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Kai Borrmann at the start of the trial on January 18th
Photo: Marion van der Kraats / dpa
The partner of the sociologist Cornelia Koppetsch, who was once celebrated as an explainer of right-wing populism, is not only a right-wing populist, but now also a convicted racist.
The District Court of Berlin-Tiergarten considers it proven that Kai Borrmann insulted two German-African women and intentionally injured one of them.
The court therefore sentenced Borrmann to a fine of 180 daily rates of 60 euros each, a total of 10,800 euros.
The verdict is not yet legally binding.
Gender conflicts in times of crisis
Borrmann is a local politician for the AfD in Berlin and also has a doctorate in Islamic Studies.
That combination alone sounds a bit crazy.
And then there is this partnership.
Borrmann's partner Koppetsch has written books with titles such as: "Right-Wing Populism as Protest", "The Society of Anger - Right-Wing Populism in the Global Age" and "When the Man is No Longer a Breadwinner.
Gender conflicts in times of crisis.« Incidentally, that would also have been a nice title for this text if the subject, a racist attack on young women, were not so serious.
Gender conflicts in times of crisis.
For a while, Koppetsch was in great demand as an interview partner in the media, including at SPIEGEL. She was a guest with her theses on the podiums of large municipal theaters, at the Heinrich Böll and Rosa Luxemburg Foundations and even with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the palace Bellevue.
Then came a plagiarism scandal, followed by two disciplinary proceedings at her university in Darmstadt and an ongoing review of her habilitation thesis at the University of Lüneburg.
And now the trial of her partner.
German sociology watched closely, as did the German feuilleton.
Borrmann and Koppetsch visited a French café in Berlin-Mitte in August 2021, at the next table: the music journalist and YouTuber Steph Karl, 30, with a friend.
Both women have an African parent.
Borrmann interfered in the conversation of the younger women, probably because he felt disturbed by their loudness, their choice of words and their views.
The court found that he finally took this as an opportunity to insult the women with the N-word.
In her testimony in court, the sociologist Koppetsch asserted that she had not perceived the situation in the café as insulting or even threatening.
The N-word is also not part of Borrmann's normal usage, and she has known him for nine and a half years.
»We talk about such topics more or less academically, very abstractly.
It's not going in a racist direction."
Koppetsch did not get through to the court.
The designation with the N-word is discriminatory, said judge Young Eun Ko in her verdict.
That is the social consensus today.
The N-word designation belittles worthy people, a racial slur.
The situation escalated
The sociologist Koppetsch rode her bike home earlier that evening in the summer of 2021, where she said she was waiting for her partner.
But Borrmann initially followed the women as they left the café.
And so the situation escalated.
A battle over the sovereignty of interpretation became an actual battle, a battle with words turned into mutual blows and finally a bite.
The accused, according to the court, first racially insulted the two women again on the street - and in the course of a physical argument that he had started, then hit the presenter Karl and bit his forearm.
Even if he was in Karl's headlock at the time, he could not invoke a self-defense situation.
After all, he was the attacker, the aggressor.
The judge justified the sentence by saying that the acts were racially motivated.
In addition, the act led to not inconsiderable injuries;
the bite wound on Steph Karl's arm was still visible about a year later.
Both women are also still impaired in their everyday sense of security.
Borrmann missed the opportunity to apologize for his actions in his last words before the verdict.
Instead, he criticized the media for dragging his partner into the case.
"What do you think is going on at home," the Berliner Zeitung quoted him as saying.
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