The AfD politician wants to hold Böhmermann accountable for his rumors about a bubbly order. However, he will probably fail.
In the unusual dispute with TV presenter Jan Böhmermann over an alleged champagne order, it looks like a defeat for the controversial AfD politician and EU parliamentarian Maximilian Krah. The judges at the Düsseldorf Regional Court made it clear that Krah’s injunction against Böhmermann had little chance of success.
Complained like the bottle was empty
Krah wanted to prohibit Böhmermann from claiming that he had ordered 200 bottles of champagne at the last Oktoberfest in order to invite the entire festival tent. The satirist had previously announced the rumor in his podcast “Fest und Fluschig” as “a hot story from Oktoberfest”. In the issue of October 6, 2024, he then read a message that a bird had apparently chirped to him. According to the anonymous source, AfD MEP Maximilian Krah is said to have been a guest in the renowned “Beetle Tent” at the Munich Oktoberfest on September 28, 2024 – and was wearing the donor pants. Krah, who is also known in certain circles as “Champagne Max”, celebrated there with friends and acquaintances and wanted to order a total of 200 bottles of the expensive sparkling wine for all guests in the festival tent, the podcaster said.
However, the presiding judge made it clear on Wednesday (December 4th) that Böhmermann had not made any claims of his own. He simply reported what the source had told him. He has also now updated the podcast so that the original statement can no longer be found there. In a later episode, Böhmermann corrected the number of bubbly bottles from 200 to 50 and made it clear that they had not been ordered by Krah, but from a table nearby. Despite these corrections, the politician’s lawyer stuck to the request for an injunction. The final decision from the Düsseldorf Regional Court is now expected on December 13th.
Stories from Oktoberfest
However, some inconsistencies in the story became apparent relatively quickly. Again “Star” reported, a spokesman for Maximilian Krah denied the ZDF Magazine Royal presenter’s claim as “untrue”. Tent tenant Michael Käfer also denied the rumors. According to Stern, a spokeswoman said: “That evening we had a guest who ordered several bottles of champagne, but that had nothing to do with Mr. Krah. We only found out afterwards from other guests that he was in the tent.”