MUNICH, Germany โ German authorities are investigating a death threat against prominent Jewish leader and Holocaust survivor Charlotte Knobloch after threatening graffiti naming her was discovered in Munich’s English Garden.
Knobloch, 93, is president of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria and a former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. She has been an outspoken critic of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
A witness discovered graffiti written on a park bench and garbage bin in the southern portion of the English Garden on September 9 and contacted police. Munich authorities subsequently opened an investigation into threats and property damage.
German media reported that the message explicitly referred to the AfD’s September 6 election victory in Saxony-Anhalt and threatened Knobloch with death.
According to the Abendzeitung, citing police sources, the message stated in German that the AfD had won and that Knobloch would be hanged the following day. JTA reported that police had not independently confirmed the precise wording when it sought comment.
German authorities have, however, confirmed that the threat was explicitly connected to the AfD’s election victory. Germany’s domestic reporting also says state security authorities and prosecutors are investigating.
Threat Follows AfD Election Victory
The threat emerged days after the AfD won 43.8 percent of the vote in the Saxony-Anhalt state election.
The party secured 39 of the state legislature’s 83 seats, falling three seats short of an outright majority. It has since sought potential allies as it attempts to form a government.
Knobloch publicly expressed alarm following the result.
She said the AfD’s success “frightens me” and said she could not have imagined “even in my worst nightmares” that right-wing extremists could again achieve such electoral success in Germany. She has also previously called for the AfD to be banned.
The threat prompted immediate security concerns.
After learning about it, Knobloch canceled plans to attend a public event. The Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria confirmed the cancellation to JTA.
Knobloch’s history gives the threat particular resonance in Germany.
Born in Munich in 1932, she survived the Holocaust as a Jewish child under Nazi rule and went on to become one of Germany’s most prominent Jewish communal figures.
She has spent decades speaking publicly about Jewish life, antisemitism, the Holocaust and the responsibilities of German democracy.
AfD Official Condemns Threat
The AfD’s Bavarian leadership condemned the threat against Knobloch.
“I condemn the death threat against Charlotte Knobloch unequivocally and without reservation,” Stephan Protschka, the AfD’s state chairman in Bavaria, told JTA.
Protschka said the party took seriously the fact that the graffiti reportedly referred directly to the AfD’s electoral success.
“Political disagreements or election results can never justify threats, intimidation, or violence against any individual,” he said.
He added that Knobloch and Jewish people throughout Bavaria must be able to live without fear of violence or threats.
Police have not publicly identified a suspect, and there is no evidence that the person responsible acted on behalf of the AfD or was formally associated with the party.
The investigation is therefore focused on the person or people responsible for the threat, while its explicit reference to the AfD victory forms part of the circumstances authorities are examining.
Police Appeal For Witnesses
The Munich Criminal Investigation Department has classified the incident as involving incitement to hatred, threats and property damage, according to JTA, and authorities have appealed for information from witnesses.
Felix Balandat of Germany’s Department for Research and Information on Antisemitism, known as RIAS, told JTA that the combination of a specific Jewish target and an explicit reference to the AfD made the incident unusual.
“We have not recorded anything like that before,” Balandat said.
The threat against Knobloch comes as German authorities and Jewish organizations continue to confront elevated levels of antisemitic incidents.
In a separate case in Berlin on September 11, police said two men attacked a 43-year-old woman who was wearing a Star of David necklace. According to police, the attackers made antisemitic remarks, and one allegedly attacked her with a broken glass bottle. She suffered cuts to her hand while defending herself and was taken to hospital. State security investigators took over that case.
For Knobloch, the Munich threat is not an abstract political dispute.
A 93-year-old woman who survived Nazi persecution as a Jewish child has now been named in a death threat explicitly invoking the electoral success of a German far-right party.
Authorities are investigating who wrote the message and whether anyone committed additional offenses. No arrest has been announced.
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