“Freedom of speech is in peril in Germany” because.....

1. Students shut down a talk by far right nutjob and known enemy of democracy Bernd Lucke?
2. There were protests before a speech by a former interior minister?
3. A survey says that people “feel” they have to guard their opinions more closely?

Number 1 is just as it should be - disawow the freiheitlich-demokratische Grundordnung and your right to be heard goes out the window. Almost any position can be discussed and debated, but there are a few basics which you must ascribe to. We know all too well what happens when you allow people to claim that their inhuman (I like the German term menschenverachtend better) views are “just another opinion” - they’re not.

Number 3 is meaningless. Give measurable statistics or GTFO.

Number 2 is misinterpreted. This is not suppression of speech or a call to conformity, it’s the expression of frustration from a certain segment of the population which feels powerless, and which feels (and has quite a few facts to back up these feelings) that important problems are not being addressed. I personally think that their tactics in this case were unwarranted, but I think that this feeling of disenfranchisement is what we should be debating, not “suppression of free speech”.