German Court Sentences Judge for Ruling Against Government’s Mask Mandates

A German judge has been handed a two-year suspended sentence for ruling against masks for schoolchildren in 2021.

People outside a COVID-19 rapid test center waiting to get a day pass to visit shops and cultural institutions, in Weimar, Germany, on March 29, 2021. Karina Hessland/Reuters

A German court has sentenced one of its own judges to prison for ruling against the government’s mask mandates.

In 2021, Judge Christian Dettmar struck down a local government ordinance that required schoolchildren to wear masks in the German state of Thuringia. The case made headlines across Germany.