# «The New Normal Reich»

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/auf-spurensuche-nach-nat-rlichkeit-4470561/the-new-normal-reich
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/auf-spurensuche-nach-nat-rlichkeit-4470561/the-new-normal-reich.md
Podcast: [Auf Spurensuche nach Natürlichkeit](https://stenobird.com/podcast/auf-spurensuche-nach-nat-rlichkeit-4470561)
Published: 2025-12-11T15:35:31+00:00
Episode link: https://bbarucker.podigee.io/241-the-new-normal-reich
Audio file: https://audio.podigee-cdn.net/2253476-m-a47706e18a0b00411df40fce1f93818c.mp3?source=feed
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/auf-spurensuche-nach-nat-rlichkeit-4470561/episodes/the-new-normal-reich
Duration seconds: 4210

## Resource

CJ Hopkins is an award-winning playwright and novelist who has lived in Berlin for more than 20 years. He is also a political satirist and is married to a Jewish woman. His 2022 bestseller The New Normal Reich describes a new form of global totalitarianism emerging in the 21^(st) century. Early on, Hopkins described authoritarian Covid politics as part of the so-called ‘New Normal Reich’. However, his book, featuring a face mask bearing a transparent swastika on the cover, has effectively been banned in Germany. The Berlin state prosecutor accused Hopkins of disseminating symbols of unconstitutional/National Socialist organisations due to Twitter posts featuring the book cover. Following an acquittal, the state prosecutor’s office appealed and won the case in September 2024. Hopkins then lodged an appeal, and the case is still pending. Judge Clivia von Drewitz, who wrote a doctoral thesis on the Nazi ban on symbols, commented on the legal matter as follows: «According to the ban on symbols (Section 86(1) No. 4, 86a(1) No. 1 StGB), only individuals who disseminate or publicly use Nazi symbols ‘which, according to their content, are intended to continue the efforts of a former National Socialist organisation’ can be prosecuted.» Recently, three armed police officers arrived at Hopkins’ door with a search warrant. They searched his home, interrogated him and his wife, and confiscated his computer. The reason for this intrusion is, as absurd as it may sound, the selling and distribution of his best-selling book. According to Hopkins, «The German authorities are instrumentalising and perverting the law.» Lena Böllinger, a journalist covering the Hopkins case and others like it, states: «Recently, however, these anti-Nazi laws seem to have become a tool for repressing unwelc…

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## Transcript

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