A report by Viviane Fischer
Elsa Schieder from San Francisco is the founder of the “Truth Summit”. Under the motto “Then You Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Set You Free” she has already held a Zoom congress with critical minds in 2023, where well-known names like Dr. Ana Mihalcea, Dr. Tess Lawrie and Richard Gage have participated as speakers. She sells access to the recorded interviews for US$197. Elsa Schieder is a big fan of Reiner Fuellmich, a key speaker at her truth conventions, and she wants to keep her audience up-to-date about his incarceration and the criminal investigations. As she writes to me, she is already aware of my public statements from last year about what has happened with regards to Reiner Fuellmich.
One would expect someone as passionate about the truth as Elsa Schieder to strive for a neutral portrayal, or at least to reproduce both very divergent accounts of events. Far from it. Elsa Schieder has spread quite extraordinarily defamatory fake news about me on her website until my cease and desist letter. She aggressively promoted a download link on her website containing an alleged e-mail addressed to Reiner Fuellmich from an alleged former fellow student of mine, giving alleged negative descriptions of our alleged time together at the University of Freiburg. Reiner Fuellmich had forwarded this e-mail not only to Elsa Schieder but also to other persons.
A Piera Dalla Riva in English “Stone from the Shore” claims to be the author, if she exists after all. The name sounds like is sprung from the imaginative AI brain of the beta version of a trashy name generator. The fact that nothing in the description can be true, or at least does not concern me, is already shown by the fact that I did not study in Freiburg at all in “all those years”, namely “at the beginning/middle of the 90s”, except for one single month. Whoever Mrs. “Stone from the Shore” might have observed all those years in the Freiburg law school, it was certainly not me. In her e-mail to Reiner Fuellmich, she reports on psychological problems of this person, which she allegedly perceived, and which were apparently so massive that the person “never let herself be seen in the lectures”. Some of the formulations in the mail could have come from Reiner Fuellmich himself – e.g., the person was “walking around like a zombie.” Allegedly, Mrs. “Stone from the Shore” had therefore been very pleasantly surprised to see me alive and well in 2020 in the Corona Investigative Committee, which she gratefully followed. Reiner Fuellmich and I were “her heroes.” She notes, “The quarrel doesn’t hurt the movement in the long term, either. People have to get that you’re not mom and pop and they have personal responsibility.”
The person who may have studied in Freiburg together with the ominous Mrs. “Stone from the Shore” seems to have been really a pitiful little pile of misery, if one can believe the descriptions in the e-mail at all. Thank God, I passed my intermediate law exams in only four semesters at a different location – safe and sound – and completed my pre-degree in economics in the record time of three semesters as part of my double degree program. However, I did have to attend at least a few lectures for that ;-).
Irritatingly, Reiner in his reply e-mail of September 27, 2022 to Mrs. “Stone from the Shore”, which was also published by Elsa Schieder, jumps on these nonsensical remarks almost eagerly, which he apparently immediately took at face value. It apparently does not even occur to him that it could be meaningful to exclude a confusion of persons or to question the authenticity of the descriptions alltogether. In the legal dispute which I later had to conduct against Reiner Fuellmich for defamatory statement, he eagerly quoted from the fake e-mail.
How could Reiner Fuellmich simply fall for such an e-mail fake, how could he let himself be fooled like that? During our time together, I got to know Reiner Fuellmich as a clear thinking, smart and thoughtful man who always made an effort to check the truthfulness of information that was brought to us. Is he really as dewy-eyed as his ICIC co-host Dagmar Schön now claims he is? Reiner Fuellmich is very gullible and naive, she says, always assuming the best. She sometimes has the feeling that he is like a little Parsifal, whistling as he marches through the world and runs into his misfortune, she says, chatting out of the closet in her role as his defense attorney shortly after the arrest of her client on October 15, 2023, at the Roger Bittel show. In Reiner Fuellmich’s place, I would have at least obtained an affidavit from the alleged fellow student, in order to be sure not to make myself look ridiculous and, in the end, even liable to prosecution, if I spread terrible slander by sharing such Fake News. Reiner Fuellmich either fell into a trap consciously set for him and/or let himself be soaped up by someone whom the memory deceives or who wanted to make herself look important.
