Unknown people carried out a paint attack on the home of the head of the Bremen Office for the Protection of the Constitution on Saturday night. The police said on Saturday that they threw Christmas tree balls filled with paint against the wall of the house. In addition, a car parked nearby had its windows smashed and tires slashed. The car did not belong to the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thorge Koehler, but to a neighboring family. The state security agency has started the investigation.
The police press office supplements its announcement with a classification from the Bremen Senator for the Interior. Eva Högl (SPD) condemned the act as an “absolute transgression of boundaries.” The attack is “probably related to the alleged unmasking of an informant in the left-wing extremist scene,” Högl is quoted as saying. In fact, there has been a letter of responsibility on the tumulte.org portal since Saturday in which the “home visit” is justified by the use of an informant.
At the beginning of January, the Interventionist Left in Bremen said they had an undercover agent from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution exposed in their ranks. Last Friday, IL addressed the public via Indymedia with a lengthy statement. According to IL, Dilan S. had been monitoring the group for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 2017; he maintained close friendships and romantic relationships with members of the IL. Activists took care of him during his illness.
In its communication, the IL tries to show that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution should not have used DS, even by its own standards. After all, he was mentally unstable – due to anxiety disorders, among other things – and was financially dependent on payments from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The establishment of friendships and love relationships as well as the undercover agent’s financial dependence on the secret service have been clearly illegal since the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022, said parliamentary group spokesman Nelson Janßen
After the statement was published, the Bremen left-wing parliamentary group called for an end to the use of undercover agents. If the IL’s descriptions are correct, “it can be assumed that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has massively violated the fundamental rights of those affected.” The establishment of friendships and love relationships as well as the undercover agent’s financial dependence on the secret service have been at least since then Judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court from 2022 clearly unlawfulsaid parliamentary group spokesman Nelson Janßen. It must be proven by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution that the allegations are not true.
The attack was already condemned by several political factions on Saturday. The Green Party parliamentary group, for example, wished the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Koehler, and his family “a lot of strength”. In its statement, the CDU opposition held the Left Party responsible: its senators, state spokespersons and parliamentary group leaders must “clearly state where they stand,” demanded parliamentary group leader Wiebke Winter.
The left distances itself – and criticizes the secret service
That’s what politicians on the left did; Distances appeared on social media as recently as Saturday. “This is an action for which I have no acceptance whatsoever,” said parliamentary group leader Janßen to the taz. “It’s really blatant that an attack on the private environment is being carried out here.” He also personally expressed his condolences to the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Koehler.
Janßen maintains his criticism of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. “The attack does not change the question of whether the use of informants can be legitimate.” The SPD Interior Senator apparently sees it differently. “The attack shows very clearly that violent extremists are quite rightly being closely monitored in Bremen and are the focus of the security authorities,” Högl is quoted as saying in the police press release.
In the letter claiming responsibility for the attack on Koehler, the authors distance themselves from the IL: “The IL (…) names various laws that were broken,” it says there. “We are not interested in this. We want to abolish the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, regardless of whether it adheres to its own rules.”