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Document #2111869
USDOS – US Department of State (Author)
The constitution prohibits religious discrimination and provides for freedom of faith and conscience and the practice of one’s religion. The law prohibits calling for violence, inciting hatred or taking arbitrary measures against religious groups or their members, or defaming religious groups. Religious groups must register at the state level to receive tax and other benefits. The law permits the federal government to characterize “nontraditional” religious groups as “sects” and to provide warnings about them to the public.
Domestic intelligence services continued to monitor numerous Muslim groups and mosques with ties to violent Islamic extremists, the Church of Scientology (COS), and two Protestant groups. On December 19, a Duesseldorf court sentenced a German-Iranian to 33 months in prison for aggravated and attempted arson of a synagogue in the city of Bochum. The prosecutor linked the act to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Koblenz District Court convicted three men of membership in the banned Islamic terrorist group Caliphate State and of disseminating propaganda at a mosque, issuing suspended prison sentences of 14 to 18 months. The Ministry of Defense appointed two new rabbis as chaplains, bringing the total to five, but there were still no Muslim military chaplains. Jehovah’s Witnesses said authorities often showed little interest in pursuing crimes against their members, and multiple cities continued to restrict or ban their use of display carts with religious literature. In August, the mayor of Frankfurt called for the closure of the city’s Center for Islamic Culture, citing its political activity and Iranian ties. Two new synagogues opened in Saxony-Anhalt, built with substantial government funding. In September, the country’s first accredited Islamic seminary, supported with federal and state government funds, graduated its inaugural class of male and female students. Ahmadi Muslims again said several Ahmadis were denied asylum.
Security forces increased protection of Jewish sites after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, which was followed by a rise in antisemitic incidents, including violence. Officials across all parties and levels of government condemned the post-October 7 incidents, and prominent politicians condemned antisemitism throughout the year. Federal and state governments funded Jewish groups and institutions, increasing the funding for some, and projects to combat antisemitism. In June, parliament unanimously approved the erection of a memorial for Jehovah’s Witness victims under National Socialism.
There were numerous antisemitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Christian incidents, including physical attacks, threats, harassment, discrimination, demonstrations, and vandalism. According to preliminary figures from the Ministry of Interior, a total of 5,154 crimes were motivated by antisemitism during the year, an increase of 95 percent compared to 2022; 56 people were injured in such incidents. The number of crimes motivated by anti-Muslim hatred rose 140 percent during the year to 1,464 incidents that resulted in 53 injuries. The ministry attributed most antisemitic and anti-Muslim crimes to right-wing extremists; Jewish groups and others also cited left-wing extremists or Muslims as perpetrators of antisemitic crimes. At a Jehovah’s Witnesses gathering in Hamburg in March, a man shot and killed seven Jehovah’s Witnesses and injured eight before killing himself. Jehovah’s Witnesses reported assaults on more than 50 members engaged in religious activities between September 2022 and June 2023. Attacks against Jews included an assault on a Jewish tourist in Berlin in August by three unknown persons after they heard him speaking Hebrew, and a December assault by six persons on a Jewish tourist wearing a kippa in Munich; in October, unknown persons threw Molotov cocktails at a Berlin synagogue. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) RIAS reported 177 antisemitic demonstrations, many of them violent, in five states between October 7 and November 9. Attacks against Muslims included an assault by seven soccer fans on a Muslim family in Merseburg in January and an assault on a Muslim girl wearing a headscarf at a bus stop in Hamburg in December. There were also reports of threats to and vandalism of mosques. Muslims reported an increase in anti-Muslim incidents after the October Hamas attacks against Israel.
