Volksverhetzung
crime that is likely to disrupt public peace
Volksverhetzung (German: [ˈfɔlksfɐˌhɛtsʊŋ] ), in English "incitement of the masses" (used also in the official English translation of the German Criminal Code), "incitement of popular hatred", "incitement to hatred", or "instigation of the people", is a concept in German criminal law that refers to incitement to hatred against segments of the population and refers to calls for violent or arbitrary measures against them, including assaults against the human dignity of others by insulting, maliciously maligning, or defaming segments of the population.
It is often applied to, though not limited to, trials relating to Holocaust denial in Germany. The criminal code (Strafgesetzbuch) Chapter 7 (Offences against public order), Paragraph 130 (incitement of the masses) of the Federal Republic of Germany defines when a person is guilty of Volksverhetzung.
Constituent elements
Incitement of the People (Volksverhetzung) is defined by § 130 (incitement of the masses) Section 1 of the Criminal Code:
Section 1
Whoever, in a manner suited to causing a disturbance of the public peace,
incites hatred against a national, racial, religious group or a group defined by their ethnic origin, against sections of the population or individuals on account of their belonging to one of the aforementioned groups or sections of the population, or calls for violent or arbitrary measures against them or
violates the human dignity of others by insulting, maliciously maligning or defaming one of the aforementioned groups, sections of the population or individuals on account of their belonging to one of the aforementioned groups or sections of the population
incurs a penalty of imprisonment for a term of between three months and five years.
Substantiation
Although freedom of speech is mentioned by Article 5 of the Basic Law (Germany's constitution), said article basically protects any non-outlawed speech. Restrictions exist, e.g. against personal insults, use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations, or Volksverhetzung. For any hate speech to be punishable as Volksverhetzung, the law requires that said speech be "qualified for disturbing public peace" either by inciting "hatred against parts of the populace" or calling for "acts of violence or despotism against them", or by attacking "the human dignity of others by reviling, maliciously making contemptible or slandering parts of the populace". "Germany places strict limits on speech and expression when it comes to right-wing extremism" or anything reminiscent of Nazism. Hate speech on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity also is banned in Germany.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Volksverhetzung” as crime that is likely to disrupt public peace. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q43442. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Volksverhetzung” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.