Professor Jörg Baberowski loses on all counts in suit against University of Bremen students
By
Sonja Bach and Christoph Vandreier
3 June 2017
On June 1, Professor Jörg Baberowski’s attempt to use the courts to ban student criticisms of his radical right-wing positions ended in complete defeat.
The Humboldt University professor withdrew his application for an interim injunction against the University of Bremen Asta (Student Union), which had quoted him in a leaflet and described him as a right-wing radical and racist. This followed an oral hearing at which the Cologne Higher Regional Court made an unambiguous statement that it was preparing to issue a judgement against Baberowski. The Berlin professor must now bear the entire cost of the court case.
With the withdrawal of the suit, the entire construct of legal claims and allegations by means of which Baberowski sought to silence his critics has collapsed. In this reactionary campaign, he had been supported by large sections of the media and many academics.
In his legal suit, Baberowski asserted that the Bremen Asta had torn quotations from interviews he had given out of context and misinterpreted them in order to vilify and defame him. He attacked criticisms of his right-wing political and historical views as an attack on freedom of scholarship and on his reputation as a recognized historian.
The Cologne Higher Regional Court rejected this view. Following a thorough study of detailed written submissions from both the Bremen Asta and Baberowski, the court came to the conclusion that Baberowski had essentially been quoted accurately and that the criticisms of him were legitimate.
Right at the beginning of her remarks, Margarete Reske, chair of the 15th Civil Court Senate of the Higher Regional Court, rejected…