Several artists and art managers evaluate investigations against the Art Collective Center for Political Beauty in an open letter as an attack on the freedom of expression and art. They demand that critical art should not be criminalized.
The call released on Thursday was followed by 129 signatures, including musicians such as Herbert Grönemeyer and Bela B., the actors Katja Riemann and Edgar Selge, the authors Sibylle Berg and Robert Menasse, the initiator of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin Lea Rosh , the directors Dany Levi and Aelrun Goette as well as the TV satirist Jan Böhmermann and the human rights activist Peter Steudtner.
All civil actions dismissed
Their protest is directed against investigations by the Ministry of Justice in Thuringia as a result of an art campaign for which the Center for Political Education has installed a replica of the Holocaust Memorial in the immediate vicinity of the estate of AfD politician Björn Höcke. The investigations, which lasted 16 months without the artists' knowledge, referred to Article 129 of the Penal Code, which punishes participation in "terrorist organizations" and aims at associations formed for the purpose of committing the most serious crimes. Only on April 8, the process was discontinued.
The ZPS had previously rejected all civil law attempts to prosecute them for the action. A criminal case for attempted coercion was set by the prosecutor Mühlhausen in November 2018.
In their open letter, the signatories write that such a preliminary investigation has never been used against artists. They demand an official apology from the political leaders and a full investigation. Public and civil society call them to loud protest: "We are stunned, but not unconstitutional!"
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