Hate Against Local Politicians and Volunteers: Your Rights

Hate against local politicians hits people who mostly sit on a municipal council in their spare time, speak up on a district council or run a town as mayor. It hits volunteers just as hard: in sports clubs, the volunteer fire brigade, refugee support or a youth parliament. Some people join their council at 18 and spend the evening after a meeting reading what strangers write about them. This article explains what German criminal law provides, how to secure evidence, how to protect your address and where to get help. It gives general information, not an assessment of your case.

Are you being threatened, or is someone outside your door? Call 110. Don't wait for the next council meeting or for a law firm.

Who counts as a person in political life?

German criminal law has a specific provision for attacks on politicians: Section 188 of the Criminal Code (StGB). It protects people who are active in the political life of the nation. Since 2021, the law has stated explicitly that political life extends “down to the municipal level”.

This can cover, for example, members of a municipal, city or district council and mayors, even if they hold office on a voluntary basis. In a dispute, the court decides whether a specific person is covered. Volunteering in a club or the fire brigade is not, in itself, a political office. Volunteers are protected by the general provisions, and those protect them too.

What is a criminal offence when local politicians are targeted?

Section 188 StGB covers insult, defamation and malicious defamation (knowingly false claims) when three things come together:

• The act is committed publicly, at a gathering or by disseminating content, for example in a public post, comment or video.
• It is connected to the person's position in public life.
• It is capable of making the person's public work considerably more difficult.

In that case, higher penalties apply than for the basic offences: up to three years' imprisonment or a fine for insult, three months to five years for defamation, and six months to five years for malicious defamation.

Other provisions can also apply, to volunteers just as much as to elected officials:

• Insult, defamation, malicious defamation (Sections 185 to 187 StGB): these protect everyone. What applies to false claims is explained in Defamation and Slander Online.
• Threats (Section 241 StGB): threats, for example of violence against you or someone close to you, can be a criminal offence.
• Dangerous dissemination of personal data (Section 126a StGB): anyone who spreads your address or other data in a way that is capable of, and intended for, exposing you to the danger of an attack can commit an offence. Up to two years' imprisonment or a fine, up to three years if the data was not publicly accessible.
• Stalking (Nachstellung, Section 238 StGB): if someone repeatedly follows or contacts you, including online. Stalking is prosecuted ex officio.
• Incitement to hatred (Volksverhetzung, Section 130 StGB): if the hate targets you as part of a group, for example because of your origin or religion.

Do you need a request for prosecution (Strafantrag)?

Insult, defamation and malicious defamation are, in principle, only prosecuted on request (Section 194 StGB). Section 188 StGB is an exception: the public prosecutor's office can also investigate without a request if it sees a special public interest, unless you object. Don't rely on that. File the Strafantrag yourself, within three months of learning of the act and the identity of the offender (Section 77b StGB). How that works is explained in Strafantrag: Deadlines, Form and the Difference from a Criminal Complaint.

What applies to volunteers without a political office?

Coaches, firefighters and volunteers at food banks or in refugee support are protected by the general provisions: insult, threats, stalking and the other offences listed above. When sentencing, courts take the offender's motives into account, explicitly including racist, antisemitic, gender-specific and other motives that show contempt for human beings (Section 46(2) StGB).

Planned, not yet in force: the federal government has presented a draft law to “strengthen criminal-law protection of the community” (Bundesrat printed paper 588/26 of 9 October 2026). It names volunteers as well as office holders and elected representatives, explicitly including the municipal level. Courts are to consider, when sentencing, whether an offence is capable of impairing an activity that serves the common good more than insignificantly. The draft would also extend the provisions against coercion of constitutional bodies and their members (Sections 105 and 106 StGB) to the municipal level. The Bundesrat and Bundestag still have to debate the draft, and its content may change.

How do you secure evidence of hate connected to your office?

• Screenshot with date, time, profile name and context, such as the post a comment appears under. Note the link.
• Keep a log: what arrived when, through which channel? Include emails to the town hall, letters, calls and encounters in the street. Only a log shows whether someone is targeting you deliberately and repeatedly.
• Secure first, delete later: if others manage the social media page of your party group, club or municipality, agree that nobody deletes or hides comments before they have been secured.
• Report to the platform: you can report illegal content using the reporting function, usually behind the three dots next to the post.

A detailed guide is in How to Secure Evidence of Online Hate.

How can you protect your address?

In voluntary roles, your home address is often easy to find. You can apply to the residents' registration office for a block on disclosure (Auskunftssperre, Section 51 of the Federal Registration Act, BMG). If someone then requests information from the population register, the office hears you first, and the information may not be given if a danger to you cannot be ruled out. The requirement is facts suggesting a danger to life, health, personal freedom or similar interests worthy of protection. Protection against threats, insults and unauthorised stalking is explicitly included. The office must also consider whether you belong to a group of people who face increased hostility because of their professional or voluntary work. The block applies for two years and can be extended.

If your address is already online, see Doxxing: What to Do When Your Address Is Online.

Where can local politicians and volunteers get help?

• Police: 110 in acute danger. Without acute danger, you can file a report through the online police station (Onlinewache) of your federal state.
• Stark im Amt: a portal for local politicians run by the national associations of local authorities (Deutscher Städtetag, Deutscher Landkreistag, Deutscher Städte- und Gemeindebund). It brings together guidance on prevention, threats and online hate and lists support services at federal and state level, in German.
• HateAid: support for people affected by digital violence at hateaid.org.
• Telefonseelsorge (crisis line): 0800 111 0 111, around the clock, in German, if it all gets too much.
• Under 18, for example in a youth parliament or student council: Nummer gegen Kummer on 116 111, Monday to Saturday from 2 pm to 8 pm, in German. For minors, the Strafantrag is filed by their parents or others with parental responsibility (Section 77(3) StGB).

Talk about it in your party group, club or administration too. You don't have to carry this alone, and others will then know to secure attacks instead of simply deleting them.

Frequently asked questions

Does Section 188 StGB also apply to volunteer councillors?

The law makes clear that political life extends down to the municipal level. Holding a council seat on a voluntary basis does not rule out protection. Whether it applies in a specific case is for the public prosecutor's office and the court to assess.

Do I have to put up with criticism as a politician?

Yes. Sharp and even polemical criticism of political work is protected by freedom of expression. It can become a criminal offence in the case of insults, false statements of fact or threats.

Does a report help if the account is anonymous?

Yes, it is one way to find out who is behind it. The police and the public prosecutor's office can request data from platforms. Whether this succeeds also depends on whether the data still exists.

How long does a block in the population register last?

Two years. It can be extended on application or ex officio (Section 51(4) BMG).

Report your case

You can report it through our form. A pseudonym is fine. If you say yes, your report goes automatically to a suitable cooperating law firm (Kooperationskanzlei) as soon as one is available. The legal assessment comes from the law firm, not from us. If there is no suitable firm right now, you get an email with other places to turn to straight away. Deadlines keep running: you can always file a request for prosecution (Strafantrag) with the police yourself.