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Nikolai Nerling in August 2022: Convicted of sedition, insult and trespassing
Photo:
Annette Riedl / dpa
The public prosecutor's office in Berlin has brought charges against right-wing extremist video blogger Nikolai Nerling.
The authority announced that the 42-year-old, who calls himself a “people’s teacher”, was accused of Corona emergency aid fraud.
He applied for emergency aid in April 2020 and was also paid 9,000 euros.
However, he made incorrect statements.
Nerling is said to have claimed to have founded a sole proprietorship in October 2018 under the name "volks Lehrer.info".
In fact, this only happened a year later.
He is also said to have stated that he needed the financial aid for ongoing operations.
According to the investigation, however, this was probably not the case.
When asked by SPIEGEL, Nerling said that he "does not want to comment publicly on ongoing proceedings".
And further: "I am also willing to comment on the allegations in court, should it come to that."
Dismissed as a teacher
Nerling is a former elementary school teacher.
In 2019, a court ruled that he had been rightfully dismissed from teaching in 2018 for improperly insulting and disparaging the state and constitution.
In August 2022, Nerling was sentenced to nine months in prison for, among other things, hate speech, insult and trespassing, which was suspended for three years.
He was also asked to pay 3,000 euros to the Amadeus Antonio Foundation - a foundation that works against right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism.
In recent years, Nerling has also attracted attention with participation in demonstrations by so-called lateral thinkers against the federal government's corona measures.
He was one of the people who occupied the Reichstag steps in Berlin at the end of August 2020 and showed himself around a school in the Ahr Valley, which had been temporarily occupied by right-wing extremists after the flood disaster.
He also agitated against the corona measures in videos.
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