The U.S. embassy and the five consulates general in the country continued to engage closely with all levels of government regarding responses to incidents of religious intolerance. The embassy and consulates general worked closely with Jewish communities and federal and state government officials to support programs promoting religious tolerance and countering violent extremism related to religion and antisemitism. In January, the Second Gentleman of the United States and the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism visited Berlin, focusing on Holocaust remembrance and combating rising antisemitism. In November, the Special Envoy met with a wide range of federal and state officials, Jewish leaders, and others to discuss antisemitism efforts. In November, the Ambassador launched a program for youth to combat intolerance, antisemitism, and all forms of hatred. The Ambassador and embassy and consulate general representatives met with members and leaders of numerous local and national religious and civil society groups regarding their concerns related to tolerance and freedom of religion. With Muslims, they discussed topics including discrimination, anti-Muslim prejudice, and the need for interreligious dialogue. The Ambassador regularly highlighted her family’s history of fleeing religious persecution to promote religious freedom and tolerance and point out society’s responsibility to act against threats to religious freedom. The embassy continued to utilize virtual programs to promote accurate Holocaust narratives and religious tolerance via social media.
The U.S. government estimates the total population at 84.2 million (midyear 2023). Unofficial estimates, based on the 2011 census (the most recent for which data are available), civil registers, and 2022 figures provided by religious groups, indicate approximately 25 percent of the population is Roman Catholic and 23 percent belongs to the Evangelical Church in Germany (“EKD” in German) – a confederation of Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist), and United (Prussian Union) Protestant regional churches. Other Protestant denominations, including the New Apostolic Church, Baptist communities, and nondenominational Christians, account for approximately 1.1 percent of the population. Orthodox Christians represent 2.2 percent of the population.
According to government estimates published in 2021, approximately 6.6 percent of the population is Muslim, of which 74 percent is Sunni, 8 percent Alevi, 4 percent Shia, 1 percent Ahmadi, and 1 percent other affiliations such as Alawites and Sufis. The remaining 12 percent of Muslims in the country say they are not affiliated with any of the above groups or are unwilling to disclose an affiliation. Intelligence officials estimate there are approximately 11,900 Salafi Muslims in the country. Estimates of the Jewish population vary widely; the Jewish community counted 90,885 dues-paying members at the end of 2022. The Federal Ministry of the Interior estimates there are 95,000 Jews, while other estimates place the number at approximately 225,000 when including Jews who do not belong to a specific Jewish community.
According to the secular NGO Religious Studies Media and Information Service (REMID), Buddhists (300,000); Jehovah’s Witnesses (169,272); Hindus (100,000); Yezidis (100,000); members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Church of Jesus Christ) (39,724); Sikhs (25,000); and members of the COS (3,500) together constitute less than 1 percent of the population. All of REMID’s estimates are based on members who have registered with a religious group. According to a 2022 estimate by the nonprofit Research Group Worldviews Germany, 44 percent of the population either has no religious affiliation or belongs to religious groups not counted in government statistics.
The constitution prohibits discrimination based on religious opinion and provides for freedom of faith and conscience, freedom to profess a religious or philosophical creed, and freedom to practice one’s religion. It also prohibits an official state church. It stipulates no one shall be required to disclose his or her religious convictions or be compelled to participate in religious acts. The constitution states religious instruction shall be part of the curriculum in public schools, and parents have the right to decide whether their children receive religious instruction. It recognizes the right to establish private denominational schools. The constitution provides for the freedom to form religious societies and permits groups to organize themselves for private religious purposes without constraint. It allows registered religious groups with public law corporation (PLC) status to receive public subsidies from the states and to provide religious services in the military, hospitals, and prisons.
A federal law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin, gender, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation.
The federal criminal code prohibits calling for violence, inciting hatred, or taking arbitrary measures against religious groups or their members. Violations are punishable by up to five years in prison. It also prohibits “assaulting the human dignity of religious groups or their members by insulting, maliciously maligning, or defaming them,” specifying a maximum penalty of five years in prison, although prison sentences are rare. The prohibition and penalties apply equally to online speech. In addition, the federal criminal code prohibits insulting a domestic religious organization, its institutions or practices, or the religious beliefs or world views of another person, if doing so could disturb the public peace. Violations are punishable by a fine or up to three years in prison but are rarely prosecuted. The federal criminal code prohibits disturbing religious services or acts of worship, with violators subject to a fine or imprisonment for up to three years. The law bans Nazi propaganda, Holocaust denial, and fomenting racial hatred, specifying a penalty of up to five years’ imprisonment.
