. The second witness originally stated on March 23, 2011 that the call to throw stones had been made “via loudspeaker or megaphone”. As of May 2011, he claimed that the call had clearly come from the blue VW bus. That is why the house search had been ordered. According to the investigation file, there was no video material for the allegations. Until then, the prosecutor had only seen a video clip that was heavily darkened by a sepia filter , on which no calls for violence could be heard, nor were clothing features typical of the scene recognizable for autonomous people.

Indictment and file find

The indictment dated December 2, 2011 elaborated the allegations in the search warrant and summarized five main allegations:

  • King participated in acts of violence against people or things out of a crowd,
  • encouraged the willingness of the crowd to take such actions,
  • willfully assisting a person in resisting law enforcement officers,
  • deliberately tried to thwart a legal penalty in two cases,
  • coerced a person into an act unlawfully by force.

After receiving incomplete indictment files in copy form, King's defense attorney Johannes Eisenberg unsuccessfully requested full inspection of the original files . After examining the preliminary indictment (received on December 13, 2011), he filed a motion in January 2012 that the indictment should not be admitted because of serious procedural errors and lack of evidence. The prosecution did not send him their April 2012 reply. On November 25, 2012, Judge Ulrich Stein admitted the indictment in full without examining the objections. As in 2011, the defense first learned this from media reports and only received the completed indictment on December 12, 2012.

Because Eisenberg did not receive any original documents despite several urgent inquiries, on March 14, 2013 (five days before the original trial date), he asked the Dresden District Court to view the original files unannounced. In their folder he found around 100 loose, unnumbered and undated single sheets as well as data carriers, videos, photographs and photo folders that had not been sent to him. Stein stated that he had no knowledge of this material either, and postponed the date of the trial. Eisenberg filed a criminal complaint and a complaint against the public prosecutor's office in Dresden and demanded clarification about the origin of the withheld material and an assurance that the file was now complete. The public prosecutor Schmerler-Kreuzer stated that the additional files were accidentally put in the prosecution file, were only to a small extent relevant to the process and did not exonerate König. She declined a promise of completeness. Eisenberg then asked her superiors to check whether the prosecution had any further unknown material relevant to the process. He also asked that the prosecutor be released from the prosecution for suppressing evidence . Both were rejected. Where the additional documents came from, who had inserted them undated, withheld them and why, could not be clarified in the main hearing.

Main hearing

Lothar König at the Dresden District Court (2013)

On February 9, 2013, König stated in an interview: In the main hearing, it must be clarified how the charge of serious breach of the peace could come about. It should not become normal in the Federal Republic that a committed demonstrator "is made responsible for all crimes that have taken place in the vicinity of this march." If convicted, he is ready to accept the prison sentence. His commission to tell of Jesus of Nazareth may make it necessary to interfere in current political injustices. The extent and the brutal contempt of the NSU terror would have surprised him despite his early warnings about it. This has not yet been dealt with socially. The real danger is that not enough people stand up for democracy and lose trust in it. The churches should have taken a far clearer position against right-wing extremism since 1990. His faith helps him to face the challenge of the process and its risks for himself. He will again take part in the protest against the annual Nazi rally in Dresden.

The main hearing in the Dresden Regional Court began on April 4, 2013. After the indictment had been read out, the defense pointed out that König and JG members had never been heard of the charges. King never calls police officers "cops", but defends every person's right to physical integrity. He said he wanted to protect the JG protesters from violence by neo-Nazis or the police and, if necessary, lead them away from places where there was a risk of criminal offenses and risk of injury. The allegation that the king approved crimes simply by being close to criminals in large numbers is a relapse into ethical justice. The defense attorneys then denied each individual charge on the basis of the previous video material:

  • König repeatedly called for calm when he noticed conflicts. He also invited the police to ask about possible access to the target of the counter-demonstration.
  • According to the state government, there was no no-stay zone on February 19, 2011.
  • At 9:07 am, König asked the police to take the bus to see the counter-demonstrators. In terms of time and content, this contradicted the alleged call for violence at 8:45 a.m.
  • The alleged loudspeaker announcement, "Police officers from Berlin [...] poke a bit", read according to the audio document and its transcription: "The police officers from Berlin will [...] be okay".
  • König had called back a group trying to break a police cordon.
  • The music, which was supposedly inciting violence, only contained a call to dance at the specified time.
  • The alleged announcement "Cover the cops with stones" was completely empty. According to the interrogation protocol, the witness had initially emphasized that "a person I could not identify" had said that.
  • When stones were thrown, König immediately drove the bus away from the locking chain.
  • When the barricades burned, King asked bystanders to block further away to allow the police to put out the fire.
  • The alleged coercion was to avoid pedestrians.
  • König could not have known that a person who was chased by the police and jumped on the bus was a stone thrower. If he had wanted to protect her from arrest, he would only have had to accelerate slightly. In fact, he was driving at a walking pace, so the police officers hurrying on caught the bus immediately.