Reiner Fuellmich writes in his reply to Mrs. “Stone from the Shore”, who seem unbeknownst to him, with astonishing frankness that “four renowned professors of psychiatry and psychology” have come to the “professional assessment that Viviane Fischer has psychological problems”. He does not seem to consider the possibility that someone might have wanted to lure him out of his reserve and tempted him to make thoughtless statements.
Who are these psychologists? Did they also possibly deceive Reiner Fuellmich by making him believe that they were in possession of psychological reports about me? Did Reiner Fuellmich allow himself to be incited against me by these persons? There are no such reports and renowned experts would never have stooped to dubious remote diagnoses. They would risk their good reputation, possibly even their license. Reiner Fuellmich does not seem to have considered this either when he then made allegations to journalists from the BILD newspaper that such expert assessments existed.
In the injunction lawsuit, which I had to conduct against Reiner Fuellmich because of the monstrosity of these (and other) allegations, Reiner Fuellmich could not produce anything, really nothing at all, that supported his statements (in fact how could he have done that, there is nothing there).
The Göttingen District Court states: “With his statements … (Reiner Fuellmich) suggests that the plaintiff in the injunction has medically diagnosed psychological problems, if not a medically diagnosed psychological illness. The question of a medically confirmed illness is a fact that is amenable to proof. However, the respondent has not presented any evidence in this regard. He has not even named – not even in his further affidavit submitted in his written statement of January 13, 2023 – the psychologists and psychiatrists who are supposed to have arrived at such a diagnosis. Nor has he shown on what basis they are supposed to have arrived at such a diagnosis.”
On January 18, 2023, the Court therefore ruled in my favor: “The defendant (Reiner Fuellmich) is prohibited from asserting and/or allowing to be asserted and/or disseminating and/or allowing to be disseminated and/or making available and/or allowing to be made available for retrieval with regard to the plaintiff (Viviane Fischer) the following statement: The plaintiff suffers from a mental disorder or mental illness and to claim that this is the professional opinion of psychologists, psychiatrists or psychiatrists.”
For the case of the further spreading of the baseless thesis – or better the fantasy – of my alleged health problem situation with alleged medical confirmation, the Court issued an order money of up to € 250,000 and/or an order detention of up to six months against Reiner Fuellmich
After I had sent the judgement of the Goettingen District Court to Elsa Schieder, the defamatory email had disappeared so fast from the web page of the self-proclaimed truth seeker that one could hardly look.
What disappeared with the same amazing speed, however, were my comments on her Substack. In order to give Elsa Schieder and her followers access to alternative facts, I had posted on October 24, 2023, among other things the press release of the Göttingen public prosecutor’s office on the arrest of Reiner Fuellmich in English translation.
“Lawyer Arrested – Press Release of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Goettingen – Dated October 16, 2023: The Göttingen public prosecutor’s office is conducting a preliminary investigation against a 65-year-old lawyer who last resided in Göttingen. He is accused of having committed acts of embezzlement as managing director of the “Corona Committee Foundation”, which was established in mid-2020. The shareholders solicited donations since 2020, which, paid by private individuals, were to finance the work of the “Committee”. Five bank accounts were opened for the company. Subsequently, payments in substantial amounts were received into these accounts. Investigations revealed that the defendant and a (male) 53-year-old co-defendant had made a payment of €200,000 in 20 transactions of €10,000 each to his wife on November 10, 2020. In the subsequent period, he is said to have completely consumed the money together with her. On May 27, 2021, he is then said to have transferred €500,000 to his private account by his own hand and also consumed this amount of money privately together with his wife. Thus approx. € 115,000 are to have been used for the redemption of a private real estate loan as well as approx. € 70,000 for the redemption of a personal occupation-conditioned credit.
