Bodo Schiffmann is a German otorhinolaryngologist, and an outspoken critic of the wearing of masks in response to the Wuhan Coronavirus. In the following video Dr. Schiffmann’s birthday party in an event room of a restaurant is interrupted by a visit from the Corona police, who have received a report that the doctor and his guests have broken Corona regulations on masks and social distancing.
There is a wry joke about the DDR (“German Democratic Republic”) partway through the video. In the old East Germany the police (as opposed to the Stasi) were the Volkspolizei, commonly known as the VoPo. It seems appropriate to designate the mask-wearing uniformed drones in this video CoPo — it’s short, easy to remember, and has a nice resonance.
Many thanks to Hellequin GB for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
| 00:21 | Good evening… Good evening. Why are the police here? | |
| 00:27 | What are you doing at my birthday party, if I may be so bold to ask? | |
| 00:30 | Pardon? —What are you doing at my birthday party, if I may ask? | |
| 00:34 | Because I just invited myself! First of all, | |
| 00:37 | I would like to speak to the person in charge who booked this event, | |
| 00:41 | and then we’ll talk about it again. | |
| 00:44 | With pleasure. —If it’s your birthday, my congratulations, | |
| 00:48 | and you still have to follow the Corona rules, and these were massively not observed here. | |
| 00:53 | To what extent have we supposedly broken them? —We will explain these to you in good time. | |
| 00:56 | I would like to clarify that now, because you are currently | |
| 00:59 | disturbing a party. —Yes, we disturb with pleasure, in the sense | |
| 01:03 | that social distancing is not being followed here. | |
| 01:06 | How many people are allowed at private parties, if I may ask? | |
| 01:10 | You have to fill out forms in the restaurant, and you have not yet filled them out. | |
| 01:14 | But I’m still here!?! —Yet, you’ll have to fill out the form. | |
| 01:17 | What the… I don’t understand this… | |
| 01:22 | Where is it written? —Also you’ve refused to wear a mask | |
| 01:25 | [unintelligible] | |
| 01:29 | Nobody asked us to wear a mask | |
| 01:32 | Well, then you should ask… [unintelligible] | |
| 01:38 | I assume you know me? —No, not yet. | |
| 01:41 | My name is Bodo Schiffmann. Do you know me now? | |
| 01:44 | Yeah, good. —So, my name is Bodo Schiffmann, | |
| 01:47 | And I am a legally, well-qualified opponent | |
| 01:52 | of government measures, and therefore know my rights relatively well. | |
| 01:56 | As for this, we’re at a party here. | |
| 01:59 | I’m celebrating my birthday here. We have NOT exceeded the maximum number of guests. | |
| 02:05 | We have NOT violated any Corona requirement here. | |
| 02:09 | At the moment. The forms haven’t been filled out yet, otherwise we will make a voluntary disclosure. | |
| 02:15 | You record that, and then you can send me the collection of fines, | |
| 02:18 | so that I can forward them to the doctors and others for education, | |
| 02:22 | and otherwise I would ask you not to disturb my celebration any further, | |
| 02:26 | because that would be very KIND of you, and we also have many here with (medical) certificates. | |
| 02:31 | While eating and drinking it’s also not usual. | |
| 02:34 | Also, we’re sitting at our places and nobody walks around. | |
| 02:37 | When I came in nobody asked me to do anything. | |
| 02:41 | At this moment I do not understand this problem at all. | |
| 02:44 | If you do not understand this… [unintelligible] | |
| 02:48 | when you enter the establishment you have to wear a mask. | |
| 02:52 | Point, and you didn’t do this. We have… (Why didn’t we do this?) Before you, before you… um, um… | |
| 02:58 | In general, here you have to fill out these forms first, and not at some point in the future. | |
| 03:01 | Where is it written WHEN you’ll have to fill in these forms? | |
| 03:04 | In which regulation does it say WHEN you have to fill out this form? | |
| 03:07 | Where is this stated? WHERE? I’ve never heard of this before. | |
| 03:10 | Doesn’t EXIST… [unintelligible] | |