Eisenberg affirmed that the trial should never have been opened based on this material. König then asked the public prosecutor directly why she assumed that any means in the fight against Nazis would be fine with him and that he did not see him as the pastor who wanted to protect young anti-Nazis from uncontrolled reactions. This is the only way he has earned a longstanding reputation with everyone who knows him.

In the first days of the trial for the taking of evidence (April 24, May 28–30, 2013) the defense refuted the statement of the police witness from Pirna with video recordings of the youth group from the roof of the VW bus: The continuous soundtrack was only at 3:00 p.m. Listening to music, no call to the king. Thereupon the witness admitted that he had learned about the proceedings against König after his initial testimony and that he had adapted them to the statements of colleagues who wanted to have heard the call to throw stones from the VW bus. In addition, the police video material did not show a megaphone.

A policewoman from the same unit claimed that König had tried to ram the overtaking police column and try to separate her vehicle from it. Her colleague, who had driven in front of her, however, testified that König had braked so as not to drive the column into the right side. His interrogation protocol was missing from the indictment. The JG video confirmed his statement: A police grille in the left lane had forced the column to change lanes to the right. König drove in the middle lane and had to avoid a pedestrian who had jumped in front of the bus from the right. In order not to ram the column, he had braked. The JG video also showed that two police officers immediately beat a teenager who was hanging on the open side door when they caught up with him. This refuted the statement made by their unit chief that they duly declared the boy to be arrested. So the king had not coerced anybody or thwarted any arrest.

On the penultimate day of the trial (June 20, 2013), the court learned of around 200 hours of video material that the investigators had classified as irrelevant and that had not been added to the indictment. Stein stopped the process for the evaluation. The new police videos Eisenberg received on June 26th showed only a white bus, no blue, and no call at 8:45 a.m. There were no black-clad masked people standing around the bus, but colorfully clad unmasked peaceful demonstrators with trade union and party flags. The police surrounded them for hours without explanation. Various people tried between 9:07 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to announce a meeting with the chief of operations over the king's loudspeaker. King repeatedly called on them to be patient and calm, but was not in the lead among several speakers with megaphones. Contrary to his calls, the majority withdrew to the rear before a second protest march arrived. Three police officers had separated these passages from the previously submitted compilation at their own discretion. On July 1, 2013, the defense also received a folder with previously unknown investigation files. Among them was a statement by a police officer that he had seen an elderly bearded man by the blue bus (King) who repeatedly called on the crowd to remain peaceful. After the breakup in small groups, violence emanated from there, just not from the group around the bus.

On the last day of the hearing (July 2, 2013), the defense lawyers showed the results of their samples. The prosecutor admitted that she was seeing the exonerating passages for the first time and had not checked the selection. By omitting this evidence, Eisenberg concluded that there was a deliberate manipulation, which King was supposed to depict, contrary to the facts, as being present in acts of violence and inciting it. He filed charges against the respective police witnesses for making unofficial false statements , beating without addressing them and suppressing evidence. He also requested that the proceedings be suspended in order to have the time necessary to review all of the video material. The judge then stayed the proceedings for four to six months. The prosecution did not contradict.

attitude

On June 28, 2013, after the additional video material appeared, Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste (ASF), the Federal Working Group on Church and Right-Wing Extremism (BAG K + R) and Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Thierse called for the ongoing trial against König to be stopped immediately. On July 1, 2013, they started a nationwide solidarity campaign at the Kreuzkirche (Dresden) . Postcards with portraits and quotes from people from Protestant regional churches who, like König as Christians, actively defend democracy and human rights , called for the process to be terminated.

On July 8, 2013, the defense also requested that the proceedings be terminated. To this end, she listed all rebutted charges and false statements and stated that the trial would never have been opened with knowledge of the withheld evidence. The witnesses reported for proven false statements would no longer be considered as witnesses. The few charges that have not been refuted by videos can only be renegotiated with disproportionate effort. That is why the process has become legally pointless and unreasonable for König and has to be discontinued.

