fact checking

Mostly false: “Eating less meat would be a contribution against Mr. Putin”

The German federal Minister of Food and Agriculture said in an interview with the German news website “Der Spiegel”, that eating less meat would be a contribution against Putin. According to our research, it turns out that this statement is mostly false. In the Spiegel interview from 18th March 2022, Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir addresses…

Uncheckable: “Germany doesn’t have too few caregivers, we just use them very inefficiently”

On Oct. 18, 2022, Germany’s health minister, Karl Lauterbach, claimed on ZDF’s Morgenmagazin: “Germany doesn’t have too few caregivers measured against the population, we just use them very inefficiently.” We find this claim to be uncheckable. Germany has a shortage of care workers and it appears that the situation will become worse in the future.…

Mostly false: Without the dissenting votes of the AfD, a vaccine mandate would have been introduced in Germany

On April 07th 2022, German right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) politician Alice Weidel claimed on Twitter that the vaccine mandate in Germany only failed because of the dissenting votes of her party. She refers to the voting of the deputies in the Bundestag earlier that day. According to Weidel, only 40 votes more…

Mostly true: Jews are feeling increasingly insecure due to Covid-19

Pincheas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of the European Rabbis, claims that “Jews are feeling increasingly insecure. Corona has worsened the whole situation and the inhibitions are getting lower (…).” Is Goldschmidt’s concern reasonable? Partly, yes.  On 14 February 2022, the German news website tagesschau.de published an article on the “New danger of old…

Mostly False: “German taxpayers have the highest tax and contribution burden in the world”

After the German government decided in April to provide one billion euros in military aid to Ukraine, critical voices were raised, especially from the opposition. On April 16, 2022 the deputy federal spokesperson of the right-wing party “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) Georg Pazderski wrote on Twitter: “It is not Scholz who is providing more than…

False: „Germany will never fulfill its energy requirements with only wind energy and solar power.“

On March 26th 2022, Stephan Brandner, Deputy Federal Spokesperson of the right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), posted a press release on Instagram in which he claims that Germany will never fulfill its energy demand with only wind energy and solar power. Different studies have proven that this statement is false. In the past the…