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Some documents on David Irving’s Persecution by the German authorities 1989-2003
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 WHEN Mr Irving first began lecturing in Germany, touring bookstores for his publishers Hoffmann & Campe in the late 1970s, all went well. But then the Far Left began to object. Together with trades unionists and thugs funded by the Soviet puppet regime in East Germany, they staged increasingly violent demonstrations to silence him. German police acted uniformly and courageously to protect the freedom of speech enshrined in Clause One of the Federal German Constitution.
In the mid-1980s there was a sudden shift. The police no longer protected Mr Irving and his audiences, they now began to harrass them. Freedom of speech ebbed until it receded out of sight. Instigated often by fee-hungry television camera crews, violence began.
On April 21, 1990, after he addressed a large audience at the Löwenbräukeller in Munich, he was arrested on trumped-up charges; these were later dropped, and replaced with more sinister ones under Germany’s new laws for the suppression of free speech. He was accused of having said:
“So wie die Gaskammer in Dachau in den ersten Nachkriegsjahren eine Attrappe war, so sind die Gaskammeranlagen, die man jetzt als Tourist in Auschwitz sehen kann, von den Polen nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg errichtet worden. Die Beweise liegen vor, die Anlagen sind chemikalisch untersucht worden, die Dokumente haben wir jetzt in der ganzen Welt veröffentlicht — ich kann Ihnen sagen, meine Damen und Herren: Das wirbelt einen Staub auf, da wird unseren Feinden das Hören und Sehen vergehen. Denn die deutschen Steuerzahler haben ja eine runde 16 Milliarden Deutsch Mark als Strafe für Auschwitz zahlen müssen. . . für eine Attrappe….”
The Polish government has since then admitted that the gas chamber shown to the tourists is a fake, built in 1948.
On January 13, 1993 he was fined DM 30,000 (about $20,000); on July 1, 1993 he was banned from the German archives, upon which he relied for his research (and which housed a major part of his own research collection); on November 13, 1993 he was banned from German territory altogether. In Germany, which prided itself on its post-Nazi enlightenment, the lights had finally gone out again.
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IndexThe Legal Actions [  most of these documents are in German]:
- Germany’s measures to silence David Irving culminate in secret entry ban on March 9, 1990.
- Police transcript of David Irving’s Talk in Weinheim September 3, 1990
- David Irving’s Weinheim speech of 1990:
- Bavaria’s ministry of the interior justifies its ban on freedom of speech, Jan 1, 1991: “David Irving is an extremist”
- 1991: Frankfurt’s police chief reveals: TV journalists paid youths to stage “neo Nazi” incidents for their cameras
- Since his Munich arrest was illegal, Mr Irving demands return of cash bond, April 1, 1991
- How Germany first fined him a small fortune for having told the truth about Auschwitz in Munich in 1990: the 1991 Strafbefehl (Indictment): DM 7,000 fine
- Munich “conviction” in absentia, July 17, 1991: fined DM 7,000.
- Verdict of the Munich District Court, May 5, 1992: increased to 10,000 DM fine [English translation]
- The Daily Telegraph, London, May 6, 1992: “German court rejects Irving appeal“
- His diary of his May 1992 Munich trial under Germany’s laws for the suppression of free speech [CLICK for German text]
- Secret tape transcript of David Irving’s May 1992 closing speech to Munich court (Schlusswort vor dem Münchner Landgericht am 5. Mai 1992, in German)
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is angry (July 1992) that Germany has been unable to stop David Irving coming and going and speaking
- September 1992: Judge fixes secret date for January 1993 trial, fearing demonstrations
- On Nov 9, 1993, Munich political police handed him an expulsion order, giving him three days to leave Germany for ever: German (54K) | English translation
- February 1994: German Publisher Rowohlt Verlag asks for David Irving to be Committed to Prison for two years for Contempt of Court: the role of Michael Naumann (today, 2000: Kultusminister)
- German Ministry of Justice explains in 1995 that it does not know how many died in the “gas chambers”, and it is not yet a criminal offence to talk about that
- German Publisher Dr Herbert Fleissner no longer feels he has to pay David Irving royalties
- The German communist newspaper Antifaschistische Nachrichten, No. 6/1997, repeats the Board of Deputies of British Jews allegations.
- Central Criminal Records office in Berlin secretly advises the Weinheim court that David Irving has “No Criminal Record” in Germany, December 9, 1996.
- Jun 11, 1997: The German Secret Service (BND) refuses to join in the operations against David Irving
- Dec 22, 1997: David Irving writes to British Home Secretary Jack Straw
- New German ambassador thanks David Irving, April 9, 1998
- Jan 12, 2000: German press reports attempt to extradite Irving as his trial of Lipstadt action begins
- Oct 11, 2003: Germany has lifted the ban on David Irving’s entry
- Oct 17, 2003: Berliner Morgenpost announces that the ban will be restored
- Mar 1, 2012: Germany extends the ban until Mar 2, 2022 (ten more years)
- Then Mr Irving’s lawyer gets the ban overturned by the courts, citing European EU law
- May 23, 2012: But the Lüneburg prosecutor has meanwhile ordered Mr Irving fined 4,200 euros, around $7,000, without trial [document not yet posted]
Other Related Items
For more on the legal struggle go to the full-length draft brochure which Focal Point Publications are preparing:- [175K]
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