Berlin, Bremen, Göttingen, April 30, 2026
By order of the Berlin Administrative Court, the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) was ordered to refrain from describing the operators of the "Bookstore of the Wavering Globe" as "political extremists." The case concerned a corresponding statement made by the Minister of State for Culture, Dr. Wolfram Weimer, in the newspaper Die Zeit. Attorney Dr. Jasper Prigge, who represents the bookstore in the proceedings, explains:
„Mr. Weimer has unlawfully defamed my clients in public without any factual basis. This constitutes a gross breach of his official duties. During the proceedings, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) failed to substantiate its serious accusations. The court found that the allegations lacked any factual basis and that the statement exceeded the bounds of what was objectively necessary. In the court's assessment, the BfV's statement that it possessed "information relevant to the protection of the constitution" regarding the bookstore is untenable. It cannot be concluded from this statement that the bookstore is run by political extremists
The Berlin Administrative Court's decision confirms that the factual basis for excluding bookstores from the German Bookstore Prize is untenable. Mr. Weimer evidently relied on the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution's brief assessment instead of seeking further clarification. This demonstrates once again that the Haber procedure, which is currently the subject of further lawsuits before the Berlin and Cologne Administrative Courts, is legally untenable. It leads to authorities blindly accepting information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as grounds for action, without these measures being verifiable or the affected parties even being informed that any action has been taken against them. The Federal Government is called upon to cease this unlawful practice
The Berlin Administrative Court's decision indirectly affects the bookstores Buchladen Rote Straße (Göttingen) and Golden Shop (Bremen). "We will now urge the current Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) to stop labeling the owners of these bookstores as 'political extremists' and to base their decisions on facts in the future," explains attorney Sven Adam, outlining the next steps for these bookstores as well.
For press inquiries:
Attorney Sven Adam (Göttingen) – +49 (0) 551 488 31 69 – kontakt@anwaltskanzlei-adam.de
Attorney Dr. Jasper Prigge (Düsseldorf) – +49 (0) 211 4174 89 90 – kontakt@prigge-recht.de
Attorney Lea Voigt (Bremen) – +49 (0) 421 335 16 78 – voigt@strafdefender-bremen.de
For the bookstores: Bookstore Rote Straße (Göttingen), Golden Shop (Bremen), Bookstore zur schwankenden Weltkugel (Berlin)