By law, social media companies with more than two million registered users in the country must implement procedures to review complaints and remove or block access to illegal speech within seven days of receiving a complaint and within 24 hours for cases considered “manifestly unlawful.” Noncompliance may result in fines of up to 50 million euros ($55.2 million). Unlawful content includes actions illegal under the criminal code, such as defamation of religions and denial of historic atrocities.
The law permits the federal government to characterize “nontraditional” religious groups – such as the COS – as “sects,” “youth religions,” and “youth sects” and allows the government to provide “accurate information” or warnings about them to the public. The law does not permit the government to use terms such as “destructive,” “pseudo-religious,” or “manipulative” when referring to these groups. Several past court decisions ruled the government must remain neutral toward a religion and may provide a warning to the public only if an “offer” by a religious group would endanger the basic rights of an individual or place the individual in a state of physical or financial dependence.
Religious groups wishing to qualify as nonprofit associations with tax-exempt status must register. State-level authorities review registration submissions and routinely grant tax-exempt status; if challenged, their decisions are subject to judicial review. Those applying for tax-exempt status must provide evidence they are a religious group through their statutes, history, and activities.
A special partnership exists between the states and religious groups with PLC status, as outlined in the constitution. Any religious group may request PLC status, which, if granted, entitles the group to levy tithes (8 percent of income tax in Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg (BW) and 9 percent in the other states) on members, who must register their religious affiliation with federal tax authorities. Each state collects the tithes on behalf of the religious community through the state’s tax collection process, separate from and in addition to income taxes. PLCs pay fees to the government for the tithing service, but not all groups with PLC status utilize the service. PLC status also allows for benefits, including tax exemptions (larger than those given to groups with nonprofit status), representation on supervisory boards of public television and radio stations, and the right to special labor regulations. State governments subsidize institutions with PLC status that provide public services, such as religious schools and hospitals. In addition, due to historic “state-church contracts” dating back to before 1919, all state governments except Bremen and Hamburg subsidize the Catholic Church and the EKD with different yearly amounts.
According to the constitution, the decision to grant PLC status is made at the state level. Individual states base PLC status decisions on a number of varying qualifications, including an assurance of the group’s permanence, size, and respect for the constitutional order and fundamental rights of individuals. An estimated 180 religious groups have PLC status, including Catholics, the EKD, Alevi Muslims, Baha’is, Baptists, Christian Scientists, Hindus, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Mennonites, Methodists, Church of Jesus Christ, Salvation Army, and Seventh-day Adventists. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat has PLC status in the states of Hesse and Hamburg and the MTO Shahmaghsoudi School of Islamic Sufism has PLC status in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW); no other Muslim communities besides the Alevis have PLC status. The COS does not have PLC or nonprofit status in any state.
Federal animal protection laws prohibit the killing of animals without anesthesia, including as part of halal and kosher slaughter practices. Pursuant to a Federal Administrative Court decision, however, trained personnel may kill animals without anesthesia in a registered slaughterhouse under observation of the local veterinary inspection office if the meat is for consumption only by members of religious communities whose beliefs require slaughtering animals without anesthesia.
Federal law enables authorities to restrict the tattoos, clothing, jewelry, and hair or beard styles of civil servants if this is necessary to ensure the functionality of public administration or fulfill the obligation for respectful and trustworthy conduct. The law specifies that if these symbols are of a religious nature, they may only be restricted if they are “objectively suited to adversely affecting trust in a civil servant’s neutral performance of his official duties.”
