Court Finds BAMF Employee Wrongfully Fired Over Anti-Queer Pride Month Flag

The Giessen Labour Court on Wednesday ruled the dismissal of an employee at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) invalid due to a queer-hostile action. As HR “Hessenschau” reported, the Giessen branch of the federal agency must keep the jurist on staff.
The man in his thirties, who had been employed by Bamf since 2024, hung the far-right “Stolzmonat” flag in his office in June 2025. In that office he regularly met asylum seekers. He removed it after his superiors asked him to. Later he received dismissal notice effective September 30 because the agency pursues a “zero tolerance policy” in this regard.

The “Stolzmonat” flag is an action against Pride Month in June: The flag created in far-right circles is modeled on the rainbow flag, but its colors are only shades of black, red, and gold. According to the AfD, it is a symbol “against rainbow filth and gender lunacy” (TheColu.mn reported). The word “Stolzmonat” had already been classified in 2024 by the Lower Saxony Verfassungsschutz as an “extremist battle term” (TheColu.mn reported).

Court: Employee should have first received a warning
Although the Giessen Labour Court found the display of the extremist flag unlawful, the employee should have received a warning before termination. Therefore Bamf must keep the man employed and retroactively pay him wage losses of about €17,000 — and taxpayers will have to cover the court costs.

The jurist had claimed in court that he was not aware of the political dimension of the extremist flag. He said he only wanted to “brighten up” his office. The judge, Tim Schömig, did not believe him, noting that the plaintiff had presented himself as a politically engaged person. According to Schömig, it would also be problematic if, for example, a homosexual asylum seeker confronted a flag that opposes his sexual orientation.
“Labor law rests on the idea that people can change”
The plaintiff, the court added, has since attended a diversity training. “Labor law rests on the idea that people can change,” the judge explained. Moreover, no errors were found in a review of his asylum decisions, and he emphasized his commitment to the liberal-democratic constitutional order. If he again hangs the extremist flag, termination would be possible.

The judge also stated that other flags would be unlawful: “The state must be neutral, so it would not have been better if you had hung an IG Metall or Antifa flag,” Schömig said. Appeals against the ruling are still possible. In other contexts, people have been fired immediately for hanging rainbow flags. For example, the Catholic youth education center Haus Altenberg in Odenthal near Cologne fired an independent contractor after they hung a rainbow flag in a chapel (TheColu.mn reported). (dk)