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"Unconventional thinkers" demonstrators in Hagen: "Considerable damage"
Photo: Alex Talash
The city of Hagen in North Rhine-Westphalia forcibly transferred two employees of the public order office after attending a "lateral thinker" demonstration.
At the end of January, the employees, an employee of the security service and an employee of the fines office, took part in a demonstration in downtown Hagen under the motto "I will not be vaccinated";
the case caused a sensation nationwide.
According to a city spokeswoman, the pandemic caused "considerable damage to the reputation and trust of a public administration".
The servants would now take on other tasks.
However, they do not have to reckon with further consequences under labor law: their participation in the rally took place outside of the service, and the transferred persons are entitled to freedom of expression.
Hagen's Lord Mayor Erik O. Schulz decided shortly after the demonstration to temporarily release the two employees from their duties.
The non-party politician was shocked by the speeches that were given at the rally.
"Nobody can seriously deny that there were both vaccine opponents and corona deniers," Schulz told SPIEGEL (read the entire interview here).
The mayor was faced with severe criticism for his handling of the case.
According to him, the city received a number of angry letters, Schulz himself was covered with GDR comparisons and parallels with the Stasi and the Nazi terror.
Schulz also attached a fundamental dimension to the case, speaking of credibility and trust in the state and democracy: “We as a society have democratically adopted rules to contain the pandemic, employees of the public order office must have no doubts about legitimacy sow these measures. "
mxw