The identity of Lena Berger: Shortly after the escalation, a woman with German nationality and resident in Hamburg sat in the office of the Würzburg lawyer Chan-Jo Jun. The lawyer publishes many videos on legal and current issues and has already exposed his lawyer’s duty of confidentiality to the public in the past verified the identity of a doctor tweeting anonymously without revealing his name.
He was now able to confirm that the information in the profile @lena4berger with his almost 35,000 subscribers is correct, except for the imaginary name and the artistic photo. According to Jun, the creation and publication of the video was the law firm’s own responsibility and at its own expense. In addition to her ID card, the woman had brought along evidence that she had studied in the USA and Switzerland and had obtained a very good degree. Today she works in the private sector, “deals with global strategic issues at a high level” and tweets her opinions privately, says Jun. His summary: “plausible.”
However, with the information, it cannot be ruled out with certainty that she may not receive money or that other people may also tweet under this name. Varwick is therefore not prepared to donate the promised 500 euros. A number of other users donated instead of him.
The failure to report: Varwick’s tweet asking for information was often understood as a doxing call, i.e. a call to publish identifying information about a person – including from @lena4berger. That same day, the account tweeted: “Just filed a criminal complaint against @JohannesVarwick. Will not tolerate my personal safety being jeopardized by offering a ‘bounty’.”
Varwick has written several times since then that he had not heard anything about the ad. From his point of view, this is proof that his allegations are true. If Lena Berger reported him, he could get her name through access to the files. In fact, Lena Berger also considered this: “In order to ensure complete protection of my identity from Varwick, it could only have been done anonymously,” she wrote to t-online when asked. She wrote the ad but didn’t send it. Several people contacted her with the intention of filing a complaint. One of them: the X user @NitnelavGS.