The accused stayed for longer in Mexico. There he was deported in the past week for aliens-legal reasons to Germany. Upon arrival at Frankfurt Airport, he was arrested on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the Göttingen Local Court on March 15, 2023, requested by the Göttingen Public Prosecutor’s Office, on the above charges and taken to a correctional facility. The investigation is continuing.”
In response to a comment about my clothing style, I had noted, “I actually always liked the Hawaiian and lumberjack shirts that Reiner often wore. I’m not just a lawyer, I’m also a fashion designer.”
I clarified that it was not me but Attorney at Law ANTONIA Fischer who had filed the complaint against Reiner Fuellmich. The did this together with Attorney at Law Dr. Justus, the two other founding members of the Corona Investigative Committee.
But then something strange happened, some of my posts seemed to disappear again and again due to a technical malfunction. When then suddenly all my posts were gone at the same time, but all other comments remained, it was clear: Elsa Schieder did not want any message other than that of “babyface” Reiner Fuellmich and the allegedly purely politically motivated persecution to penetrate her substack and censored all my posts without further ado.
Elsa Schieder notes in one of her own comments that she was already looking forward to the truth coming out and that Reiner Fuellmich, after all, was not here to defend himself. I responded, “Reiner is not here to defend himself, but have you given me the opportunity to defend myself against your accusations and his? You never informed me about this”.
Elsa Schieder’s lax attitude toward communicating the truth about people who seem to be less dear to her heart, than for example Reiner Fuellmich, can be seen in particular in her selective intervention in the commentary section. She did not intervene on a completely inaccurate remark by a follower about my father. Instead, she deleted my clarification: “My father was Prof. Dr. Gottfried Fischer, a renowned psychotraumatologist. Peter Breggin also knew him. It is thanks to his expertise that sexual abuse in psychotherapy became a criminal offense in German criminal law. Before that, it was unpunished.”
My father is considered to be the founder of psychotraumatology in Germany and had dedicated his life to helping victims of traumatic situations such as actions of violence, terrible accidents like the Eschede train crash, and sexual assault. He wrote the “Textbook on Psychotraumatology” and the self-help book “New Ways Out of Trauma”. My father’s work is more important today than ever and it is unfortunate that he, who passed away in 2013, can no longer be with us and help us today.
I wrote to Elsa Schieder in the context of a post: “Hi Elsa, as I posted before, I would like to invite you to a live stream interview with me to talk about your attitude towards the truth. How come you are posting very negative things about me without checking if they are true by for instance also asking me as any serious journalist would do, especially one who one committed to the truth. Would this coming Friday at 7pm after the session of the Corona Inquiry Committee would work for you? You have my e-mail address. I sent you the official statement from the prosecutors office, and I’m not sure why you are not sharing it with your audience so they do not think it is a political attack on Reiner. Kind regards, Viviane.”
Elsa Schieder replied to me discreetly by email not publicly: “Hi Viviane, I am aware of your side of the story. I heard it when you presented it originally. I am not interested in doing an interview with you. Sincerely, Elsa.”
When I made her response public, she blocked me as a user.
That is quite something for someone who claims to love the truth more than anything and sees herself as part of the “Truth Teller Tribe”. According to Elsa Schieder, you can tell whether you are such a Truth Teller by the following: “If you care about the truth and are open to exploring what is the truth, you’re almost certainly a member of the Truth Tellers Tribe – about 10-15% of people worldwide, let’s say one billion people worldwide.”
Elsa Schieder says about herself on her website: “So many questions, already as a child. Curiosity. And creativity. And the deep desire to do what she can. She wanted to be a hero – but she didn’t want to do what her favorite heroes did. Cowboy rescuing a wagon train. First woman doctor. Nurse at front lines, helping wounded soldiers. So how to be a “hero” – someone who answers the call? Right now, this is my way – interviewing amazing truth tellers. Caring, involved, intelligent, thoughtful. With a passion to change for the better the current dangerous course of events. My sense: we each need to find our own way of being a hero.”