| 03:14 | um, um … I was just putting it that way… I only asked you to fill out these forms. | |
| 03:21 | That’s all well and good, but where is it written in the regulation that there is a time-limit | |
| 03:28 | when those forms have to be filled out? Everything else is a whim or simple speculation. | |
| 03:34 | Pure despotism. Where is it written down? | |
| 03:40 | There are also the house rights | |
| 03:44 | If the lady asks that of you, then yes she can… [unintelligible] | |
| 03:49 | [unintelligible] | |
| 03:53 | Invitations are issued to go shopping or dining. | |
| 03:57 | The house right (domiciliary) does not fully apply to them. | |
| 04:00 | Then we don’t have to pay the bill, or do I misunderstand this? | |
| 04:03 | … .yeah, then we won’t have to pay… | |
| 04:07 | and that’s why we did a lot to increase your turnover… | |
| 04:11 | … I’m aware that you wanted to… [unintelligible] | |
| 04:15 | Which regulations am I violating right now? Please tell us which | |
| 04:19 | regulations I’m VIOLATING right now while sitting here? Name ONE regulation; there isn’t one. | |
| 04:24 | One meter social distancing… —Pardon me? There is no such regulation in gastronomy. | |
| 04:28 | [unintelligible] …persons are allowed per table | |
| 04:32 | We are here at a private party, where up to 50 persons are allowed | |
| 04:37 | It could also be only 25; we even fall below that number. | |
| 04:40 | But I don’t know how it is here. You don’t have to wear a mask while sitting at the table, | |
| 04:44 | only if you want to go to the toilet or something similar. | |
| 04:47 | We weren’t asked before. We haven’t filled out those forms yet | |
| 04:51 | I offered you a voluntary report, and you can give me those fines. | |
| 04:56 | At the moment, I see this as legally questionable, | |
| 04:59 | since we haven’t left this establishment yet. | |
| 05:02 | When the house rules apply and they want to expel me from the premises, | |
| 05:05 | then of course we will simply leave the premises, | |
| 05:08 | because then hospitality is no longer present. Then I don’t see any need to extend the whole farce. | |
| 05:13 | I believe my name is sufficiently well-known. We have registered so many demonstrations already. | |
| 05:18 | I’ve submitted my documents thousands of times. You know me from TV, too, | |
| 05:22 | and so I would ask you now — since we are at a PRIVATE CELEBRATION — | |
| 05:25 | to tell me specifically the law we are violating here, since that law does not exist. | |
| 05:29 | I don’t know your name. —The name Schiffmann isn’t known to you… | |
| 05:34 | [unintelligible] | |
| 05:42 | …that means you’ll have to explain to us in detail which regulations we’re violating here… | |
| 05:46 | The innkeeper still has the house rights, I still have… | |
| 05:50 | [unintelligible] | |
| 05:54 | someone from your party went to the toilet without wearing a mask. | |
| 06:00 | That was me, but I have a medical exemption, and I told this to the innkeeper. | |
| 06:03 | But did not show it to her. —He doesn’t have to. | |
| 06:06 | [unintelligible] | |
| 06:11 | …on what legal basis must he show the medical certificate to the innkeeper? | |
| 06:16 | But it is not proven whether he has a medical exemption certificate. | |
| 06:20 | He doesn’t have to, because it falls under doctor-patient confidentiality. | |
| 06:24 | You don’t have to… [unintelligible] | |
| 06:27 | We have just spoken to our control center [unintelligible] | |
| 06:30 | Then, ah, ah, we will do it like this, “THIS EVENT ENDS”. | |
| 06:34 | The innkeeper has the house right, | |
| 06:38 | and under these circumstances, would like this to END. | |
| 06:42 | Very well, then she should bring the bill. | |
| 06:45 | She doesn’t need to, because when they use the house right and throw you out, | |
| 06:48 | then we cannot pay… [unintelligible] | |
| 06:51 | Then I have to go through my legal counsel since my guest-right has been revoked. | |
| 06:55 | Do I have to pay now or NOT? —I’m not a lawyer… [unintelligible] | |
| 07:02 | [unintelligible] | |
| 07:05 | …for the purpose… [unintelligible] does that make sense… | |
