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Headquarters of the Federal Intelligence Service in Berlin (archive).
Photo: Michele Tantussi / Getty Images
A political scientist who has made right statements for years can no longer teach prospective agents of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) - because of suspicion of extremism.
It's about the controversial Professor Martin Wagener, who teaches security policy at the Federal University of Applied Sciences.
As Wagener now made public in a podcast, he was banned from entering the center for intelligence training and advanced training on the premises of the BND headquarters in Berlin on Monday.
This is where the Federal Intelligence Service and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution train their junior staff.
Wagener said that his security clearance had been "drastically lowered," and that he could no longer contact his students via a learning platform.
That is "a factual restriction of my teaching license".
Wagener was apparently locked out because of a tip from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
He was accused by the Cologne authorities of "pursuing efforts against the free and democratic basic order," said Wagener.
He denies that.
The occasion is likely to be a new book by the political scientist entitled »Kulturkampf um das Volk«.
In it, Wagener expands the thesis that the Federal Government under Chancellor Angela Merkel is pursuing "the project of replacing the German cultural nation with a multicultural, willing nation".
The political scientist Armin Pfahl-Traughber - also a professor at the Federal University - reminded his remarks of the talk of the "Great Exchange" in the New Right.
"Federal Office for Suspicions"?
For his book project, Wagener also interviewed the most important head of the right-wing extremist "Identitarian Movement" in German-speaking countries, Martin Sellner - and in the eyes of his opponents, he is completely uncritical about him and his ideology.
Wagener himself evidently does not consider the identitarians to be extremist and concepts such as "foreign infiltration" to be legitimate.
In the book, he also attacks head of the constitution protection chief Thomas Haldenwang, who has massively expanded the observation of the new right scene and has targeted the Institute for State Policy around Götz Kubitschek as well as parts of the AfD.
Haldenwang let himself be instrumentalized by politics in the fight against the right, claims Wagener.
In the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" the professor spoke of a "Federal Office for Suspicions".
It's not the first time that Wagener has caused a stir.
Three years ago he published a book entitled "Germany's Insecure Border - A Plea for a New Protective Wall."
In it he warned of a "rush of migrants" and pleaded for a massive wall system along the German border, including pits, tripwires and barbed wires.
If "necessary", irritant gas could also be sprayed against "intruders," he wrote.
At that time, the BND examined to what extent the book publication was compatible with Wagener's teaching activities at the Federal University of Applied Sciences.
The intelligence service had the text checked by an external expert.
But the controversial statements were not sufficient for disciplinary action.
Wagener was allowed to continue teaching.
In his podcast, Wagener sharply criticizes the steps taken against him.
The goal is "the complete discrediting of my person with subsequent loss of the job," he said.
He let his students know that the "old white man" could hopefully soon come back to class on the BND premises.
On request, the BND announced that it would not comment on personnel matters.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution let it be known that one could not comment on individuals.