She rhymes:
On one side,
the suppression of truth,
the denial of truth
are major hallmarks of the system
we’re facing, discrediting,
dismantling, discarding….
On our side,
the unearthing of truths,
the revelation of truths,
the telling and
spreading of truths
are hallmarks of those of us
on the side of humanity and the planet,
on the side of love and empathy,
on the side of human and animal rights,
on the side of human freedoms and responsibilities.
Elsa Schieder is definitely not a heroine of truth, as her rigorous censorship of factual, critical voices and the unchecked spreading of defamatory allegations show. And the values of “caring, committed, intelligent, thoughtful” that are allegedly of utmost importance for her while conducting her interviews do not seem to be internalized, but are seem to only be applied every now and then just as needed. This is reminiscent of the fact that solidarity during Corona times only knew one direction: masks, distance, injections. The fact that someone else could shed light on the (low) dangerousness of the virus and the problematic consequences of the measures was not allowed to be a topic during the crisis of measures. Then perhaps it would have turned out that solidarity could have also been expressed by holding hands at the bedside of the sick, through the long-awaited visit to the nursing home, through loving hugs and saying NO to the dangerous injections. Only the information and people supporting the Corona narrative had space, were the truth and the bringers of truth and salvation. Elsa Schieder apparently also chooses her truth narratives to suit her taste. She is welcome to do this in her private life, but as an alleged truth truffle pig, she presents her followers with totally un-researched information as being the truth, even though she knows that there is other information on the topic out there that at least raises doubts about the truthfulness of the information she personally wants to be true. I wonder how she can seriously call herself a “Truth Teller” and how she can claim to offer her community “truthworthy information”.
I’m curious to see whether circumstances will emerge that make Elsa Schieder’s behavior more understandable. Was she interested in sensational clicks and did she think it would be more exciting to report on political persecution rather than on a possibly justified state action? Or is she in such great cognitive dissonance when it comes to Reiner Fuellmich that she cannot accept any contradictory information? Or are there perhaps financial interests behind her censorship? Elsa Schieder sells her interviews and one of her most important interview partners was Reiner Fuellmich. Would her crowd still purchase the videos of the “2. Truth Summit” on the topic “Navigation the Psy-Op Jungle. Amazing People. Unsavory Truths”, which is currently taking place if the clean slate of key speaker Reiner Fuellmich turned out not to be not so clean after all? If only 1,000 participants purchased the video at the end of the truth summit, Elsa Schieder would welcome a friendly US$197,000 into her bank account. Quite a lot for maybe 20 Zoom interviews. So can fear of loss of income play a role in the censorship and defamation she carries out?
What would have happened if Elsa Schieder had urgently asked Reiner Fuellmich to check whether the fake e-mail really described an actual situation? What would Reiner Fuellmich have done if he had realized that he had obviously been deceived or allowed himself to be deceived? Would he refrained from making very aggressive statements about me in public? Would he perhaps even have become more willing to talk about our suggested solutions and could thus the public distancing of the Corona Investigative Committee have been even avoided?
Due to the circumstances, there is only a pre-recorded video of Reiner Fuellmich at the Truth Summit.
I think this incident shows in an exemplary manner how important it is that we insist again and again and that we force ourselves again and again to question what is presented to us or what we experience as truth or certain knowledge. Only this way we can make sure we do not run down a dead end street of beliefs and narrow horizons of perception. Only this way we can ensure that we do not become the plaything of opinion makers – also from the alternative sector. As Elsa Schieder writes, rightfully so: “The Truth Shall Set You Free,” a motto that, by the way, is emblazoned in golden letters on the main building of the university in my hometown of Freiburg.