According to a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, general headscarf bans for teachers at public schools violate religious freedom, but implementation is left to the states, which may determine if special circumstances apply. The states of Bavaria and NRW do not have strict guidelines; authorities render decisions on a case-by-case basis. Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, Saxony, Thuringia, and Lower Saxony do not prohibit headscarves for teachers. Hesse, Berlin, and Saarland permit teachers to wear headscarves if doing so does not impair “school peace” or threaten perceptions of state neutrality. Rhineland-Palatinate and BW prohibit teachers from wearing full-face veils (i.e., niqabs or burqas). Berlin bans visible signs of religious affiliation for police, lawyers, judges, and law enforcement staff but not for primary and secondary school teachers. In Lower Saxony and Bavaria, judges and prosecutors may not wear religious symbols or clothing in the courtroom. Other states have laws that restrict religious attire in certain circumstances.
Citing safety reasons and the need for traffic law enforcement, federal law prohibits the concealment of faces while driving, including by a niqab. Infractions are punishable by a €60 ($66) fine.
State law in Rhineland-Palatinate and BW forbids students in primary and secondary schools from full-face veiling at school (i.e., wearing a niqab or burqa). This state ban on full-face covering does not apply in higher education. According to federal law, religious groups may appoint individuals with special training to carry out circumcision of males younger than six months. After six months, the law states circumcisions must be performed in a “medically professional manner” and without unnecessary pain.
All states offer religious instruction and ethics courses in public schools. Religious communities with PLC status (or those without such status that have concluded a special agreement with the state granting them this right) appoint religion teachers and work with the states to ensure the curriculum is in line with the constitution; the states pay the teachers’ salaries. Most public schools offer the option of Protestant and Catholic religious instruction in cooperation with those churches as well as instruction in Judaism if enough students (usually at least 12, although regulations vary by state) express an interest. Bavaria, BW, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, NRW, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and Schleswig-Holstein also offer some religious instruction in Islam. In most federal states, Muslim communities or associations provide this instruction, while in Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein, the state does. In Bremen, the state offers nondenominational religious instruction for all students. In Hamburg, the state offers nondenominational religious instruction for all students in consultation with the Catholic Church, EKD, the Jewish community, and several Muslim associations; prior to the 2022-23 school year, the EKD provided this instruction.
Students who do not wish to participate in religious instruction may opt out; in some states, those who opt out may substitute ethics courses. State authorities generally permit religious groups to establish private schools if they meet basic curriculum requirements. Schooling is constitutionally mandated, and homeschooling, including for religious reasons, is prohibited in all states.
A Bavarian state government decree requires state government agencies to display a crucifix in the entrances of their public buildings.
The government provides annual payments to Holocaust victims and their descendants and regularly expands the scope of these programs to broaden the eligibility requirements.
The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper and the magazine Focus reported that after intensive investigations, prosecutors dropped – at different times during the year – investigations against police officers in Essen and Muelheim, NRW, for membership in chat groups in which participants shared anti-Muslim content in 2021. Prosecutors determined they could not charge officers with publicly inciting hatred because the chat group was private, and many members only received the messages. Courts reversed disciplinary action against many of the officers, most of whom were tenured, on the same basis. Approximately 20 investigations continued.
The Koelner Stadtanzeiger newspaper reported that on June 26, the Koblenz District Court found three men arrested in June 2022 guilty of membership in a prohibited organization – the banned Islamic terrorist group “Caliphate State” – and of disseminating propaganda supporting the group and opposing the country’s constitutional order at a mosque in Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate. The court sentenced one of the three to a suspended sentence of 18 months in prison, and the other two to suspended sentences of 14 months in prison.
According to the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper, an investigation by Frankfurt prosecutors and the Hesse State Criminal Police of five Frankfurt police officers, including three supervisors, for sharing Nazi symbols and right-wing extremist material in online chat forums in 2022, was continuing.
The status of the case against two campaign workers for the Die Rechte (The Right) Party charged in 2022 with incitement to hatred for a 2019 incident in which they played a speech by a Holocaust denier outside the Pforzheim Synagogue was unknown at year’s end.
