Just one post on social media network X, involving the word “parasite,” has led to a major police operation against a German citizen, who is known only by the first initial of his last name, M.
Berlin police searched the man’s home, seized his phone, fingerprinted him, and used identification measures usually reserved for serious crimes. At one point, an officer reportedly to him: Think about what you post in the future, you must understand that you are now under observation.”
The case involving M. is being presented as the latest example of Germany’s descent into a police state, where a single post seemingly covered by freedom of expression can result in the most intrusive and oppressive police actions.
The man’s lawyer, who is involved with a range of freedom of speech cases, says the police actions feature a “new quality.”
M., a 45-year-old self-described “libertarian” healthcare worker from the Göppingen area, told Welt newspaper that state security officers arrived at his home around 6 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2025. They presented a search warrant, dated Nov. 11, 2025, authorizing a search to find evidence such as cell phones or computers based on an investigation into incitement to hatred.
M. wants to remain anonymous “for fear of social disadvantages.”
The reason for the search, as M. describes it, was a post on the X platform from Sept. 29, 2025:
“No, every person who is financed by the state pays no net taxes, they live on taxes. Every civil servant, every politician, every employee in a state-owned company, everyone who is subsidized and financed by the state. Not a single parasite pays any net taxes.”
Upon request, the Ulm police headquarters “confirmed the operation ‘in the Göppingen area on suspicion of sedition,'” but declined to confirm the exact wording of M.’s statement “due to the ongoing investigation.”
The Ulm public prosecutor’s office also refused to comment on the content, stating that “information about the content or even the wording of the statement will not be provided in an ongoing investigation,” according to press spokesman Philip Haslach. The involvement of state reporting offices like “Hesse against agitation” or “So Done” was not confirmed.
M. noted that he has experienced anxiety since the operation, waking up with panic about another police visit.
The German man, whose post reportedly only reached hundreds of people and featured nearly no engagement, was faced with a terrifying situation at 6 a.m. on Nov. 13.
M. described the officers showing up at his door and giving him a choice: “Hand over his cell phone PIN and cell phone – or they would turn the apartment upside down.”
He complied, stating: “I saw no other option than to give the police the PIN. Otherwise, they would have taken everything with them, computer, tablet, even an old cell phone. Then I wouldn’t have been able to communicate at all.”
He disputes the police’s statement that he went to the station voluntarily, quoting the officers as saying: “You’re coming to the station now.” During the trip, one officer reportedly told M. he was “now under surveillance” and that the problem with his statement was the word “parasite,” arguing: “In doing so, you are attacking people personally.”
Notably, M. did not specifically target any individual with his speech.
At the Göppingen police station, M. was subjected to identification measures: “Fingerprints and criminal photos. To do this, I had to expose my upper body so that a scar from an appendectomy could also be photographed.”
M. also remembers: “I was also asked for a blood sample to secure DNA. I refused that too.” The blood sample was not taken.
M. refused to testify during the subsequent interrogation and claims he “didn’t get a search or interrogation record from the police.” He was then driven back home.
M.’s lawyer, Marcus Pretzell, is alarmed by the case, which he says is the first time he has “experienced identification measures in these cases” among his approximately 100 clients for opinion crimes.
Pretzell states he has not yet received file access, but calls the police actions “nonsensical and clearly illegal,” arguing that “The search measures for opinion crimes are almost never proportionate. This is especially true in this case. The investigation itself is obviously illegal because the statement is covered by freedom of expression.”
Pretzell also suggests the search warrant may not “meet the formal requirements for a search warrant” because the specific accusation, the post on X, is allegedly missing from the document M. received.
The extreme methods used against M. raise the question of why many of these cases are being handled in the most draconian manner possible, involving early morning police raids, seizure of electronic devices, and the collection of biometric data. Often, such methods are utilized for the most serious crimes, such as murder, assault, rape, or organized crime or terror.
M. vehemently rejects any association with National Socialism, where the word “parasite” was historically used to denigrate Jews. He states: “I despise violence. I despise extremism. I despise Nazism, socialism and communism.” He notes that his use of the word refers to the vocabulary of politicians like Argentine President Javier Milei, who repeatedly described Argentina’s political elite as “parasites.”
As Welt newspaper notes, the word has also been used in German politics: Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), for example, said in early 2024: “The AfD is a parasitic party.” And in 2005, then-Federal Labor Minister Wolfgang Clement (SPD) used the word to describe unemployed people working illegally.
The case has also garnered international attention, with political commentators like Paul Joseph Watson covering the house search.
The user is also an active poster on X and has been commenting on his case as well as retweeting the extensive coverage his case has received in Germany.
“With most posts, I also took great care to consider exactly what I write. With a few, I was also angry and emotionally charged at times, and that surely seeped into the posts as well. In my opinion, that’s human and happens to almost everyone,” he writes.
Bei den meisten Post, habe ich mir auch sehr genau überlegt was ich schreibe.
Bei wenigen war ich auch mal wütend und emotional aufgeladen und das ist sicher auch in den Post mit rein geflossen.
Das ist meiner Meinung nach menschlich und geht nahezu jedem so.
— Sigartis⚡️🏰 (@Wnschmstr) November 17, 2025German authorities using house searches as a weapon against dissent
The police raid on M. comes shortly after Berlin police raided journalist and commentator Norbert Bolz last month over a sarcastic tweet ridiculing the title of a newspaper article, with prosecutors alleging he used a banned Nazi slogan.
Bolz described the incident as a “joke” that had been grossly misunderstood.
Bolz told Bild after the house search that “the sad, despotic reality that I have only ever described in recent years has caught up with me. Scary.“
Bolz has been regularly interviewed and quoted as an expert by Bild.
BREAKING: A German man, Paul S., was hit with a €5,000 fine for calling a judge "obviously mentally disturbed."
The judge issued no jail time to a 30-year-old Syrian migrant who raped a 15-year-old German girl while she was walking home in Osnabrück. The migrant, who was drunk… pic.twitter.com/82ADHKL4Ox
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) November 26, 2024The Berlin public prosecutor’s office launched an investigation, accusing Bolz of using symbols of unconstitutional organizations. The charge stems from a post in January in which he wrote, “Good translation of woke: Germany awaken!” The tweet was a play on words referencing an article published in the left-wing newspaper Taz, originally titled “AfD ban and Höcke petition: Germany awakens.” The headline was later changed.
Prosecutors argue that “Germany Awake” was a slogan used by the Nazi Party, making its use a potential criminal offense. However, the search warrant reportedly attached little weight to the context.
Currently, three out of four Germans believe fear of repercussion is silencing free speech, according to polling data.
Last year, a German man who described a judge as “obviously mentally disturbed” — after the judge issued a light sentence to a Syrian who raped a 15-year-old girl — was slapped with a €5,000 fine for “insulting” the judge. This fine was almost double the fine given to the Syrian rapist for the sexual assault.
These instances have been ongoing for years, with Remix News reporting back in March 2022 how over 100 people had seen their homes raided across Germany for “insulting” politicians, as police had been instructed to conduct a nationwide crackdown on what they called “hate mail” targeting those in public office.
In an interview with Nius, defense lawyer Udo Vetter criticized the German system, revealing that Germany faces over 140,000 open arrest warrants for insults against politicians.
“Crime is getting out of hand and everything is going down the drain, and we have to spend so many, countless hours of work with such things — wasting our time,” he added.
