Last weekend, 2,500 people demonstrated against the corona measures in Gifhorn, Lower Saxony.

Bodo Schiffmann was connected via video on a large screen, he is one of the leading figures in the corona denial scene in Germany.

Schiffmann didn’t just talk to people about Corona, at some point he spoke about Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine: “Here you have to use the self-defense paragraph,” Schiffmann claimed, “here a leader of a country has carried out a liberation strike”.

While civilians in Ukraine hid from Russia's bombs, the audience on the castle grounds in Gifhorn Schiffmann applauded.

In the days that followed, RT Deutsch, the Kremlin's propaganda channel, ran live on his Telegram channel, which is followed by more than 167,000 accounts.

Sebastian Eder

Editor in the society department at FAZ.NET.

  • Follow I follow

It is not surprising that the Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine is also well received by Corona deniers in Germany.

According to an evaluation by the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS), RT Deutsch was the second most shared "alternative medium" in German conspiracy ideological Telegram channels before the federal elections last year.

In September, YouTube blocked the German channel RT DE for spreading false information about the corona crisis, after which the RT German channel gained tens of thousands of followers on Telegram in just a few weeks.

And the content of this channel is also being circulated en masse in the channels of the Corona deniers.

Corona deniers are critical of NATO

However, this development has not only existed since the corona pandemic.

Josef Holnburger, Managing Director at CeMAS, says: "The influence of RT on conspiracy believers in Germany is relevant far beyond the pandemic - at least since 2014 in Germany Monday vigils were held for peace in the wake of the war in Ukraine at the time." RT German have established itself at the time as a platform for conspiracy believers in Germany.

Since the scene is very critical of NATO, many leaders, such as Ken Jebsen, have long sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Even shortly before the current Russian attack on Ukraine, NATO was portrayed in the relevant Telegram channels as a warmonger in the conflict.

"The narrative then changed on the day of the invasion,"

says Holnburger.

"Then it was said: A denazification of Ukraine was necessary, Putin could not help but attack."

A special feature can be observed with another important keyword of the Corona deniers: Boris Reitschuster became the star of the scene during the pandemic, but now takes a critical position towards Putin - and has already lost thousands of subscribers as a result.

Bodo Schiffmann wrote on his channel: "Some reports in the last few days make me doubt that the same Boris Reitschuster is writing the article or having it published under his name, who has previously made the reports." The warmonger is NATO, not Russia or Ukraine, he contradicted Reitschuster.

At most, Putin's mistake was that he watched for far too long.

Schiffmann called on his followers to leave Germany; he himself has lived in Africa for a long time.

There are also corona deniers who see a direct connection between the pandemic and the Ukraine war.

Holnburger says: "Some claim that the war is intended to distract from alleged vaccine damage." Others, on the other hand, immediately doubted the authenticity of the war.

Basically, conspiracy believers have no problem believing in multiple contradictory narratives, says Holnburger.

"One moment it's said that there is no war, the next it's good that there is war." The extreme right is very divided on the Ukraine question - if only because there are also right-wing extremists who support Ukraine defended.

For example, the NPD is against Putin's invasion of Ukraine.