Klaus Peter Schimmelpfennig (62) is considered one of the most active critics of the state corona measures in Germany. Now he is on trial in Karlsruhe and faces a prison sentence. At an event, he offered a bounty of 50,000 euros on a police officer. FOCUS online about the background of the spectacular case.
A well-known lateral thinker from Baden-Württemberg put a “bounty” on police officers at protest events against the state corona policy. With the bonus of 50,000 euros, Klaus Peter Schimmelpfennig wanted to reward whistleblowers who reported misconduct or criminal offenses by officials. The information should serve the 62-year-old to legally pursue the police and have them removed from office.
Because of his calls and other alleged offenses in corona demonstrations, Schimmelpfennig is currently answering to the Karlsruhe District Court. As the court deputy director Julia Kürz confirmed at the request of FOCUS online, several offenses are being legally processed in the process. “It is an indictment and a total of five penal order procedures that have been combined.” The allegations are: slander, violations of the Assembly Act and insult. If convicted, the married father of a daughter faces a hefty fine and possibly even imprisonment.
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According to information from FOCUS online, the accused is no stranger to the lateral thinker scene. Klaus Peter Schimmelpfennig is considered one of the most active critics of the corona measures in southwest Germany and is said to have supported the founder of the lateral thinking movement, Michael Ballweg, who has since been arrested, with significant financial resources. It is true that Schimmelpfennig emphasizes that he is not “formally” one of the lateral thinkers, partly because of their proximity to so-called Reich citizens. At the same time, he would “never want to distance himself from lateral thinking – and certainly not from people like Michael Ballweg”. He agrees with him “on many central points,” said Schimmelpfennig recently to his supporters.
The Schimmelpfennig, who lives in a community between Karlsruhe and Pforzheim, has organized several events against the government course to contain the virus as well as “evening walks” since the end of 2020. He repeatedly railed against the restrictions on fundamental rights caused by anti-corona measures and lamented an allegedly increasing loss of democracy. He claimed that “pre-fascist conditions” prevailed in Germany. He castigated requests from police officers to wear mouth and nose protection during approved events and to keep minimum distances as “harassment measures”.
According to judicial files, Schimmelpfennig has no criminal record, but was reported to the police in 26 cases between 1975 and 2019 – including for money laundering, embezzlement, fraud, coercion, dangerous bodily harm and violation of the weapons law. After 2019, further criminal proceedings were instituted against him. The investigative authorities accused him of having repeatedly violated the requirements of meetings against the Corona policy since December 2020. For this he received a penalty order of 3200 euros in February 2021.
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A raid on his house, which he classified as a “terrorist act” and “attempt at intimidation”, caused a stir in the scene. On May 25, 2022, at six in the morning, a special police unit entered through the patio door with a battering ram, broke open cupboards, ransacked beds and desks. According to the court order, the officers were looking for evidence of a suspected “violation of the Art Copyright Act”.
In his Telegram blog, Schimmelpfennig is said to have published a photo of a police officer who brutally attacked a man in Göttingen in July 2021. Shortly after the house search, during which Schimmelpfennig’s computers and mobile phones were also confiscated, the accused complained in an Internet video that around 15 officers had “raged” and that the allegations were “far-fetched”. His Telegram channel, for which he was deprived of administrator rights, was “hijacked by state security”. He asked: “In which country do you live here now?” Schimmelpfennig runs the Telegram blog “Grundrechte_jetzt” and a website of the same name.
Schimmelpfennig has made it clear more than once that he is at loggerheads with state power, especially with police officers. During a hearing against him at the district court in Karlsruhe, he is said to have described a police officer who had testified as a witness as a “bullshit”. In another case – at an anti-corona measures meeting in Rheinstetten – according to FOCUS online research, he is said to have addressed a police officer over the microphone with “Heil Führer”. The latter earned him a fine of 2,000 euros.
The fine was even higher in a penalty order that the district court of Karlsruhe issued against Schimmelpfennig in early March 2022. The accused had to pay a whopping 7,000 euros (140 daily rates of 50 euros each) for defamation.
The public prosecutor accuses him of disparaging a police officer at a rally in Karlsruhe on January 14, 2022. During his speech, Schimmelpfennig named the officer and offered a “reward of up to 50,000 euros” for information “leading to evidence of crimes committed by this police officer”. The aim is that the policeman “has to take off his uniform and has to be removed from the civil service”. Schimmelpfennig continues: “Police officers who misuse their uniforms to commit crimes belong in jail!” He was “in good spirits” that the said police officer “will be held accountable”.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, with the call, Schimmelpfennig expressed his conviction that the police officer had committed or would commit illegal official acts. In doing so, he publicly demeaned and despised the police chief inspector. The penalty for defamation ranges from a fine to two years in prison.
According to research by FOCUS online, it was not the first “bounty” suspension by Schimmelpfennig. Six months earlier, at an event on July 16, 2021 on Stephanplatz in Karlsruhe, he gave the full name of the operations manager for the registered demonstration. He called him a “terrible cop”. He then offered a reward of 20,000 euros for information “that leads to evidence of official misconduct or criminal offenses”. He paid a “reward of 50,000 euros” for information that would lead to the officer “being sentenced to at least one year in prison”. Then he would lose his official rights. “If this person had to take off their uniform, that would be worth 50,000 euros to me,” said Schimmelpfennig.
The 62-year-old received strong applause for his speech. The reactions in the relevant social media were also clear. “CORRECT. This dictatorship cannot go on like this,” commented a like-minded person. Another wrote openly: “Now please addresses, then I can act”.
Because the Baden-Württemberger appealed against the penal orders, he now has to answer to the district court of Karlsruhe. A first hearing took place on July 22, and the verdict could already come at the next hearing on August 5. As a precaution, the court scheduled two more days of hearings in mid-August.
Klaus Peter Schimmelpfennig told FOCUS online about the court case: “I still stand by the reward. I have seen high-ranking police officers use double standards in one place: armed Antifa officers, distance violations, alcohol remained without consequences on the one hand. But demonstrators whose masks slipped under their chins were reported on the other side and expelled. A constitutional state should not act like this if it wants to be respected.”
Schimmelpfennig’s defense attorney, the Dresden lawyer Frank Hannig, said on request: “Against meeting participants who violated Corona requirements were not investigated. My client, who, according to high-ranking police officers, should not have expelled these participants quickly enough, should go to jail for it? From my point of view, the public prosecutor’s office wants to make an example of Schimmelpfennig. This is not okay – and if I can, I will prevent it.”