The request went unanswered for months. On September 23, 2013, the defense only learned through direct inspection of the files that the public prosecutor had rejected allegations of manipulation and refused to be hired. On January 6, 2014, defense lawyers publicly accused the prosecution of inaction. They had been promised but not sent an overview table of the video material relating to the king, the blue bus and the crime scenes and times the police investigators would filter out. The prosecution also did not respond to reservations that the residual material could not be excluded as evidence. A court spokeswoman said that it has now been determined "by whom and how the material is to be recorded and the content of the audio tracks is to be documented". The process will continue.

On November 10, 2014, the public prosecutor closed the case after König agreed to pay a fine of 3,000 euros. Half of the edition went to the Justice of Saxony and half to the church district of Dresden-Mitte. The state treasury bore the legal costs. König was relieved and explained that the fine was "not a blemish, we live from the fact that we can take a step back". In 2011 he may not always have done everything right in some situations that required quick decisions. He wants to make a contribution to legal peace. The previous process had already cost him too much energy and the state of Saxony too many resources. He will remain “a rioter with a sense and understanding against injustice in this country”.

The Dresden District Court kept the license plates of the confiscated VW bus until August 2014, so that it could not be deregistered. As a result, the JG suffered damage of some 1000 euros. On January 5, 2015, the Dresden Police Department returned the “Lauti” VW bus to König and the JG.

reception

King’s criminal prosecution was also a national topic from the start. Der Spiegel of August 1, 2011 placed them in the context of illegal interventions by the Saxon judiciary since 1990, especially the mass spying of cell phone data in February 2011.

The raid on August 10, 2011 provoked widespread protests: The Evangelical Church in Central Germany (EKM) criticized that the search of a pastor's apartment violated the secrecy of pastoral care. Thuringia's state government and regional media criticized the procedure as a breach of state sovereignty. The Thüringische Landeszeitung asked the following day under the heading “The attack” whether Thuringia was already being secretly ruled from Saxony and when the country would finally defend itself against such attacks. The Thüringer Allgemeine saw the procedure as suitable to destroy confidence in the rule of law. The Bildzeitung pretended to be looking for evidence of King's guilt, but only stated that, according to photos, he was sitting on the bus at the "crime scene". The ZDF magazine Frontal21 was allowed to view and send some excerpts from the JG videos during the process. The Evangelical Church in Saxony was silent. The Morgenpost (Saxony) attacked the state's judiciary: the investigations only served as a means to investigate the pastor contrary to the rule of law. Nationwide daily newspapers in all directions criticized the justice system in Saxony and highlighted King's longstanding commitment.

Among the critics of the judiciary and supporters of Königs were Ilse Junkermann (regional bishop of the EKM), Brigitte Andrae (president of the EKM), the regional youth convention of the EKM, senior church councilor Michael Lehmann, the alliance Dresden Nazifrei , Thuringia's justice minister Holger Poppenhäger ( SPD ), vice -Government head Christoph Matschie (SPD), Jena's mayor Albrecht Schröter (SPD). Bundestag Vice- President Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Monika Lazar (both Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ) asked the federal government whether the search was lawful, how the information policy of the Dresden public prosecutor's office was to be reconciled with the maintenance of professional secrecy, how often and why the police of a federal state ( here Saxony) in other countries (here Thuringia) become autonomously active.

After the discovery of the NSU terrorist group in November 2011, König became known nationwide as an expert on the neo-Nazi scene in Jena, who warned early about its radicalization and was therefore right. As more and more failures by German security authorities and the Saxon judiciary in the NSU investigations became known, German and foreign media asked him about it.

