Hesse COVID inquiry examines who had authority to impose entry bans

A legal scholar told Hesse’s parliamentary COVID inquiry that the state had no authority to impose entry bans at Frankfurt Airport during the pandemic. Andrea Kießling, a law professor from Frankfurt, said responsibility for Germany’s external borders belonged solely to the federal government.

Her view was presented during the committee’s first public session, held after about two years of work. Kießling pointed to the federal police’s responsibility for the international airport as part of the argument that entry bans fell under federal, rather than state, authority.

Germany introduced several phases of entry restrictions during the pandemic. These included a de facto ban on entry for non-EU citizens in March 2020, testing requirements and quarantine rules, followed from January 2021 by targeted bans on travelers from areas affected by virus variants.

The Hesse committee can hear two experts nominated by each of the state parliament’s five factions, giving it 10 experts in total. Other witnesses scheduled for the first expert session included data analyst and publisher Tom Lausen, medical professor and former deputy head of Frankfurt’s health office Ursel Heudorf, and law professor Matthias Friehe.

The state parliament established the inquiry in June 2024 at the initiative of the AfD opposition. Following a court dispute over the AfD’s original 43 questions about pandemic policy, only 11 were deemed permissible. The other four factions had challenged questions concerning federal and European Union matters, arguing that they lacked a direct connection to Hesse.