NIX v. GERMANY DECISION
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employment office and the employment office as a whole aware of the
highly interesting statements contained in report CRI(2014)2 of the
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) on Germany.
ECRI’s general policy recommendation no. 7 on national legislation to
combat racism and racial discrimination adopted on 13 December 2002
should not be forgotten either. Furthermore, the applicant was going to
contact different institutions, both domestic and international, with regard to
this matter and publish everything on his blog. He stated that his next post
would address the sentence “[F]or customised counselling I need
information about the current state of affairs ([that is to say] a school
report)” contained in the email of the staff member of the unemployment
office.
7. At 7.16 am that same day, the applicant posted a statement, more than
a page in length. Under the heading “[Name of the staff member] offers
‘customised’ integration into the low-wage [economy]” he placed a picture
of the former SS chief Heinrich Himmler, showing him in SS uniform, with
the badge of the Nazi party (including a swastika) on his front pocket, and
wearing a swastika armband. The diameter of the swastika on the armband,
as shown on the picture, was 0.7 centimetres. Next to the picture the
applicant posted a quote of Himmler concerning the schooling of children in
Eastern Europe during the occupation by Nazi Germany to the effect that
parents who wanted to offer their children good education had to submit a
request to the SS and the police leadership. The applicant indicated the
sources for both the quotation and the picture.
8. Below the picture and quotation, the applicant addressed the staff
member of the employment office by name and stated that he would, in the
blog post in question, proceed to discuss the following sentence from an
email sent by the latter to the applicant: “[F]or customised counselling I
need information about the current state of affairs – ([that is to say] a school
report)”. The applicant stated that the staff member had informed him that
he was acting in line with his counselling mandate under the Social Security
Code. To him, the staff member concerned and the employment office as a
whole did not appear to attach much importance – if any – to the
“counselling mandate”. He stated that he had contacted the employment
office in November 2013 and February 2014 to ask for the reimbursement
of the costs in respect of his daughter commuting to school, without
receiving a reply. Nobody from the employment office had ever taken an
interest in his daughter, so the offer of “customised counselling” did not
appear genuine. Prior to the entry into force of the latest educational policy,
his daughter had been able to eat at school for free, but that support had
been discontinued. The staff member of the employment office must have
had telepathic skills if he was able to design “customised” advice for his
daughter by looking at her school report without knowing anything about
her interests, strengths and weaknesses. The employment office was making