That is why the criminal trial against König announced at the end of 2012 seemed all the more wrong and met with great public interest. The courtroom was fully occupied on all seven main trial days in 2013. JG Jena set up websites and announced rallies in front of the courthouse, where König, his defense lawyers and supporters continuously provided information on the status of the proceedings. The supporters included the Evangelical University for Social Work Dresden , the Bürger.Courage eV initiative in Dresden and the Saxon state working group Church for Democracy against Right-Wing Extremism . The Kulturbüro Sachsen coordinated the solidarity actions on the trial days. The supporters clarified the alleged political motives of the process and criticized the tradition of commemorating the Dresden city society to the air raids of 1945 as a continued victim myth that allowed the neo-Nazis to gain a foothold. They undertook a site inspection along the Königs demonstration route in 2011, offered a nationwide press conference with prominent supporters (including Anetta Kahane , Wolf-Dieter Narr , Sebastian Krumbiegel ), organized rallies in front of the courthouse under the motto Citizens and Freedom Rights - also in Saxony! Few are affected - we are all meant! , including public midday services. Members of the state parliament such as Johannes Lichdi, Eva Jähnigen , Kerstin Köditz , Annekatrin Klepsch , Freya-Maria Klinger , Henning Homann and Sabine Friedel acted as notifiers and process observers . Attempts by the Dresden judiciary to ban the registered rallies due to disturbance of the peace were successfully repulsed. 61 Dresden citizens expressed their solidarity with König with an open letter. On July 1, 2013, the joint plaintiffs and their lawyers in the NSU trial declared their solidarity with König: "At a time when the majority still looked the other way when racist and right-wing extremist attacks had taken place, he looked, raised his voice and resisted against the growing neo-Nazi scene ”. The reason was the statement made by the defendant Carsten S. in the NSU trial that König and the JG in Jena he was in charge of had repeatedly been victims of targeted attacks by the right-wing extremist "Kameradschaft Jena", which included the NSU perpetrators.

The fact that not only the JG videos, but also the police videos refuted the police witnesses and were only "premiered" during the trial, determined the media reports: They were unable to "reveal" anything in advance, but instead precisely recorded the contradictions between accusations of the prosecution, witness statements and video evidence. The Free Press wrote under the title Strange Word Shifts in the Ear of a Public Prosecutor :

“Everyone pricked up their ears when König began: 'The Berlin police officers ... Is the sentence that, according to the prosecutor, angry? No! Despite the noises of the demonstration, one can clearly hear in the hall: 'Berlin police officers, they will be okay.' In order to get from 'being okay' to 'pissing', several sound and consonant shifts are required. "

Spiegel Online and the taz published the exonerating videos shown in court. As a result, even the conservative media rated the process as a point victory for the king and embarrassment for the prosecutors, whose mistakes, sloppiness and prejudice had become obvious: "A public prosecutor's office has seldom been brought before this."

After the trial was aborted, the defense lawyers published a detailed trial report with all the original documents and came to the conclusion: Saxony's judiciary had wrongly and unjustly threatened König's bourgeois existence. His reputation could have been irreparably damaged even if he had been acquitted. The many mistakes and false statements of the prosecutors are not to be explained as accidental mishaps, but the result of an anti-democratic enemy image and the resulting “zeal for burden”. Only the broad solidarity, together with an offensive defense strategy, prevented the caricature of a left-wing extremist violent criminal from becoming established in the media. It was only through our own video material, enough financial resources and enormous public relations work that it was possible to invalidate the "credibility bonus" of police witnesses. Other demonstrators accused of criminal offenses were not so lucky.

After the termination of the proceedings, editor-in-chief Heribert Prantl commented on other similar processes in Saxony:

“The youth pastor Lothar König, who also demonstrated against the neo-Nazis, was persecuted for years by the Dresden judiciary for violating the peace, until the proceedings were finally abandoned. One really wonders who is actually disturbing the peace in the country. - Anyone who discriminates against non-violent actions against authorized neo-Nazi marches as unlawful 'gross disturbance' disturbs peace in the country. Peace of mind is disturbed by anyone who tries to pull the nerve against right-wing extremism. Peace in the country is disturbed by those who take civil society 's breath away. A judiciary that sees itself as an opponent of civil society has not understood what the administration of justice is. "

Newer procedures

On December 12, 2015, König took part in a demonstration in Leipzig with his VW bus against a march of around 150 right-wing extremists around Christian Worch and his party Dierechte . 23 counter-demonstrators were temporarily arrested, including König. According to him, the police arrested his bus in a cul-de-sac and asked for the car keys. When he initially refused, a police officer hit him in the face with his fist. Without giving any reason, he was again accused of aiding and abetting a serious breach of the peace. On December 22, 2016, the Leipzig public prosecutor closed the investigation against König and the other five bus passengers. The suspicion that he influenced violent criminals or helped organize and plan violent actions has not been substantiated.

