Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul pledged government solidarity with Jewish residents after a death threat targeted Charlotte Knobloch, the 93-year-old head of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria. The threat, scrawled in Munich's English Garden, explicitly referenced the AfD following its Saxony-Anhalt election win. Prosecutors have opened investigations into suspected incitement to hatred, threats and criminal damage. Wadephul also visited the White Rose memorial during his Munich trip.
German Government Vows Solidarity After Death Threat Against Jewish Community Leader
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (R) meets with Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, for a discussion at the community center at the Jewish Center in Munich. Wadephul is making a stopover in the Bavarian capital on his way to Geneva, Switzerland. (is associated with: «German minister pledges solidarity with Jewish community after threat») Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Tuesday pledged the German government's solidarity with Jewish residents after a death threat targeted Charlotte Knobloch, the 93-year-old head of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria.
At a press conference in Munich alongside Bavarian Premier Markus Söder, Wadephul said:
"Jews must never again live in fear in Germany."He described the messages directed at Knobloch as abhorrent and said a meeting with her earlier that day had affected him deeply.
Police said last week they opened an investigation after a witness found a scrawled threat on a park bench and a rubbish bin in the English Garden in Munich. The note explicitly referenced the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and followed Knobloch's public call for the AfD to be banned after the party's election victory in Saxony-Anhalt. Knobloch, a former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, cancelled a planned public appearance after the incident.
Andreas Franck, the anti-Semitism commissioner at the prosecutor's office, told dpa that inquiries have been opened into suspected incitement to hatred, threats and criminal damage.
At the conclusion of his visit to Munich, Wadephul visited the White Rose memorial, which commemorates the student resistance movement against the Nazi regime.
Help us improve.
