The Corona measures have largely fallen, the lateral thinking movement is looking for new enemy images.
Apparently, the followers are fewer – but more radical.
Berlin - According to parts of the lateral thinking movement, all vaccinated people should have died of the "side effects of the vaccination" by September last year at the latest.
The prophecy of a mass extinction obviously didn't come true, nor did many other predictions.
In the meantime, the corona measures have largely fallen in Germany.
The coalition of esoterics, religious, state skeptics, right-wing extremists, opponents of vaccination and conspiracy theorists may now lack the common enemy.
What appears to be left behind is a radicalized core that has one thing in common: distrust of the "media, scientific and political elites", as summarized by an analysis by Sven Reichardt, professor of contemporary history at the University of Konstanz, on the portal of the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
Lateral thinking without corona measures: How the movement is looking for new topics
The demonstration in Berlin on August 1, 2020 with around 30,000 participants is considered the “highlight” of the lateral thinker movement.
Since "Freedom Day" in Germany - the elimination of most corona measures - fewer and fewer people have taken to the streets.
But Michael Ballweg, the founder of the protest movement, still saw no reason to stop protesting in April of this year, as he explained to the dpa.
Lateral thinking is not a "monothematic" demonstration, but rather "demonstrations for the complete restoration of our fundamental rights," said Ballweg.
It is also about topics such as the "increasing power of digital companies" and "criticism of the financial system".
Lateral thinking is obviously trying to occupy new subject areas in order to survive.
"We are a peace movement and reject any form of war," added Ballweg.
The Baden-Württemberg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV) sees things differently.
"Your goal is to shift the topic of the protest, or at least to enrich it," said a LfV spokesman for the dpa.
Russia's attack on Ukraine does play a role here: extremists exploited it for their purposes.
Pro-Russian positions were propagated and, for example, the Russian state broadcaster RT was mentioned as an alternative to the so-called "mainstream media", as the spokesman explained.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been monitoring the “lateral thinking 711” initiative and its offshoots since the end of 2020 because of anti-constitutional views, conspiracy ideologies and anti-Semitic tendencies.
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These demonstrators are taking part in downtown Offenbach against a simultaneous march by "lateral thinkers" in January 2022.
© picture alliance/dpa |
Boris Roessler
Out-of-the-box leaders are losing support
Confidence in the leaders of the lateral thinker scene also seems to be crumbling internally in some places.
For example for the doctor Bodo Schiffmann, who recently collected 500,000 euros in donations for the flood victims in Ahrweiler.
It was initially unclear what exactly happened to the donations.
Schiffmann himself emigrated to Tanzania a long time ago.
The public prosecutor's office in Heidelberg has meanwhile brought charges because the doctor in the lateral thinker scene is said to have issued fake mask certificates.
There was also an allegation of incitement to hatred, because according to the indictment, Schiffmann is said to have compared the corona quarantine with imprisonment in a concentration camp.
The doctor Sucharit Bhakdi was also charged in May with incitement to hatred, and alleged anti-Semitic statements could also cost him his professorship.
Attila Hildmann, the former idol of many conspiracy theorists, is wanted on an arrest warrant for hate speech and is said to have fled abroad.
His most well-known channels on the Telegram communication platform have been blocked.
Lateral thinkers: why some supporters are turning away from the movement
For some lateral thinkers, however, there are other reasons to leave the movement behind.
“Now people mostly support Russia and share Russian disinformation.
But that deterred some parts of the scene that are opposed to any war," Josef Holnburger, an expert on conspiracy ideologies at the non-profit Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS), told ZDF.
One of the most prominent was probably Xavier Naidoo.
The singer was a corona denier, expressed anti-Semitism and even represented the QAnon conspiracy theory.
In April, he surprisingly admitted that he had been "blinded" by conspiracy stories, had not questioned them enough and had "partially been exploited".
The war against Ukraine made him rethink, Naidoo explained.
It is said that the wheels of justice grind slowly.
But judgments have now been passed against many organizers of corona demonstrations.
Now a period of disillusionment is beginning among lateral thinkers, says expert Holnburger, describing the current situation.
“These penalties can be life-threatening, especially for people from the second row.
People who don't have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, just a few thousand," he continued.
Some would talk in videos about not being able to afford the rent anymore.
Penalties would have to be paid and at the same time mobilization would decrease.
“There is no pressure to act, to gather and so the willingness to donate also decreases.
There is a lot of frustration in the scene," explains the conspiracy theory expert to ZDF.
Influence of the lateral thinking movement: Politically motivated crime peaks
Some smiled at the demonstrators of the lateral thinking movement.
But the danger emanating from their radicalized core should be taken seriously, warns the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The number of cases of politically motivated crime in Germany rose last year by 23.2 percent to a new high of 55,048.
This emerges from a balance sheet published in May by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Criminal Police Office.
"We see very clearly that we have to protect our democracy with all our might," said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).
The number of politically motivated acts of violence rose by 15.6 percent to a total of 3889. According to the report, one reason for the development is an increase in crimes that are classified as not attributable,
The authorities recorded a drastic increase of 147.4 percent to 21,339 cases in these non-attributable crimes.
In addition to acts from the lateral thinking scene, this also includes other cases that are not assigned to any classic area such as left or right.
Simon Teune from the Institute for Protest and Movement Research told the
SWP
that it was astonishing how quickly the legitimacy of violence gained majority support .
Attacks on journalists or the police are not seen as a problem.
As if to prove it, Germany slipped down to 16th place in the press freedom rankings this year - from 13th place last year - because of the attacks by lateral thinkers on media representatives.
Right-wing extremism researcher Johannes Kiess from the University of Leipzig said: "Walter Lübcke was only murdered in 2019 and not at the peak of the so-called wave of refugees." (
bm with material from AFP/dpa
).