In August 2016, König is said to have almost run over a police officer during a demonstration in Jena. In December 2017, the Gera public prosecutor withdrew his driver's license. She justified this with resistance to law enforcement officers in a particularly serious case: King had "pushed the officer about ten meters in front of him" at walking pace, despite his request to stop. König explained that the policeman suddenly jumped in front of his bus. A police unit later surrounded it and only allowed it to continue after police officers from Jena intervened. Media reports interpreted the charge as a further attempt to criminalize König. In December 2017, the Jena König district court revoked the driver's license at the request of the Gera public prosecutor's office. Six officers forced the handover in downtown Jena. In January 2018, the district court lifted the withdrawal: In view of unproven allegations in a case over a year ago, since the king had not been noticed in traffic, it was "no longer proportionate".

On February 15, 2018, detectives confiscated IT equipment, storage media and an i-pad in König's apartment in order to secure a video evidence of "allegedly exonerating content". The public prosecutor's office in Gera explained this with their duty to also raise exculpatory evidence. King's defender had announced the video, but wanted to introduce it only in the process. Katharina König criticized that the police had again searched church rooms and thus violated official secrets. The EKM also protested because, contrary to an agreement with the Thuringian Ministry of Justice in 2013, the police had not informed the regional church office before the investigative measures began. The EKM then demanded that the informal agreement be converted into a contract with Saxony and Thuringia. In the Thuringian state parliament, the SPD, Die Linke and the Greens supported the EKM initiative, CDU and AfD rejected it.

On March 10, 2018, the Jena District Court sentenced König to a fine of 3,600 euros for insulting. Four passers-by reported him that he had compared her to Nazis for no reason and abused her. König had hung up posters against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party , but had to remove them again because he could not show the permission of the city of Jena. The passers-by are said to have asked him about his approach, to which he is said to have reacted unfriendly. The district judge originally did not want to open the procedure, but had to carry it out on the instructions of the Jena Regional Court.

In March 2019, König was legally acquitted of the charge that he had insulted passers-by in Jena as "Nazis". The public prosecutor Martin Zschächner (Gera), who initiated the proceedings against him, the house search in February 2018 and the driver's license withdrawn, was suspected of political bias because of other proceedings and a donation for the AfD. Among other things, Zschächner had stopped investigations into an anti-Semitic “subway song” that participants in an AfD demonstration sang in front of the Young Community of Jena in September 2017 and that witnesses reported as incitement to the masses.

Current engagement

König is friends with Jan Gorkow ("Monchi"), the singer of the punk band Feine Sahne Fischfilet . On February 13, 2015, he let her perform at a public prayer for peace that he held with the JG Jena on Neumarkt (Dresden) . Monchi and the members of the state parliament Johannes Lichdi, Katharina König-Preuss and Astrid Rothe-Beinlich criticized the official commemoration of February 13, 1945 as devoid of history and ineffective; not the city of Dresden, but thousands of anti-fascists would have expelled the neo-Nazis. A “real memory” should not exclude the complicity of many citizens during the Nazi era and today's xenophobic attacks on refugees . The police forbade König from singing because of alleged interference with the neighboring memorial service in the Frauenkirche (Dresden) , whereupon he demonstratively taped his mouth shut.

In November 2015 in a dispute with the psychologist Hans-Joachim Maaz , König stated that “middle-extremists” , populists and followers in the current refugee debate are more dangerous than right-wing and left-wing extremists. Pegida demonstrations in Dresden had started small and had been tolerated for too long. The fact that neo-Nazis ran there and hunted people because of their appearance is also a failure of Christians. There is no real dialogue, but rather mood-raising at the expense of weaker people. The church must again preach the gospel and take away fears, but also stand up for the victims of centuries of exploitation.

On April 10, 2016, König and the JG organized a nationally recognized ecumenical service in the Reconciliation Church (Dachau) . This commemorated the resistance fighters Georg Elser and Dietrich Bonhoeffer , who were murdered on April 9, 1945 in the Dachau and Flossenbürg concentration camps , and in particular of all the victims of right-wing extremist violence in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1990.

The Swiss neo-Nazi band “Firing Squad” has been disseminating a song text on the Internet since October 2016 that includes a murder call with references to the NSU against Katharina and Lothar König. The Swiss neo-Nazi band Amok had previously performed at right-wing rock concerts in Thuringia, against which König and his daughter campaign.

On September 13, 2017, König spoke to around 1,000 opponents of an election campaign by the AfD in Jena. During the opening prayer in front of the town church, he warned to deal with those whose opinion you do not share. Without the AfD stewards and police present intervening, participants in the rally sang a well-known anti-Semitic song by the right-wing rock band Kommando Freisler and addressed the text to the JG. Observers see this as a call to hatred and threats of physical annihilation against the king and his daughter. The Evangelical Lutheran Parish of Jena and the Jewish State Community of Thuringia filed criminal charges of sedition .