On June 21, the Koblenz Higher Regional Court found German woman Nadine K. guilty of crimes against humanity, membership in a foreign terrorist organization, and being an accessory to genocide for enslaving a Yezidi woman for three years while living in Syria and Iraq with her husband, a member of ISIS. The court also found her guilty of enabling her husband to repeatedly rape and assault the victim and sentenced her to a total of nine years and three months in prison. Nadine K., who was detained after returning to Germany in 2022, remained incarcerated, serving her sentence.
Federal and state Offices for the Protection of the Constitution (OPC), the domestic intelligence services, continued to monitor numerous Muslim groups, including the U.S.-designated terrorist groups ISIS, Hizballah, and Hamas, as well as groups such as Turkish Hizballah, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tablighi Jama’at, Millatu Ibrahim, the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH), Muslim Brotherhood, Milli Gorus, and various Salafist movements.
According to a Jehovah’s Witnesses report issued during the year, police and other officials showed little interest in identifying and prosecuting perpetrators of crimes against their members, even though the victims filed criminal complaints and presented evidence. The report also stated that authorities in multiple cities, including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Fulda, and at the Frankfurt-Hahn and Duesseldorf airports, restricted or banned the group from using temporary display carts with Bible-based and other religious literature in public and issued fines to violators. Jehovah’s Witnesses said they were unable to set up literature displays in airports and train stations, and that police in several cities harassed Jehovah’s Witnesses using temporary display carts.
In April, the city of Maintal, Hesse, rescinded its regulation that had prohibited municipal employees from wearing religious and ideological symbols while in contact with members of the public. The decision put an end to a long legal process in which an educator had sued the city for religious discrimination after she had been denied employment at a city day-care center in 2019 due to her insistence on wearing a headscarf at work.
The BW OPC was monitoring the Evangelische Freikirche Riedlingen (Protestant Free Church of Riedlingen) for dissemination of extremist positions, the state OPC’s president said in June. According to the OPC, the church combined Christian fundamentalist views with the rejection of democracy and coded antisemitism. The state OPC also monitored the Pforzheim chapter of the “Baptist Church Reliable Word,” whose U.S.-based founder had been under investigation by the Karlsruhe public prosecutor’s office since March on charges of incitement of hatred for calling for the death of LGBTQI+ persons.
According to reports from the federal OPC and COS members, the federal OPC and the OPCs of eight states – BW, Bavaria, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, NRW, and Saxony-Anhalt – continued to monitor the activities of the COS, reportedly by evaluating church publications and members’ public activities to determine whether they violated the constitution. At least four major political parties – the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union, Social Democratic Party, and Free Democratic Party – continued to exclude Scientologists from party membership. “Sect filters,” i.e., signed statements by potential employees confirming they had no contact with the COS, remained in use in the public and private sectors.
Groups under OPC observation continued to say OPC scrutiny implied they were extremist, and this had a stigmatizing effect that constrained their ability to apply for publicly funded projects.
Academics and advocates for the Muslim community continued to call upon the Ministry of Defense to provide military chaplains for the estimated 3,000 Muslim members of the armed forces so they could offer services similar to those provided to Christian and Jewish soldiers. The ministry stated the lack of an umbrella organization for Muslims with which the ministry could negotiate made it difficult to appoint imams as chaplains but that it would continue to seek a solution to the issue.
In June, a conflict arose between a Muslim student and a vocational high school in Rastatt, BW, over the student’s wearing of a niqab. The student was eventually suspended for secretly recording and publishing on TikTok a meeting with school officials where the policy was discussed. BW prohibits full-face veils such as niqabs in schools, and wearing one constitutes a misdemeanor.
On August 12, local media reported the city of Daaden, Rhineland-Platinate, prohibited a Muslim woman from entering the town’s swimming pool wearing a full-body swimsuit that complied with her religious beliefs. The city argued that only swimwear that did not fully cover the arms and legs was permissible for sanitary reasons and that the ban, which also applied to wetsuits, was not directed at swimwear choices motivated by religious belief and therefore not discriminatory. The prohibition remained in place until the seasonal closure of the pool in September.
