39 Spring 2026 ntroduction Antisemitic conspiracy narratives are a historically recurring pattern that flourishes in times of social crisis. They serve as a communicative precursor by identifying minorities as the cause of evil and lowering the threshold for physical violence. This article analyzes the criminal prosecution of these narratives in German criminal law, with a particular focus on § 130 of the German Criminal Code (Volksverhetzung). Drawing on recent jurisprudence, it analyzes situations in which the dissemination of conspiracy theories – especially those denying or trivializing the Holocaust or glorifying the National Socialist regime – crosses the line from protected expression under Article 5 of the Basic Law into punishable hate speech. The findings illustrate that while criminal law serves as an essential safeguard for public peace and the dignity of victims, effectively countering conspiracy ideologies also requires societal vigilance and the strengthening of democratic resilience. I. Social Crises as Catalysts of Conspiracy Narratives The concept that history does not repeat itself is a dictum in historiography that remains virtually undisputed. The social circumstances, cultural contexts, and acting agents are usually too different for a literal repetition of events to be conceivable. A more apt description is a much-quoted expression attributed to Mark Twain, which states, “history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Accordingly, retrospective analysis allows for the identification of recurring social and political constellations that can be described as structural patterns. One such pattern that recurs across temporal and geographical boundaries, as well as across cultural and political contexts, is that of conspiracy narratives concerning minority ethnic, social, or religious groups and (collective) acts of violence against those specific groups. These are adventurous tales – about women in the Middle Ages and the early modern period who, as witches, ruined the harvest;2 about Russian local officials in the nineteenth century who allegedly conspired with the British queen against Russian peasants to bring death upon them by spreading cholera.3 They concern the CIA and the KGB, who supposedly caused the Chernobyl reactor disaster;4 reptiloids, humanoid intelligent beings descended from reptiles or reptilian aliens, who are infiltrating the Earth;5 American tech billionaires who, by means of the “The Rumor About the Jews”:1 Antisemitic Conspiracy Narratives and Their Criminal Prosecution as Incitement of the People Lena Gautam and Niklas Pretsch 1. Theodor W. Adorno, MINIMA MORALIA: REFLEXIONEN AUS DEM BESCHÄDIGTEN LEBEN 200 (Suhrkamp 1951). 2. Wolfgang Behringer, “Weather, Hunger and Fear. Origins of the European Witch-Hunts in Climate, Society and Mentality,” 13 GERMAN HISTORY 1 (1995), available at https://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/lehrstuhl/ behringer/PDF/weather.pdf 3. Lena Gautam, RECHT UND ORDNUNG. MÖRDER, VERRÄTER UND UNRUHESTIFTER VOR SPÄTZARISCHEN KRIMINALGERICHTEN 1864–1917, 101 (Harrassowitz 2017). 4. Anastasiya Astapova, “Chernobyl Conspiracy Theories, From American Sabotage to the Biggest Hoax of the Century,” in CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN EASTERN EUROPE 29 (Routledge 2021). 5. Daniela Mahl, Jing Zeng, and Mike S. Schäfer, “From ‘Nasa Lies’ to ‘Reptilian Eyes’: Mapping Communication About 10 Conspiracy Theories, Their Communities, and Main Propagators on Twitter,” 7 SOCIAL MEDIA + SOCIETY 6 (2021). I
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