In 2017, König's congregation took in five refugees from Syria and Afghanistan and granted them church asylum . König criticized the hardships for everyone involved, which this situation and the examination procedures of the federal authorities meant.

On July 14, 2018, König explained to the NSU trial : Although he was dissatisfied with the verdict, a court process was not there to solve social problems. Society and politics have to take responsibility. The support network of the NSU is "not disclosed" and still works. Right-wing terror could therefore repeat itself in other forms. König's commitment was praised for the fact that Jena had transformed from a stronghold of right-wing extremists into one of the "few bastions against the right in East Germany" since the 1990s.

On August 25, 2019, König retired after 29 years as a youth pastor with a service in Jena's central church St. Michael.

Awards

  • Thuringian Democracy Prize (June 2013)
  • 12th Jena Prize for Civil Courage (June 2013)

literature

Web links

Commons : Lothar König  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Montag: Lothar König , 2012, pp. 66–68
  2. ^ Andreas Montag: Lothar König , 2012, pp. 80–85; Marie Claude-Bianco: Fearless and Uncomfortable. taz, July 3, 2013
  3. ↑ Andreas Montag: Lothar König , 2012, p. 85f.
  4. ↑ Andreas Montag: Lothar König , 2012, p. 16
  5. ↑ Heino Falcke : Letter to Manuel Vogel. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 282f.
  6. ↑ Lothar König: collapse of the peace movement. Zeitzeugenportal.de
  7. ^ Henning Pietzsch: Youth between Church and State. History of church youth work in Jena 1970-1989. Böhlau, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-412-17204-9 , pp. 177-179
  8. ↑ Andreas Montag: Lothar König , 2012, p. 47
  9. ↑ a b Patrick Bauer: As left as Jesus. Neon, January 2012; Reprinted in: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifaschismus als Feindbild. Hamburg 2014, pp. 271–276 (Appendix 9)
  10. ↑ a b Frank Döbert, Volkhard Paczulla: King with rough edges: the youth pastor of Jena in sight. In: Thüringer Allgemeine (ThA), August 12, 2011
  11. ↑ Janine Clausen, Andreas Speit : No prayer helps. In: Jungle World , October 28, 1998
  12. ↑ Tom Sundermann: "Critical voices were quieted". Die Zeit, October 20, 2017
  13. ↑ Andreas Montag: Raise your voice, speak, be understood. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, p. 171f.
  14. ↑ Friedemann Bringt: Invitation to criminal acts? Blockades as an expression of Christian responsibility in the "Saxon democracy". In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 119–129, here pp. 122–126
  15. ↑ Julia Jüttner: Youth pastor Lothar König in court: Dance in Dresden's continuous rain. Spiegel online, May 28, 2013
  16. ↑ Maximilian Popp, Steffen Winter: The hardness of the system. Der Spiegel No. 31, August 1, 2011, pp. 25-27
  17. ^ Controversial raid - investigations against Jena pastors partially suspended. Leipziger Volkszeitung, 23 August 2011
  18. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg, Lea Voigt: The trial against Lothar König - a report. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 16-18
  19. ↑ Katharina König: The search. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 111–117
  20. ↑ Thomas Datt, Arndt Ginzel: Bilderstreit, first fight: points victory for king. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, p. 133
  21. ↑ Christiane Kohl: youth pastor in Saxony accused: waiting for the wrong note. SZ, December 12, 2011
  22. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg, Lea Voigt: The trial against Lothar König. A report. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others: Antifascism as an enemy. Hamburg 2014, pp. 18–20 and 284–291 (Appendix 12: search warrant of the Dresden District Court)
  23. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 292–299 (Appendix 13)
  24. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg, Lea Voigt: The trial against Lothar König. A report. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others: Antifascism as an enemy. Hamburg 2014, pp. 20–44
  25. ↑ We need people “who are committed and committed”. Lothar König in conversation with Philipp Gessler. Deutschlandfunk, February 9, 2013
  26. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg, Lea Voigt: The trial against Lothar König - a report. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 45–57
  27. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg, Lea Voigt: The trial against Lothar König - a report. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 57-77; Motion to stay the main hearing from July 1, 2007
  28. ↑ Kirchen and Wolfgang Thierse call for the criminal proceedings against Lothar König to be stopped. In: Die Zeit , June 28, 2013
  29. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg, Lea Voigt: The trial against Lothar König - a report. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 77-89; Trial against Lothar König: lawyers request the closure of the proceedings. Der Spiegel, July 8, 2013
