How to defend free speech in Germany

This is the third session of Battle of Ideas Berlin 2025.

A recent poll revealed that just 40% of Germans felt able to express themselves freely. But rather than address this concerning trend, the government has intensified attempts to marginalise critics. Germany’s constitutional guarantees of free speech are being eroded while legal restrictions and institutional controls to limit speech have grown.

Numerous cases such as Norbert Bolz, Stefan Niehoff, Wolfgang Conzelmann and many others demonstrate how ‘insults’, satire and social media posts now fall foul of permissible speech limits. Journalists, political activist, and ordinary citizens face steep fines, criminal charges and even police raids for expressing opinions as dissent is silenced through legal prosecution, surveillance and institutional control. Many highlight the targeting of the dissident right. But left-wing activists, especially pro-Palestinians, also are prey to police and prosecutors keen to shut down conferences and demonstrations or threaten academics and students with a loss of funding or status. With mainstream media often parroting orthodoxies and seeking to ‘control of the narrative’, the ability of alternative outlets to pursue Truth falls foul of many obstacles, including the chilling impact of self-appointed monitors of news accuracy and misinformation.

As Germany reaches a free speech crossroads, with some of the harshest restriction on speech within Europe, how can individuals and organisations move beyond lamenting the decline of free expression to building new initiatives that actively defend it?