Berlin Police Raid Home of Journalist Norbert Bolz Over Tweet Mocking ‘Woke’ Culture

Berlin police searched the home of journalist and commentator Norbert Bolz on Thursday 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.

The 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.

Bolz rejected any suggestion of intent to promote extremist ideas. “I thought it was a good joke,” he told Welt. “The Taz newspaper had written something about Höcke with the conclusion ‘Germany is awakening.’ I thought that’s actually a good definition of ‘woke,’ because ‘woke’ also means ‘awakened.’ The madness has changed sides. I couldn’t imagine that this could be misunderstood.”

Bolz said four police officers arrived at his home at around 9 a.m., took a screenshot of the post, and advised him “to be more careful in the future.”

A spokesperson for the Berlin public prosecutor’s office confirmed that the search was not part of a broader crackdown on social media posts. “Only a 72-year-old man is accused in this matter. The investigation is ongoing. Further information cannot be provided to protect the investigation,” the office said.

The warrant reportedly bore the logo of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), indicating possible federal involvement. Bolz’s lawyer, Joachim Steinhöfel, sharply criticized the authorities’ actions, calling the case “another worrying loss of control by the criminal justice system.”

“The irony in Bolz’s tweet is so obvious that one would have to be deliberately misunderstanding to construct a criminal offense here,” Steinhöfel said.

“It is unacceptable that agency heads apparently can no longer distinguish between punishable propaganda and permissible expression of opinion. This incompetence is no small matter — it undermines trust in the rule of law,” he added.

Bolz later took to social media to comment on the raid. “A house search because of a post. Young, friendly police officers who gave me the good advice to be more careful in the future. I’ll do that and only talk about trees from now on,” he wrote.

The German journalist and author has previously published books criticizing the woke culture visible across Western Europe in the modern day. In an interview with the Berliner Zeitung back in June, Bolz said, “I assume that this cultural revolution of the woke has been taken to such extremes that we are now on the verge of an implosion. For years, wokeness has been taking over from the top. It worked. The terror was effective.

“But now there are more and more people who are making fun of it and distancing themselves from all the rituals associated with it.”

Welt newspaper, where he routinely also appears as a guest, had the house search as the number one story on its front page today. The editorial staff is also aghast at the house raid.

WELT editor-in-chief Jan Philipp Burgard told Bild: “Welt stands for freedom of expression. According to all the information we currently have, the authorities’ actions seem completely excessive.”

WELT editor Ulf Poschardt also said, “In a constitutional state, it is assumed that everything that is not forbidden is allowed. Irony has not been forbidden so far. However, the current trend towards house searches and prosecutions of so-called opinion crimes is an alarm signal for the state of our liberal constitution. The house search with Prof. Dr. Bolz must shake every liberal Democrat. Time for politics and justice to reflect and turn back.“