On July 13, Daniel Bangert publicly invited friends to stroll in the forest in the name of the “NSA Spy Protection League.” It was a semi-satirical, semi-serious protest “walk” outside the Dagger Complex in Griesheim in southwestern Germany. Officially, Dagger Complex is a US military “training facility.” But many believe it is actually a National Security Agency (NSA) facility that has been spying on German Internet traffic.

Days later, German authorities ordered Bangert to report to Central Commissariat 10 of the German federal police. They then sent an officer to his home. (Bangert reportedly answered the door wearing a “Team Snowden” t-shirt.)

Der Spiegel reported that a Darmstadt spokeswoman told them that “the US Military Police had found the Facebook post and passed it along to German officials. The Military Police are responsible for security within the Dagger Complex, but outside the fence, it is the Germans who are in charge.”

Bangert told the magazine that authorities wanted “to know if I had connections with (anarchist groups) or other violent people,” adding that he "just wanted to go for a walk."

The Griesheim native did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

“At the site, together, we can then explore the threatened habitat of NSA spies and talk about their daily and nightly activities. If we’re lucky, we might even be able to see a real NSA spy with our own eyes,” Bangert wrote in German on the Facebook event page. (Dozens of beer-carrying, bike-riding people attended.)

“To round out the program we are looking for professionals who are well versed in the daily life of NSA spies and who would like to share their knowledge with us.”

On the event page, Bangert noted that fellow attendees should bring “many, many cameras as these creatures of our desire are very shy and sensitive to light” and “clothes, for example in the form of huge paper cameras to camouflage ourselves, as it may be possible to get closer to them or even make contact." Attendees also needed "enough food for a day" because "the habitat of the NSA spies is very sparse and there are no shops nearby.”