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NIX v. GERMANY DECISION
applicant concerning the applicant’s daughter, who is of German-Nepalese
origin. In early March 2014, the employment office sent a letter with the
heading “Your professional development from September 2014 onwards” to
the applicant’s daughter. The employment office requested her, as an
eighteen-year-old who was scheduled to complete her schooling in the
summer of 2015 at the earliest, to complete a questionnaire to indicate
whether she intended to continue schooling beyond September 2014, or to
commence vocational training or tertiary studies. She was also asked to
submit a copy of her latest school report. Moreover, the letter stated that,
should the applicant’s daughter intend to pursue vocational training, the
staff member would ensure her registration at the employment office. In that
case he asked her to contact him, as the registration was very important for
the transmission of vacant positions for vocational training.
4. The applicant has a blog, on which he writes about certain matters
concerning economics, politics and society. Between 20 March 2014 and
13 May 2014, he published six posts about the interaction between the
employment office and his daughter.
5. In his first post on the matter, entitled “[Name of the staff member] of
the employment office, expert in educational remote diagnosis” and
published on 20 March 2014, the applicant reproduced an e-mail exchange
he had with the staff member of the employment office on 18 March 2014.
In that exchange, the applicant had inquired about the purpose of the
employment office’s request contained in the above-mentioned letter, to
which the staff member had responded that he was, in line with pertinent
legislation, the contact person for the applicant’s daughter in relation to her
transition from schooling to vocational training or tertiary studies. He
further stated that, in order to provide customised counselling, he needed
information about the current state of affairs, in particular whether she was
on track to finish school that summer as intended or whether the
employment office should finance remedial lessons. The applicant stated
that he would provide his answers within a few days.
6. In his second post, published on 23 March 2014 at 1.52 am, the
applicant addressed the staff member of the employment office and
reiterated that he, as the father who had custody for his daughter, would
never allow the employment office to intervene in the decision-making
concerning her professional development. The background to the staff
member’s letter and email was that the employment office intended to push
his daughter, in a racist and discriminatory manner, into becoming part of
the cheap labour force (“Das Jobcenter will in rassistischer und
diskriminierender Weise meine Tochter in einen Billiglohnjob
verfrachten”). The applicant stated that he was going to address the matter
in a number of blog posts. A long post would concern legal aspects and,
inter alia, contain references to judgments and statements of the Federal
Constitutional Court. He would also make the staff member of the