By Til Biermann and Anne Losensky
Spreading propaganda of unconstitutional organizations, using signs of unconstitutional organizations, insult, property damage, violation and confidentiality of the word, trespassing, bodily harm. The list of offenses accused of Nikolai Nerling (42), aka the “People’s Teacher”, is long. The right-wing extremist video blogger has been standing before the Tiergarten District Court in Berlin since Friday.
On Friday morning, a hundred police officers are standing in front of it. For safety reasons, because this Friday is also the birthday of the “People’s Teacher” and called on the messenger service “Telegram” to come. That’s why Reich citizen Dennis Ingo Schultz, dressed all in white, brought him a present.
► Unbelievable: Even at the security gate to the process, he denies the Holocaust! He has already been convicted for such statements. Nerling: “In order to deny something, you have to be sure that it happened.”
The BILD reporter and another man in the line tell Nerling that they lost relatives in the Holocaust. Nerling: “How do you know that they were killed and didn’t die of heart failure?”
He builds his world as he pleases. This provocation is his business, so he collects donations on “Telegram”.
At the security checkpoint, Nerling continues – apparently in a chatty mood: “I was in Brazil at the beginning of the year and was thinking about staying. But then the war broke out and I wanted to come back. Besides, I would have had to stay away forever, I’d rather face the court now and serve the sentence.”
He is certain that he will be convicted.
Nikolai Nerling (41) at a Corona denier demo in November 2020 in Berlin Photo: dpa
It is unclear whether a verdict will be made on Friday. Another hearing is scheduled for September.
In any case, Nerling does not deny anything: “I documented everything myself on video.”
Those are the charges
► On his own YouTube channel, he is said to have conducted an interview with the equally notorious Holocaust denier Ursula Haverbeck (*1928).
► In other posts he is said to have defamed and mocked Jewish fellow citizens.
► In March 2018, he put a helper in a headlock in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, who asked him out of a discussion about how to deal with the AFD.
► Two months later he sends a little film of himself through the internet, in which he shows the Hitler salute while standing to attention.
► In 2019 he pasted over a plaque in Lübeck commemorating the kidnapping of Jewish fellow citizens by the 110th Infantry Division.
By the way: 93-year-old Ursula Haverbeck will soon have to start her prison sentence in Berlin, the verdict of April 2022 (one year in prison) is final!
Who is “the folk teacher”?
Nikolai Nerling, tall, blond and slim, calls himself “the folk teacher” and has been a video blogger since 2017. He denies the Holocaust, the genocide of the Jews, and at the same time rants about “genocide against Germans”.
The state of Berlin had fired him from his job as a primary school teacher several years ago because he was spreading right-wing hate speech on his YouTube channel. A lawsuit against his dismissal failed before the labor court.
Since the corona pandemic, Nerling has appeared at lateral thinker demos throughout Germany and streamed regularly from there. On “Telegram” he lectures his theories in the style of a teacher.
Nerling sees the Russia-Ukraine war as a Jewish staging.
At the beginning of the year, the “folk teacher” was in Brazil and considered even emigrating there completely. The simple reason: According to Nerling, the judiciary was after him for various crimes. The payment requests are said to have piled up, he was threatened with detention.
He came back to Germany anyway. Now he faces far more. For his court costs – including an older 6,000 euro fine for incitement to hatred – he begged “Telegram” for money from supporters.
The Tiergarten District Court has so far scheduled two days of trial for the current criminal trial.