Germany’s Summer of Identity Crisis
BERLIN—“Open societies can tolerate many different opinions, but not many different truths.” So said Hans-Georg Maassen, the man who, until recently, ran Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (or the Verfassungsschutz), which monitors religious and political extremism. Addressing a symposium of intelligence officials in May, Maassen wanted to warn his colleagues of the dangers posed by an age of increasing disinformation. “If, via hybrid operations, falsehoods are spread, facts are manipulated, facts are suppressed, if opinions become facts and facts become opinions,” he said, “citizens lose the reliable foundation upon which they make their political decisions.”
It now seems a bit ironic that Maassen was the one to issue these warnings. On Tuesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel ousted him from his position after he made statements questioningdepicted one of these chases.
