German Jewish leader receives death threat after calling for AfD ban

German authorities have opened an investigation after Jewish community leader Charlotte Knobloch received a death threat following her call for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to be banned.

The Munich prosecutor’s office said on September 11 that it was investigating the threat against Knobloch, 93, who heads the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria.

Andreas Franck, the prosecutor’s office’s anti-Semitism commissioner, told German news agency dpa that investigators were examining allegations including incitement to hatred, threats and criminal damage.

The threat was discovered on September 10, when a passerby found graffiti scrawled on a park bench and a rubbish bin in Munich’s English Garden and alerted police.

The message explicitly referred to the AfD’s recent election victory in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt and named Knobloch, according to the Jewish community. A Star of David was also drawn among the graffiti, Franck said.

Knobloch subsequently cancelled her participation in a scheduled event.