I think you'll find that the German government hasn't been a reliable supporter of free speech for some time, or perhaps ever. Not really a new thing.
There's more than one interpretation of 'Free Speech', Eaglelander.
There's really not. Either you're legally insulated from the mob hysteria of the human tribe or you aren't. Certainly I've seen you go on enough about how this or that "puts someone outside society" (which is a line that can be used to justify suppressing anything) to get some insight as to why the German government does many of the things it does.
The People's Republic of China constitutionally protects free speech as well, so long as it respects Chinese culture, the Communist party, and the PRC's political figures. Protecting what you want to have protected is near-universal, only in some of this planet's most dystopian corners is it dangerous to be a loyalist.
Pray tell, why is incitement to violence not protected then? Why can't I go marching down Main Street with a sign reading 'Kill all fags and niggers!'?
Once you protect anything at all - and there are things you will want to protect - you run into the same kind of 'This can be used to suppress anything' problem. Guess what - yes it can. The question is whether it will be.
Well, for one thing, you could do that in the US. Back when they weren't 50% FBI plants the KKK held rallies pretty regularly, and were even defended by the ACLU. Incitement isn't some vague desire to see a genocide committed, it's something specific and credible, and what's illegal about it isn't the speech but the same reason conspiracy to murder is illegal. (i.e. "Kill Group X" is not incitement, directing a mob to kill a specific person is what's incitement) The only reasonable limitation of free speech comes from intersection with other harms, not any harm caused by speech itself.
Your protective standard of "what's acceptable for society" is an inherently conforming one. You don't have to prove anything physical in Germany, just that one advocates something that is extremely out of the norm. Once given that power in any context, it can be reapplied however the state wishes. Hence why Germany now bans clown costumes, flag burning and has a left-wing opposition that is suddenly against freedom of press. And will soon be legally dictating what women are allowed to wear, if the new and improved alt-right version of Merkel gets her way. A standard of "all speech is acceptable and you must demonstrate an immediate coinciding cause for it to be otherwise" is clearly more robust.
I've said this to you before, but I can only fucking imagine what horrors would be perpetuated over here if the Republican party thought like most European governments seem to. It's bad enough that Trump seems to be in a similar vein of thought, what with his comments about flag burning and libel.