In the controversy surrounding the German Bookshop Prize, independent cultural minister Wolfram Weimer justified the exclusion of three booksellers from the list of prize recipients using the “Haber procedure”. New questions have now arisen.
When requested, the Federal Agency for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) confirmed that it had obtained “constitutionally relevant findings” concerning the booksellers in Berlin, Bremen and Göttingen. According to the Financial Times, the content of these findings had not been disclosed to the minister. A spokesperson for the Federal Cultural and Media Agency (BKM) reportedly told the paper that the agency had not exercised the option provided for in the Haber procedure to seek clarification from the BfV.
During a Bundestag cultural committee meeting, Weimer compared the situation to a hypothetical “Nazi bookseller in Erfurt” a claim made in the reported FAZ article. He apparently said he was unaware of the reasons why the BfV links the three left‑leaning booksellers with anti‑constitutional aims.
The booksellers now plan to sue for the prize money. A lawyer told the FAZ that, lacking substantive reasons, Weimer had no discretion to alter the jury’s decision.