| 07:09 | House rights must be preserved … [unintelligible] …but you evict us on unlawful grounds. | |
| 07:13 | You can’t throw anyone out of a restaurant because of [unintelligible] | |
| 07:18 | [unintelligible] | |
| 07:22 | …basically we have to implement that… | |
| 07:26 | You are only allowed to act if a law is broken. Yes, but owner has the house right. | |
| 07:30 | [unintelligible] We have been invited to dine here. | |
| 07:33 | This is a public invitation, there is a sign, the door is open, | |
| 07:37 | the event had been registered… we already ate… | |
| 07:41 | And we wanted to leave now anyway; that’s why I don’t understand why THIS. | |
| 07:47 | …Can the innkeeper please come and talk to us… —Certainly. | |
| 07:51 | [unintelligible] | |
| 08:06 | So if you evict us from the house now, we won’t have to pay the bill, that’s clear. | |
| 08:10 | That would be a shame, but what “crime” have we committed here? | |
| 08:14 | You didn’t say hello to me, nor did anyone ask me to wear the mask. | |
| 08:19 | I have a medical exemption certificate from Dr. Ulrich Kremer. I am a doctor myself. | |
| 08:23 | This gentleman has a certificate, and I don’t know why you’re checking it, | |
| 08:28 | and doubt it when he is alone on the way to the toilet. I cannot understand this, either. | |
| 08:33 | We could have filled out the forms; we certainly won’t fill them out now. | |
| 08:37 | I also don’t understand why you are disturbing my private party now, after first giving me | |
| 08:41 | the right of hospitality. I didn’t break hospitality law; I didn’t break anything. | |
| 08:45 | So I’m still a little horrified here at the moment, | |
| 08:48 | Because so far here in the East we have experienced very cooperative police officers. | |
| 08:53 | I have at each and every demonstration — there were 35 demonstration within 15 days | |
| 08:57 | that are behind me — and we had always extremely nice citizens in uniform | |
| 09:02 | who refused to do what the government wants. | |
| 09:05 | We have arbitrary measures here, and I am against these arbitrary measures, | |
| 09:09 | along with Mr. Eckhard. The two most famous representatives in the German, um… | |
| 09:13 | German Democratic Republic… [unintelligible] | |
| 09:17 | Because we see that things aren’t going as they did in 1989. | |
| 09:21 | Because here there is currently, you are welcome to look at the current figures, | |
| 09:25 | not a threatening pandemic, but there are simply arbitrary authorities here. | |
| 09:29 | Against these arbitrary authorities I stand on the street for freedom, | |
| 09:33 | for all of us. And that’s why I’m a little bit irritated… | |
| 09:36 | I’m not done with my sentence, I haven’t paused… | |
| 09:40 | I only wanted to explain why I “liked” being here. [unintelligible] …if you can explain to me | |
| 09:45 | why I have no longer house rights with you, why you withdrew those civil house rights? | |
| 09:48 | And how we will proceed now with the bill? | |
| 09:52 | I’m not talking to YOU, I’m speaking with the lady who made the booking. | |
| 09:56 | It was on my order that this establishment was booked, I have it in writing. | |
| 10:00 | Under the false pretense that you are having a birthday party. —Yes, I’m just | |
| 10:03 | celebrating my birthday late, and those are my friends. What is WRONG with that? [unintelligible] | |
| 10:08 | [unintelligible] | |
| 10:12 | I’d like you to vacate the premises. | |
| 10:15 | All right, we will do that. Do we have to use the side-door, or… |
Insanity beyond !!, what happened to Germany!!
Same thing that’s happening all over. We, the people, are perceived by the “masters” to be mice that can be herded in any direction “they” wish. I admire the man who resisted and hope that more people will stand up for common sense, as well as their rights.
This is ridiculous. An absolute farce. I’ve read about this case. As far as I understood, the innkeeper simply had a problem with Dr. Schiffmann being who he is. But actually throwing out paying guests, with all the difficulties, restaurants, hotels etc. currently have, well, how stupid can one be? I really don’t envy the two police officers who have to enforce this nonsense.