After a German shop displayed a sign forbidding Jews from entry, the Flensburg Public Prosecutor’s Office said that it had initiated an investigation into the owner for suspicion of incitement to hatred.
The owner of the Gothic shop in Flensburg placed a sign that proclaimed “Jews are banned from entering here.”
In smaller text, the sign explained that the store rule was not personal or motivated by antisemitism: “I just can’t stand you.”
The sign has been removed following public backlash, but the Prosecutor’s Office said there was reasonable suspicion that the display disturbed the peace and incited hatred against German Jews.
“There is suspicion that the poster attacked the human dignity of Jews living in Germany by maliciously disparaging them because of their Jewishness. There is evidence that the publicly posted ban was intended to portray Jews as inferior members of the community, in violation of the principle of equality,” said the Prosecutor’s Office.
“In assessing the initial suspicion, the Public Prosecutor’s Office also considered that such demands for the exclusion of Jewish citizens from public life initiated the persecution of Jews in the Nazi state, resulting in the extermination of millions of people.”
Proceedings directed against store owner Hans Velten Reisch
The proceedings were directed against store owner Hans Velten Reisch after he confirmed, in his statements, that he had posted the sign, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
The 60-year-old told Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag that he had made the poster in response to Israeli military operations in Gaza, as he couldn’t distinguish which Jews supported the campaign and which didn’t. The shop owner stood by his actions and rejected accusations of antisemitism.
“They always say history shouldn’t repeat itself, but then they do it themselves,” Reisch reportedly told the newspaper.
German officials were outraged by the sign, with Flensburg Mayor Fabian Geyer describing the incident as reminiscent of the “darkest chapters in Germany’s history.”
Geyer promised in a Facebook video that his administration would not tolerate this, and the multiple reports filed to law enforcement indicated that the public did not stand for such displays either. He urged Flensburg to continue to show solidarity with the Jewish community.
The Flensburg Green Party condemned the sign as mocking the historical experience of Jews and trivializing the crimes of the Nazi regime.
“We stand with the Jewish community and all people of Jewish faith in our city. Hate must never be silently tolerated.
We all bear a responsibility to ensure that such attacks on our society are decisively, visibly, and unequivocally rejected,” said the party. “‘Never again’ is and remains a permanent mission for all of us.”
Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor said on social media that history had shown how such signs were followed by broken glass, fire, and destruction.
“The 1930s are back!” Prosor said on X/Twitter. “It was never about Zionism. It was always about Jewish life. And it never ends harmlessly.”