Is it true that due to the energy crisis, the Hamburg library announced a collection of books to burn them?

In social networks, a picture of a poster allegedly printed in Germany recently gained popularity. The inscription on it calls to take books so that later they are used for heating. We checked the reliability of such messages.

At the end of August and early September 2022, users of social networks talked about an unusual initiative allegedly proposed by the Gamburg library. It is claimed that the institution placed a poster that readers can bring unnecessary books - in the future they are used for heating, since in the conditions developing energy crisis Many Germans (and in general Europeans) are concerned about sharply rising gas prices and other fuel. Many authors of such publications saw in this initiative of the Hamburg library parallel with the burning of books on fires during Hitler.

In the evening of August 31 photo Published In his Telegram channel, TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov (1.1 million subscribers at the time of writing this analysis). There is also a picture in Telegram (and another four -second video on which the poster was recorded) posted channels "Live broadcast"(2.4 million subscribers) and"Voblya Novosti"(1.1 million subscribers). At the same time, users shared the photograph "VKontakte" And Twitter.

The publications on the very unusual initiative of the Hamburg library also spread in the German -language segment of Telegram - for example, on August 31, citing a “live broadcast” about it about it told A fairly popular neues aus Russland (News from Russia, 181,000 subscribers). This post Interested Our colleagues from the Correctiv project, who often check for the reliability of the publication of "News from Russia" and called Channel "known to its pro -Russian misinformation." They told, in particular, about supposedly conducted In Boston, sexual interpretation operations are adolescents and, in all likelihood, groundlessly attributed Fidel Castro quote about the war between Russia and fascism, which will be called democracy.

Our German colleagues pay attention to the fact that inaccuracies and a typo are allowed in the inscription on the poster. For example, the word "unnecessary" is written with an error - an extra letter T (unnötigte) is added to it. The authors also use the turnover Für Zukünftige Heizungen, which literally translates as “for future heaters” - according to the facts of Correctiv, this phrase “does not make sense” from the point of view of linguistics. Also, the proposal used the Für ... für design, a kind of semblance of the Russian chancellery “so that ...” that they usually seek to avoid.

Note that the only element in the picture that allows you to connect it with the Hamburg library (Bücherhallen Hamburg) is its logo in the lower right corner. On a short video, also published in Telegram channels, there are no interior details, employees, elements of identity or reader tickets that would say that the video was shot in one of the more than three dozen reading rooms belonging to this institution. The logo itself can be freely downloaded on the Internet.

Already on September 1, one of Twitter users I asked Representatives of the library to comment on the viral photograph. The institution’s account in response called the picture a fake. When another user drew the attention of the library to the existence of a four-second video, which captures the poster, he was replied that this did not change the already voiced position, and reported plans to release a detailed press release in the near future. His Published The next day, the institution, in particular, reported an appeal to the court due to the spread of false information and the illegal use of its logo. Library statement confirmed In a commentary for AFP, Enno Izermann, an official representative of the Department of Culture and the Media in the Government of Hamburg.

According to TGSTAT, the first about a poster in the Hamburg library was told by Russian publicist Armen Gasparyan-a post in his Telegram channel appeared August 30. On the same day, as stated in a press release, the worried citizens began to ask the institution about whether they really placed a similar poster in themselves. We could not find earlier publications of other authors in Telegram and other social networks dedicated to the call to give books for heating.

Gasparyan in his publication reports that a photo and a short video was sent to him by a reader who regularly attend an institution. Such a model of information distribution is quite popular:

• In early September, the Ponomar channel (and after him, in particular, Vladimir Solovyov) with reference to the subscriber reported about the questionnaire with questions about the “special operation in Ukraine”, which supposedly needs to be filled out when leaving Estonia;
• The same channel earlier He wrote About the tweet of the former Minister of Defense of Japan with a call to the Ukrainian army not to bomb the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. The reader, who was interested in Japanese policy and managed to take a screenshot of the post before its removal;
• In mid -August, the Joker DPR channel with reference to its own “spies in the clown office” toldthat Kyiv asked the Polish authorities to rename the street where the Ukrainian embassy is located in honor of Stepan Bandera;
• At the end of May in the Channel "Ukropsky Fresh" appeared Photos of plates with the inscription “Ukrainians are prohibited”, which a subscriber named Alexander allegedly made on the streets of Prague.

In all these cases, the information distributed in this way was not confirmed.

Thus, the only basis for the messages about the collection of books for heating in the Hamburg library is a photo and short video that captured a poster with errors in an incomprehensible place and first published in the Telegram channel of the Russian publicist with reference to the anonymous reader. The leadership of the institution and authorities of Hamburg reported that the posters of interest to us were not placed in the library premises.

Photo on the cover: Telegram

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Correctiv. Nein, Die Hamburger Bücherhallen Nehmen Keine „Unnötigen Bücher“ Zum Heizen An
2. AFP Faktencheck. Die Hamburger Bibliotheken Sammeln Keine Bücher, Um Sie Zu Verbrennen
3. Is it true that KFC and Booking.com posted in Germany advertising about “chicks from Ukraine”?