Several hundred people protest before Book Fair ceremony

Several hundred people protested in Leipzig against the cultural policy of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Wolfram Weimer. They gathered in front of the Gewandhaus, where Weimer was due to give a speech at the opening ceremony of the Leipzig Book Fair that evening. Participants in the rally held up signs demanding Weimer's resignation or calling him a "cultural war minister".

A statement from the three left-wing bookshops that the Minister of State for Culture had had removed from the list of nominees for the German Bookstore Prize was read out at the demonstration. The booksellers explained that they were overwhelmed in many ways. "We are very pleased that people are coming together in solidarity to defend themselves against the embarrassing practice of the Minister of Culture Wolfram Weimar."

"We applied for a prize, would have received it, were lied to and subsequently removed because we don't suit an arch-conservative minister. He is launching an attack on bookshops, on places of irritation where people can inform themselves about the world they have to live in," it continued. The bookshops in Berlin, Bremen and Göttingen are taking legal action against the Minister of Culture's decision.

Weimer had justified the removal of the bookshops with "intelligence relevant to the protection of the constitution". This approach has also been criticized by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. The bookshops should receive the German Book Trade Prize, "whether after a court case or through inspection", said the managing director of the industry association, Peter Kraus vom Cleff.