This is notable for two reasons:

1) Axel Springer, which apart from its scientific publishing runs major conservative newspapers "Die Welt" and "Bild" in Germany, is a neocon, transatlantic publisher that is against MAGA, AfD but pro-industry and pro US.

Thiel receiving the award exposes him as a standard conservative establishment neocon who just used Trump.

2) Thiel accepts the award from a German publisher who often puts US interests above German interests.

The angle of the demonstration is of course different, but I was surprised to learn of the award recipient.

Mathias Döpfer is mainly known for avoiding taxes during his inheritance of the Springer shares (and that way became a billionaire). All the while printing news paper Bild, where they agitate against single cases of fraudsters in the social system who make around 7000€/Mon (bad, but laughable compared to the tax evasion)

So, exactly the type of guy one expects to bend down for Thiel. Disgusting caste.