In the "lateral thinkers" demonstrations against the state corona measures, it was an almost impossible task for the police to enforce the mask requirement.
For the participants of such protests, the prescribed wearing of mouth and nose protection meant an unbearable imposition and an unconstitutional restriction of fundamental rights.
As in America by millions of Trump supporters, the mask question was politicized and radicalized by a vocal minority in this country.
Those who wore a mask submitted to Merkel's corona dictatorship in this world (conspiracy) view.
The majority of the sensible, however, accepted the mask requirement urgently recommended by virologists to protect against corona infections and to contain the pandemic, as an annoying but necessary evil.
However, in view of the massive and, in some regions, even zero incidence, the question of proportionality arises as to whether the mask requirement can be maintained everywhere.
As a precautionary measure, permanently and routinely restricting freedoms with reference to a possible fourth or fifth corona wave in autumn would not be justified politically or constitutionally.
Politicians recognized the explosiveness of this question a few months before the federal election, as the debate on the mask requirement that has now been initiated by Federal Justice Minister Lambrecht and FDP Vice-President Kubicki shows.
However, action has already been taken elsewhere.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's schools, teachers and students meet again without a mask. In Frankfurt or Munich, citizens can stroll again without mouth and nose protection.
Whether the mask requirement, as demanded by Kubicki, should apply everywhere and not just outside or in schools is (still) questionable.
Because with so many still unvaccinated citizens, the carelessness that spreads and the possible advance of the delta mutation here too, wearing a mask in closed rooms with many people is still an effective and probably also necessary protection against infection.