“I am horrified,” says the mother of JUNGE FREIHEIT. And the woman's voice trembles with indignation: "This is such violent, if I may say so, Stasis shit, I would never have believed what was done to my daughter here possible in my entire life." Her daughter, we call her Miriam, is 16 years old. She is a student at the Richard Wossidlo High School in Ribnitz-Damgarten in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. We have anonymized the people to protect them - the only question is: from whom?

Review: February 27th. While Miriam sits and crams at school in the morning, school director Jan-Dirk Zimmermann picks up the phone. “Around 9:45 a.m., the school principal informed the police about a possible criminal matter,” explains Marcel Opitz, the press spokesman for the responsible Stralsund police station, to the JF about what happened. “Accordingly, there is information that a 17-year-old student may have spread suspected unconstitutional content on social networks. A radio van was dispatched to the school to investigate the matter.”

There are three police officers on patrol (“due to an odd number of officers on the early shift”), according to the police’s email reply to this newspaper’s list of questions. You drive to the Richard-Wossidlo-Gymnasium in Ribnitz-Damgarten. The officers are investigating the matter, but “an initial suspicion of a crime could not be established,” says press spokesman Opitz.

SPD-affiliated foundation presents itself at the school

So what was the reason for the director calling the police? “My daughter,” says the mother, “posted a Smurfs video on TikTok a few months ago. It says that the Smurfs and Germany have something in common: The Smurfs are blue and so is Germany. That was probably a funny AfD advertising post. And then she once posted that Germany is not a place, but a home.”

Perhaps school director Zimmermann was also very enthusiastic about the Nazi hunt among his students at this time? After all, as he wrote on the high school's website on February 29, 2024, an exhibition by the SPD-affiliated Friedrich Ebert Foundation on the topic of “Strengthening Democracy” was currently on display in the school auditorium. “The opening took place on February 23rd in the presence of a representative of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung MV, the mayor of the city of Ribnitz-Damgarten and representatives of the citizens,” notes the director, who seems to be proud to have received so many dignitaries have.

“Everyone present emphasized that an increasingly dominant right-wing extremism is making the debate culture more difficult in our area and is deliberately endangering the basic democratic order.” A German educator must of course counter this - and a call to the police is probably the least that can be done when it comes to that The concept of home and blue smurfs goes.

Three police officers in the classroom

So the guardians of the law head to the chemistry room, because Miriam is being taught there. “My daughter later told me that the three police officers suddenly appeared in the room and picked her up. That's what made me so incredibly angry." The mother goes on to describe how her daughter was escorted by the officers. “Like she’s a criminal. Throughout the whole school. There are over 500 students there. It's incredible. And then we went through the whole school building to the teachers’ room.”

When we get there, the school secretary is still there. “And then the police officers told my daughter that for her own protection, the officers would like her to refrain from posting such posts in the future. So they knew beforehand what my daughter had posted, they knew that it wasn't a criminal offense and yet there was this demonstration, these threats, these suppressions of freedom of expression.

“Luckily my daughter has a strong character”

Miriam tells her mother everything at home. “Luckily my daughter has a strong character. She has already been approached by a teacher who is married to a Turk. It couldn't be true that my daughter would vote for the AfD, whether she wanted her husband and children to have to go back to Turkey?" Miriam's mother has now reached the threshold of pain.

“I called the principal at school. I said, 'Mr. Zimmermann, if you think there's something wrong with my daughter, talk to me first!' Then the director told me that he wasn’t allowed to do that, he was told to inform the police immediately.”

Suddenly it's about sedition

The JF asked the police what they actually call such a “conversation” between police officers and young people and what exactly they are now accusing them of. “After it was determined that, according to the available information, there did not appear to be any criminal offenses, a kind of “risk of harm” conversation was held with the student, in this case a conversation clarifying the norms in accordance with paragraph 13 SOG MV,” said police spokesman Opitz, “in order to ultimately show that there were criminal offenses such as Section 86a StGB and others.”

This has to be translated: The “SOG MV” is the security and order law in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Paragraph 13 defines the general powers: “The regulatory authorities and the police must, within the framework of the applicable laws, take the measures necessary at their discretion to avert dangers to the general public or to individuals that threaten public safety or order.”

Police: The girl is not to be blamed for anything

But what was the girl accused of? “Ultimately nothing,” said police spokesman Opitz, but then named two sharp edges of criminal law: “According to the principle of legality, the facts had to be researched. The most likely option would have been a possible violation according to Section 86a or Section 130 of the Criminal Code.” Section 86a of the Criminal Code refers to the display of unconstitutional or terrorist symbols, for example swastikas, German salutes, various runes or tattoos with mottos such as blood and honor or similar. Paragraph 130 of the Criminal Code criminalizes incitement, for example calls for hatred and violence against ethnic groups.

What blue Smurfs and the term home have to do with these criminal offenses remains to be seen. According to the officials, Miriam has not committed any criminal offense. However, it is now in a police computer system. The Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania State Police uses the electronic process assistant to record and document facts.

Ministries are ducking away

Police spokesman Opitz confirmed to this newspaper that relevant data, including personal data, will be entered, anonymized after appropriate deletion periods "and subsequently deleted - as was the case in this case." Furthermore, the police are certain that the officers were allowed to speak to the girl without her parents and/or without legal representation.

Finally, the police draw this newspaper's attention to the following: "If you intend to report on the matter, I would like to conclude by pointing out the vulnerable age of the girl and ask that you take this circumstance into account (press code)." The vulnerable age of the innocent girl However, it did not seem to have been a particular priority for the officials during the gauntlet run through the school.

The director is silent

JUNGE FREIHEIT sent an extensive list of questions to the Ministry of the Interior and Education in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Both houses referred the police. Henning Lipski, press spokesman for the Ministry of Education, claimed: “There was never a need for school psychological support.” How he intends to assess this from his desk remains unclear. Some of Miriam's classmates probably saw it differently. “Afterwards, a few students came to my daughter and comforted her,” says Miriam’s mother.

The school and director Zimmermann also do not want to comment. Why he called the police, why he didn't contact the parents first, why the girl was taken out of the classroom during class. He doesn't want to say any of that on the phone either - because he's not allowed to say anything. Should a political example be made here?

AfD brings the issue to the state parliament

The education policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group in the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Enrico Schult, himself the father of two school-age children, will use this incident as an opportunity to debate it in the plenary session of the state parliament.

He tells the JF: “This scandalous incident reveals that our schools are being used more and more to sniff out attitudes. If there was actually an order from the Ministry of Education about this, it must have political consequences there. “A headmaster should stand in front of his students and at least take the parents into his confidence first, instead of calling three police officers because he receives an anonymous denunciation email about a student.”