… before it even stands – a few thoughts on the most recent example of censorship
In mid-August, I reviewed the book “Angst, Politik, Zivilcourage“, edited by T.A. Seidel and S. Kleinschmidt in the Evangelische Verlagsanstalt review [1]. The review was originally published in the online newspaper “Achse des Guten“. I had expressed a faint hope at the time: What Ms. Lengsfeld, who is also represented in the book with a contribution, and her friends had achieved after the fall of communism – namely a political round table – that could perhaps begin with this book as a “Corona Round Table” – as the beginning of a critical but binding reappraisal of the political decisions that went wrong during the corona crisis. This hope has now been dashed. The Protestant Church is smashing the round table to pieces before it is even finished.
On Monday, 11/27/2023, “Tichys Einblick” published: Under pressure from the “Evangelische Kirche in Mitteldeutschland” and the “Gemeinschaftswerk der Evangelischen Publizistik“, both of which are shareholders in the Evangelisches Verlagswerk, where the book was published, delivery of the book was halted. The reason for this: In some contributions, “red lines” had been crossed by “contempt for democracy” and “anti-Semitism”. The book therefore were “a serious mistake” from which they wanted to learn. Those responsible justified the book censorship in a press release at the beginning of November.
This reminds me of the language of forced self-incrimination. Those responsible know best themselves whether they actually acted out of honest conviction or because of external pressure. But one thing I do know: withdrawing a book from circulation that analyzes the lack of discourse in a democratic state and calls for new discussions is in itself contempt for democracy.
