Dear Reader,

I’m sure you know the story.

Josef K. suddenly finds himself being put on trial although he remains in the dark as to what exactly he is accused of. His lawyer tells him that he can either seek to delay the trial for as long as possible, or he can go for a provisional acquittal, a state of affairs which means that he could be re-arrested at any time. A full acquittal is possible in theory but unattainable in practice.

So it is that Josef K. remains in a permanent state of suspicion - any change to his status on paper changes nothing about the fact that he could be arrested at any moment and put before the court.

Germans of 2022 might identify with the plight of Franz Kafka’s best known character.

After months of obeying rules on mask-wearing and testing, they were supposed to be liberated on March 20th when the previous Disease Control Law became obsolete. But the Bundestag replaced it with a new law which allowed the federal states to extend the rules for a two-week transiti…