Hamburg: “Pimmelgate” affair around Grote – large poster for Roter Flora

At first there were yellow stickers not far the apartment by the SPD politician Andy Grote in the St. Pauli district, then a poster on the outer wall of the “Rote Flora” cultural center in Hamburg. On it to read: “Andy, you are such a dick”. The police have been trying to remove the stickers for some time. The poster is now the subject of a new round of the “Pimmelgate” affair.

The dispute was triggered by a tweet with the wording: “You’re so 1 dick”

The poster, which was allegedly hung by activists of the left-wing autonomous cultural center in the Schanzenviertel, was painted over by officials on Sunday morning with black paint, a police spokesman confirmed. The poster was headed with “Soko Wall and Color”, including the slogan that was also to be read on the stickers.

A short time later, however, tweets from the cultural center showed how strangers were writing the lettering back on the poster in white.

The dispute was triggered by a tweet sent to Grote in May on Twitter with the wording “You’re so 1 dick”. It came from the account of a fan bar not far from the FC St. Pauli Stadium in response to a tweet from Grote in which he described people as “ignorant” who celebrated in the Schanzenviertel despite Corona.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Grote himself celebrated his renewed appointment to the Interior Senator in disregard of the Corona rules in a pub and, according to media reports, had to pay a fine of 1000 euros for this.

Search of the apartment by Twitter creators causes riot on social media

However, the matter only became a “pimmelgate” online when the public prosecutor’s office had the home of the alleged author of the tweet searched in September after Grote had filed a criminal complaint for insult. Thousands of people criticized the action on Twitter as completely disproportionate and excessive, with the resentment also related to the behavior of the police and prosecutors. The alleged author of the offensive tweet, however, received a lot of support.

Yellow stickers: Police are investigating an unknown person

Since the beginning of October, strangers have been distributing almost 40 yellow stickers with the slogan “Andy, you are so 1 dick” in the vicinity of the Senator’s apartment on St. Pauli. The police also removed it, on the one hand to avert danger, as there was a suspicion of insult, and on the other hand to preserve evidence, the police said. The police state security is investigating the matter against unknown persons.

CDU interior expert: standards for “dick” affair disproportionate

For the CDU opposition in the Hamburg citizenship, Interior Senator Grote is becoming an ever greater burden for the Senate, but also for the police.

“With his Corona party and the lack of insight that has persisted to this day, he has lost the integrity that is indispensable for the office of Interior Senator,” said the CDU interior expert Dennis Gladiator. The events around “Pimmelgate” are now only absurd.

“Thousands of victims of hatred and agitation would wish if their advertisements were processed anywhere near as intensively,” said Gladiator, adding: “The standards here are completely insane.”