Germany has Officially gone Looney Tunes

Their culture does not do that.

EDIT: it is interesting to ponder what the German government response would be to a german popular uprising along the lines of the Tea Party or the Arab Spring.....would they be outlawed outright? Constantly harassed with criminal complaints and fines? Jailed?

the people are either free or they are not, law either works to keep people free from state oppression or it does not, what you call your law is irrelevant.

§ 86 StGB Dissemination of Means of Propaganda of Unconstitutional Organizations
(1) Whoever domestically disseminates or produces, stocks, imports or exports or makes publicly accessible through data storage media for dissemination domestically or abroad, means of propaganda:
1. of a party which has been declared to be unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court or a party or organization, as to which it has been determined, no longer subject to appeal, that it is a substitute organization of such a party;
[…]
4. means of propaganda, the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization,
shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine. […]
(3) Subsection (1) shall not be applicable if the means of propaganda or the act serves to further civil enlightenment, to avert unconstitutional aims, to promote art or science, research or teaching, reporting about current historical events or similar purposes. […]
§ 86a StGB Use of Symbols of Unconstitutional Organizations
(1) Whoever:
1. domestically distributes or publicly uses, in a meeting or in writings (§ 11 subsection (3)) disseminated by him, symbols of one of the parties or organizations indicated in § 86 subsection (1), nos. 1, 2 and 4; or
2. produces, stocks, imports or exports objects which depict or contain such symbols for distribution or use domestically or abroad, in the manner indicated in number 1,
shall be punished with imprisonment for not more than three years or a fine.
(2) Symbols, within the meaning of subsection (1), shall be, in particular, flags, insignia, uniforms, slogans and forms of greeting. Symbols which are so similar as to be mistaken for those named in sentence 1 shall be deemed to be equivalent thereto. […]
[edit]

Well, where's your problem?

The DB (since 1994 Deutsche Bahn AG) as well as the Deutsche Post (since 1995, now called Deutsche Post DHL) are private organisations.

Could be. Same with banks. Or steel industry. Or ...

Who runs the show in the end, the people of Germany or the bureaucrats in Berlin and Brussels???

Nice. Here, the politicians change - sometimes. The bureaucrats seem to be there forever.

I have been increasingly concerned since the Thilo Sarrazin affair that Germany no longer allows sufficient levels of free speech to function as a democracy. The outrageously excessive fines for petty insults as outlined in the OP do nothing to convince me that there is no problem.

Same is with my view about the power one single patrolman or highway patrol officer has in the USA.

I do think that you Germans need to cut back on conversation regulation at this point though, it is clearly getting to be a problem.

Sarrazin has been critised - both in the positive as well as negative way.
He's not hindered to say what he wants - actually he's still getting quite some income by touring around with his speeches.

It always takes courage to express an opinion which is not shared by everybody and in the Germany it is getting more and more difficult to have this courage because most people are not very courageous and those people who are cautious think twice before they express their opinions. This is a development which can endanger the democracy. What I experienced over what I have experienced over the last few months was extraordinary.

The politician wrote that he did not intend with his book to express either "social Darwinist theories" or a "selective population policy." He said it was also not his intention to discriminate against particular groups or immigrants. "To the contrary, with my theses, I wanted to promote the integration of migrant groups who because of their origin, social background or religion were not prepared or in a situation to integrate more strongly," Sarrazin wrote. "At no point did I have the intention of violating Social Democratic principles with my theories," he added. "If members of the party feel that I have impaired their understanding of Social Democracy, then I regret that, even if it is my opinion that my book did not do so on any occasion."

Public opinion also appears to be behind keeping Sarrazin in the SPD. A survey by pollster Infratest Dimap to be published in the Saturday issue of the daily Die Welt found that 60 percent of Germans believe he should be allowed to stay in the party. Of the members of the SPD, 62 percent said he should stay, versus 31 who supported his ouster.

Nevertheless, many see Thursday's decision as a blow to senior party leaders, including SPD national party boss Sigmar Gabriel, who had pushed publicly for Sarrazin's ouster despite the obvious diffiulties. With the SPD slipping in recent public opinion polls, Gabriel's defeat on the Sarrazin issue and the party's clumsy handling of the issue is unlikely to help.

Sarrazin is of course being diplomatic here, because as he well knows he himself was tossed out of his job on the encouragement of almost all of the government class to include Merkel, as was forced to apologize before he was grudgingly allowed to stay in the SPD as the price of speaking what he believed was scientific based truth. Harsh treatment of those who say unpopular thinks has a chilling effect on debate all though the society when the retribution is so harsh as it was here and so public.

I think - being a SPD-member myself - that he should have been kicked out of the party. However, the relevant party organisation decided differently.

Former Bundesbank executive Thilo Sarrazin has made further inflammatory remarks about immigrants just days after he was given a reprieve by his own Social Democratic Party (SPD).

In his first public comments since the centre-left party decided to drop its efforts to throw him out, Sarrazin spoke out in characteristic blunt style against his party's plan to introduce an "migrant" quota for senior positions.

“Intelligence doesn’t depend on whether or not you’re a migrant,” he said Tuesday night at an event in Waltrop in the Ruhr region of North Rhine-Westphalia.

There were already prominent party members in Berlin of foreign ancestry, he said.

“The more migrant-minded these people are, the less inclined they have been to see problems or difficulties objectively,” he said.

SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel and general secretary Andrea Nahles announced on Monday the party would introduce an immigrant quota – widely seen as a reaction to criticism the party received after its leaders announced the were dropping procedures to kick Sarrazin out. Some 15 percent of leadership positions in the party will be prioritised for people of non-German backgrounds.

The decision not to eject Sarrazin has sparked a backlash. Nazim Kenan, 26, a rising SPD star in the state of Hesse of Kurdish background, announced he was quitting the party, citing the leadership’s “opportunistic approach” to the affair.

Sarrazin has consistently courted controversy with his provocative remarks about immigration and Muslims, most acutely last year when he published a best-selling book on the subject. Among other things, it suggests that certain ethnic groups, notably from Muslim countries tend to be less intelligent and are therefore holding Germany back when they migrate here.

Sarrazin said in Waltrop that anyone denying the hereditary nature of intelligence was “vacuous or criminally lazy-minded.”

In his statements to the SPD leadership, he did not recant any of his statements on immigration, race or intelligence.