  30. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg, Lea Voigt: The trial against Lothar König - a report. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, p. 89f.
  31. ↑ Susan Bonath: Endless Search for Evidence. In: Junge Welt, January 9, 2014
  32. ^ Youth pastor König admits his own mistakes in the 2011 anti-Nazi demonstration. Epd / Evangelisch.de, November 11, 2014
  33. ^ Jena youth pastor: Public prosecutor's office closes proceedings against Lothar König. Spiegel online, November 10, 2014
  34. ↑ Chicane the Saxon way. Alternative Dresden News, August 8, 2014
  35. ↑ Saxon Justice returns minibus to Junge Gemeinde. Evangelisch.de, January 5, 2015
  36. ↑ Thomas Datt, Arndt Ginzel: Bilderstreit, first fight: points victory for king. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 131-136; Dresden Nazi-free: Press review August 10, 2011
  37. ↑ EKM, Press Office Erfurt: State Bishop and Church Office President protest against actions by the Saxon police. August 11, 2011
  38. ↑ Press release of the State Youth Convention of the Protestant Church in Central Germany , August 12, 2011
  39. ↑ Wolfram Nagel: 200 hours of film evidence must be reevaluated: the trial of youth pastor Lothar König was suspended. Deutschlandfunk July 4th 2013
  40. ↑ Bündnis Dresden Nazifrei accuses Saxon investigative authorities of "perverting the law and breaking the law". Sachsen-Fernsehen.de, August 12, 2011
  41. ↑ Martin Kaul, Sebastian Erb: Now there are emotions. taz, August 11, 2011
  42. ↑ Martin Kaul: Saxon investigations: "These are alarm signals". taz, August 12, 2011
  43. ↑ Sebastian Erb: Jenas mayor hopes to be acquitted. taz, December 20, 2012
  44. ↑ Michael Freitag: Questions to the Federal Government: What happened in the Lothar König case? Leipzig internet newspaper, August 12, 2011
  45. ↑ Reinhard Mohr: Right-wing terror as a late consequence of a broken system. Welt, November 18, 2011; Report Mainz: Report Mainz asks Lothar König, city youth pastor in Jena. SWR, December 13, 2012; Helen Pidd: How could German neo-Nazi killers have evaded police for 13 years? The Guardian , Nov. 18, 2011
  46. ↑ Thomas Datt, Arndt Ginzel: Bilderstreit, first fight: points victory for king. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, p. 137f.
  47. ^ Danilo Starosta: Support from Dresden. Interior views of the solo group. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 151–163
  48. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 265–267 (Appendix 5: Open letter from Dresden )
  49. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, p. 262f. (Appendix 3: Declaration by the NSU secondary fighters: Solidarity with Lothar König. )
  50. ↑ Examples:
    Martin Machowecz: Lothar König: Nobody wanted it. Die Zeit, March 27, 2013
    Julia Jüttner: Youth pastor Lothar König: A man of God without a halo. Spiegel online, April 2, 2013
    Pastor in court: "Cover the cops with stones". Welt online, April 4, 2013
    Cornelius Pollmer: Trial against Pastor König: “Malicious, drowned and lies”. SZ, April 4, 2013
    Petra Strutz: exchange of blows over Pastor König. ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2018 in the Internet Archive )     Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Sächsische Zeitung, April 24, 2013 Eike Kellermann: Trial in Dresden: Limits of dispute. Der Tagesspiegel, May 12, 2013 “What is the shit?” ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Sächsische Zeitung, May 28, 2013 Fabian Köhler: ++ Live report ++ Trial against Nazi opponent Lothar König. ND, May 28, 2013 Julia Jüttner: Trial of anti-Nazi activists: Der Wutpfarrer. Spiegel online, May 29, 2013 Video in the Lothar König trial shows the use of baton. ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Sächsische Zeitung, May 29, 2013 Sebastian Erb: Trial of Pastor Lothar König: "Bella Ciao" instead of "Bulls with Stones". taz, May 29, 2013 Peter Schilder: Trial of youth pastor in Jena: contradictions and inconsistencies. FAZ, May 30, 2013 Sebastian Erb: Trial against Pastor Lothar König: Video proves police violence. taz, May 30, 2013 Julia Jüttner: Trial of the youth pastor König: “It is lied, lied, lied”. Spiegel online, May 30, 2013 Julia Jüttner: Anti-Nazi demonstration in Dresden: Investigations against beating police officers. Spiegel online, June 4, 2013 New videos in the trial of Pastor König in Dresden: The trial has been suspended for months. Leipziger Volkszeitung, July 2, 2013 The trial of youth pastor Lothar König has burst. Südthüringer Zeitung, July 2, 2013 New video material: Trial of youth pastor König suspended. SZ, July 2, 2013 Julia Jüttner: Dresden District Court: Trial against youth pastor Lothar König has burst. Spiegel online, July 2, 2013 Julia Jüttner: Broken trial against Pastor König: 160 hours of film material, zero evidence. Spiegel online, July 2, 2013 Cornelius Pollmer: Youth pastor Lothar König: Ember citizens against right-wing extremism. SZ, November 12, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sz-online.de

