The district court acquitted the satirist – the German public prosecutor did not accept the verdict. Now the Berlin Court of Appeal is deciding.
March 27, 2026, 1:41 p.mMarch 27, 2026, 1:41 p.m
The Berlin Court of Appeal opened the appeal hearing against the German satirist Sebastian Hotz, who goes by the name El Hotzo, on Friday.
The starting point of the proceedings is July 2024. At that time, Hotz published two posts on X in which he commented on the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Trump was hit in the ear by a bullet during an attack. Hotz compared the shots to the “last bus” and wrote: “Unfortunately we just missed it.” In a second post he added: “I think it’s absolutely fantastic when fascists die.” Hotz deleted both posts shortly afterwards. Criminal charges and a shitstorm on social networks followed.
El Hotzo has to go to court again.Image: www.imago-images.de
Acquittal for Hotz
The Tiergarten district court acquitted Hotz. The judge responsible classified the posts as “unpunished satire” – even if they may be in poor taste. The public prosecutor did not accept the verdict and appealed. She accuses Hotz of approving the assassination attempt and disturbing public peace. According to the prosecution, it was a “hate crime” with a broad impact. According to the public prosecutor’s office, a fine of 6,000 euros would be appropriate.
Hotz is 30 years old and performs as a comedian and satirist. Almost 740,000 people follow him on X.
Hotz: “That’s a world I don’t want to live in”
In the event of a conviction, satirists would have to expect that every post could have legal consequences as soon as it was intentionally misunderstood by enough people, Hotz told the dpa. “It’s a world I don’t want to live in.”
The German Association of Journalists also criticizes the renegotiation. It is incomprehensible that the public prosecutor’s office cannot accept the verdict of the Tiergarten district court, said DJV spokesman Hendrik Zörner to the dpa. He asked the question of what freedom of satire was worth in Germany.
The day before the trial date, Hotz posted again on