The head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, Sebastian Guggolz, has once again sharply criticized the actions of Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer in connection with the German Bookstore Prize. Speaking on WDR 5 Morgenecho, he said that Weimer was "narrowing the space on the left" and thus curtailing the broad corridor of opinion he himself propagates.
Guggolz criticizes lack of transparency
The reason for this is the decision to remove three bookshops in Berlin, Bremen and Göttingen from the list of nominees. Weimer had justified the removal of the bookshops with "findings relevant to the protection of the constitution". Guggolz now criticized Weimer for continuing to describe the stores as "left-wing extremist" or "enemies of the constitution" without any reliable facts to back this up.
"And this lack of transparency of the entire process from A to Z is something we still have to accuse Mr Weimer of," criticized Guggolz. No specific allegations had been disclosed, nor had the bookshops concerned been consulted. Decisions without a comprehensible basis created uncertainty in the industry and were "highly questionable", he said.
