Overview
- Berlin’s administrative court, which ruled Thursday, issued a temporary order blocking Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer from labeling the operators of the bookstore Zur schwankenden Weltkugel as political extremists.
- Judges said the remark violated the owners’ personality rights and lacked a reliable factual basis, noting Weimer failed to identify evidence behind his Verfassungsschutz query or meet the duty of factual communication required of officials.
- Weimer had removed three shops in Berlin, Bremen and Göttingen from the state-backed German Bookshop Prize after intelligence checks, and he declined a cease‑and‑desist before the court intervened.
- The ministry can appeal to the Higher Administrative Court, while the three bookstores are pursuing separate suits to see who influenced the prize process and on what grounds, challenging the use of intelligence tips in cultural funding.
- The German Bookshop Prize carries €7,000 to €25,000 per award, and the case has fueled a wider debate over the so‑called Haber procedure, in which ministries ask the domestic intelligence service for risk flags that may be withheld from public view.