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  51. ↑ Thomas Datt, Arndt Ginzel: Bilderstreit, first fight: points victory for king. In: Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 138–141
  52. ↑ Johannes Eisenberg and others (ed.): Antifascism as enemy image. Hamburg 2014, pp. 90–92
  53. ↑ Heribert Prantl: Investigation against Bodo Ramelow: No farce, but malice. SZ, December 10, 2014
  54. ↑ King: "Then I got really pissed off". New Germany , December 13, 2015; Cornelius Pollmer: Leipzig: "Open Street Terror". SZ, December 13, 2015
  55. ↑ Leipzig Public Prosecutor's Office closes the case against Lothar König. Leipziger Volkszeitung, December 22, 2016; Pastor König did not break the peace in the country - the "Lauti" case was closed. Thuringian General, December 22, 2016
  56. ↑ New trouble for Pastor Lothar König: Police officer almost run over with Lauti? taz, December 18, 2017; Michael Bartsch: Lothar König on the Saxon police: "There is now the city youth driver". taz, December 21, 2017
  57. ↑ Sebastian Haak: Stage victory for city youth pastor: He's driving again. Südthüringer Zeitung, January 9, 2018
  58. ↑ Trouble with the judiciary again: Investigations against the youth pastor König. ThA, February 16, 2018
  59. ↑ After a search at Jena's youth pastor - church calls for more protection of its rooms from raids. Thuringian newspaper, February 27, 2018
  60. ↑ Red-Red-Green supports church demands for more protection. Thuringian newspaper, February 28, 2018
  61. ↑ Jena city youth pastor, König, sentenced to a fine. Ostthüringer Zeitung, March 10, 2018
  62. ↑ Christian Fuchs, Luisa Hommerich: The legal public prosecutor. Time April 5, 2019
  63. ↑ Anti-Nazi band Feine Sahne Fischfilet: “Whoever wears our logo gets in the face”. SZ, February 5, 2015
  64. ↑ February 13, 2015: “Feine Sahne Fischfilet” plays with Lothar Koenig's peace prayer at Dresden's Neumarkt. Dresdner Latest News, February 13, 2015
  65. ^ The division in society. In: Glaube und Heimat, Mitteldeutsche Kirchenzeitung, November 30, 2015
  66. ^ Dachau: Against right-wing extremism. Reconciliation Church commemorates the victims of neo-Nazis. SZ, April 8, 2016
  67. ↑ Neo-Nazi band calls for murder against politicians and their families. Time online, October 29, 2016
  68. ↑ Kordula Doerfler, Daniela Vates: "Are you for foreigners?" The AfD stirs up entire cities in the election campaign. Berliner Zeitung, September 13, 2017
  69. ^ Felix Huesmann: Right-wing extremist Auschwitz chants at an AfD demo in Jena - and the stewards do not intervene. Buzzfeed, September 14, 2017
  70. ↑ The strains of church asylum in Jena. Ostthüringische Zeitung, December 30, 2017
  71. ↑ Marco Fieber: Jena pastor after the NSU judgment: "Right-wing terror can repeat itself". Audio podcast, Huffington Post, July 15, 2018
  72. ↑ Dirk Löhr: The uncomfortable one. epd / Evangelisch.de, August 25, 2019; Cornelia Hartmann: Jena youth pastor Lothar König is retiring. MDR, August 25, 2019
  73. ↑ Updated: “Democracy Prize” for Pastor Lothar König from Jena. Thuringian General, June 14, 2013
  74. ^ Prize of civil courage for pastor Lothar König. ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. City of Jena, June 21, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jena.de
personal data
SURNAME King, Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Leimbach