Give me the man, I will give you the crime

In the countries that once suffered under the curse of the Bolsheviks, this cynical phrase is well known: „Give me the man, and I will give you the case against him.“

It is, of course, said in the local languages: „Dajcie mi człowieka, a paragraf się znajdzie“ in Polish. „Был бы человек, а статья найдется“ in Russian. (The English Wikipedia has a whole article on this.)

The most concise formulation I once heard in English: „Give me the man, I will give you the crime!“

The Very Fine Comb

It is a terrible sentence. It is sometimes attributed to a Soviet-era jurist named Andrey Vyshinsky and sometimes to Stalin himself. And no one doubts that it corresponds to the spirit of the Stalin era.

„Give me the man, and I will give you the crime“ – it is a terrible sentence because in it the state mutates from a just protector to a tyrannical threat.

A state that detains political opponents to then comb through their lives with a very fine comb, because surely something can be found in there – that would be the kind of state we were once warned about in school.

The Prosecutor’s Office Rises

After 40 days of hearings and 9 months of pre-trial detention in Stammheim, Michael Ballweg was acquitted yesterday (apollo-news.net, 31.07.2025).

Michael Ballweg became known as the face of „Querdenken 711“. He organized demonstrations against the fundamental rights violations of the German government during the Corona panic.

The man „had to go“. The prosecutor’s approach seemed from the very beginning like a particularly cynical trick: Ballweg was accused of fraud in 9,450 cases against the donors of the movement he led. He allegedly used money privately and also evaded taxes. There was a flight risk, so he had to sit in jail first.

All of this seemed very off from the start. The prosecutor’s office rises to become the great protector of donations from people protesting against the government?!

And so one of the most well-known government critics has to sit in jail, where otherwise terrorists are held?

One of the prosecutors involved at the beginning once ran for the Greens, as reported by nius.de, 18.3.2025. When this became known, he was apparently removed (apollo-news.net, 31.07.2025). You can start with this information, whatever you want – and even conclude about the prosecutors.

Purchase of a Dog Mat

Yesterday, the verdict was pronounced.

The German propaganda headlines: „No fraud, but tax evasion“ (tagesschau.de, 31.07.2025).

The „tax evasion“ that the German state broadcaster writes about consists of a false declaration of input tax for the purchase of a dog mat (€11.42) and a perfume sprayer (€8.11). (Just imagine the zeal and effort to find these two booking points. All these bureaucrats busy with this: Do these people actually think they are using their valuable life time wisely?)

Ballweg reported €19.53 too much in business expenses, presumably by mistake. Thus, he was refunded, I suspect, €3.12 too much in input tax. For comparison: In „Cum Ex“, alone in Germany, between €10 and €36 billion were refunded – and that was intentional!

By the way: Former German Foreign Minister Baerbock alone spent a proud €136,500 of taxpayer money on a makeup artist in 2022 (focus.de, 29.6.2024). She justified it by saying otherwise one would look „like a gravedigger“ – thereby insulting gravediggers and also all women who do not receive €136,500 per year from taxpayers just for being made up. €136,500 for being made up, in just one year – but Ballweg sat in a terrorist prison for 9 months because he misbooked a perfume sprayer.

Prosecutor’s Office Demands Three Years in Prison

The Stuttgart Regional Court initially did not want to open proceedings against Ballweg at all. However, the prosecutors were stubborn, and they filed it before the Higher Regional Court. In March 2025, the Regional Court proposed to dismiss the proceedings, but the prosecutors rejected it. What drove them?

Well, in Germany, prosecutors are known to be „bound by instructions“. It is also reported (apollo-news.net, 31.07.2025) that the Ballweg case particularly interested the Green Finance Ministry of Baden-Württemberg.

Ballweg’s finances were apparently scrutinized in detail from the highest levels. The prosecutor’s office demands three years in prison.

Three years in prison for the false VAT advance declaration of a dog mat and a perfume sprayer?

Something is Always

„Give me the man,“ the spirit of Stalin is quoted, „and I will give you the crime.“

There are as many laws as there are trees in the taiga, as many interpretations as there are grains of sand on the beach of Kaliningrad. If you want to find something against a man, you will find it.

Especially today, with digital surveillance, artificial intelligence, and storage: Something is always.

And if there is nothing?

Then we claim that something is – and lock the troublemaker in a terrorist prison for as long as necessary. Then the annoying agitator is off the streets and cannot lead the demonstrations against the government. Subsequently, we keep him busy with long court proceedings. And even if he is eventually „acquitted“, a very clear warning has been issued to all other „brave ones“.

Risking, Citizen?

In Germany, it is indeed openly said that the „investigation“ of a „suspicion“ is deliberately made extra harsh so that it already has a deterrent effect. „Rule of Law in the Future Without Trials“, I wrote a year ago. I wrote about house searches as punishment for forbidden expressions of opinion – a punishment without charges and proceedings.

„Why Did the Prosecutors Laugh?“, I asked in February. I described the strange openness of German prosecutors about the educational and punitive character of house searches in Germany.

The Ballweg case is in this sense a victory for that totalitarian spirit known in Germany as „Our Democracy“.

The prosecutors have not „lost“. They may have achieved a lot in their sense – and (as of 1.8.2025 early morning) have not ruled out going into revision.

Anyone who protests against the government should expect to spend months in a terrorist prison – and in solitary confinement if you do not want to receive the mRNA injection demanded by the government.

And if you do not have the charisma and thus the resources and supporters of a Michael Ballweg (which should not be held against him), then your proceedings may end far less favorably.

Do you want to risk that, citizen?

No?

Then better watch the news. And if you go to demonstrations, then please only to the „Against the Right“ demonstrations organized by government-affiliated NGOs.

Of One’s Own Accord

The Bolsheviks of yesteryear have moved on. Today they no longer run USSR and GDR – their grandchildren in spirit, it seems, run „Our Democracy“.

It is a sobering realization from the Stalin era that while millions of Russians were killed in the „purges“, millions of Russians also willingly and of their own accord participated (though some of them were ultimately killed).

When the drugged-up thug George Floyd in the USA resisted his arrest and died (see the essay „Mr. Floyd and the Sea of Lies“), even in Germany the heated mob protested against alleged state violence, for whatever reason. (By the way, during these demonstrations, the Corona measures were happily ignored; see also „Germany 2020: Demonstration Against Merkel’s Government is Prohibited“.)

If all the sheep that are regularly driven to demonstration by the government (and have been for a while, see „5 Marks and Sausage – When the System Calls for Demonstration“ from 2018), if these people were really „for democracy“, which should include „for the rule of law“, then they would have demonstrated in their thousands for Michael Ballweg.

In fact, it was a relatively small group that expressed their solidarity. And this was not further noted by the propaganda or dismissed as „lateral thinkers“ (and thinking laterally is considered bad, right-wing, fascist in „Our Democracy“).

To Suppress Resistance

Stalin declared, and he explicitly made it his own: „The state is a machine in the hands of the ruling class for the suppression of the resistance of its class enemies.“

Is it too much to ask for a state where Stalin quotes do not fit so remarkably well?

Sure, in Stalinism, death was at the end of the unjust political process. In Germany, one is – at least if one is prominent enough – released and may even receive a few rubles in compensation for imprisonment.

But if the difference between Germany and Stalinist Russia is that today one physically survives the unjust political processes and did not back then, then that is too little for me.