In June, the Hamburg Administrative Court rejected an IZH legal challenge to the federal OPC’s characterization of the center. In its 2022 annual report, the federal OPC characterized the IZH as “the most important representation of Iran in Germany besides the Iranian embassy and an important propaganda center of Iran in Europe” through which the Iranian state sought to “bind Shiites of various nationalities to itself” and “spread its basic social, political and religious values” in Europe.
In August, Frankfurt Mayor Nargess Eskandari-Gruenberg (Green Party) called for the closure of the city’s Center for Islamic Culture (ZIK), saying the association was engaged in political activities and under the influence of the Iranian regime. According to Hesse state Interior Minister Stefan Sauer, the ZIK was under observation by the Hesse OPC and was connected to the IZH in Hamburg, which owned the ZIK premises until 2022.
In November, the Federal Court of Justice heard arguments in an appeal of a lower court ruling ordering the Muslim Association for Culture, Education, and Integration (VKBI), a mosque association, to return a leasehold on property on which it partially built a mosque to the city of Leinfelden-Echterdingen, BW. The lower court had ruled that the VKBI had not completed the mosque on time, thereby violating the terms of the property sale by the city. The court ordered it to pay six million euros ($6.6 million) in court costs and required the city to compensate the VKBI for the increase in value of the property.
After 14 months of construction, Magdeburg’s new synagogue officially opened December 10. The state of Saxony-Anhalt funded €2.8 million ($3 million) of the approximately €3.8 million ($4.1 million) construction cost, the city of Magdeburg provided €600,000 ($663,000), and a private association, the New Synagogue Magdeburg, raised €400,000 ($442,000) toward the project. Approximately two months earlier, on October 22, the Jewish community of Dessau-Rosslau celebrated the opening of its new synagogue, which had received €1.4 million ($1.5 million) in funding from the federal government and a further €1.1 million ($1.2 million) from the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
In June, the Rhineland-Palatinate state government resumed negotiations with four Islamic associations to conclude a formal state contract on cooperation between the government and the associations. The negotiations focused on Islamic religious education, the establishment of a chair for Islamic theology at the University of Koblenz, and pastoral care and funerals as well as exemptions for students on Islamic holidays. One central focus of the discussion was development of a common curriculum for public school courses on Islam.
On September 30, the Islamkolleg Deutschland (IKD) reported the graduation of its inaugural cohort of 19 male and six female students in a ceremony led by former Federal President Christian Wulff (CDU). The federal government and the state of North-Rhine Westphalia help fund the IKD, the country’s first accredited Islamic seminary, which eschews foreign funding, while an alliance of mosque associations sets its curriculum. In December, the Ministry of Interior and the Turkish-Islamic Union of the Institute for Religion e.V. (DITIB) announced DITIB would begin a program to train 100 imams in the country each year.
Media outlets reported that the Sunni School Council Foundation, which oversees Islamic religious education in BW public schools on behalf of the state’s Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, offered a settlement to Abdel-Hakim Ourghi, an instructor of Islam at the Freiburg University of Education, that would allow Ourghi to retain his position. In 2021, the foundation rejected Ourghi’s teaching license, citing missing credentials and the lack of an agreement with the foundation prior to his permanent employment, while Ourghi and media critics said the foundation opposed what they described as his more liberal interpretation of Islam. At year’s end, it was unclear whether Ourghi would accept the settlement offer or take legal action.
Authorities and NGOs closely monitored antisemitic incidents, and although final statistics for the year were not yet available, preliminary numbers from NGO RIAS, which collects and monitors reports of antisemitism, showed an increase in such incidents throughout the country in the second half of the year, especially following Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. In response, police and security forces immediately increased security for synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish institutions, and they continued to investigate and prosecute antisemitic acts. Post-October 7 incidents included physical attacks on people perceived as Jewish, damage to Jewish buildings and sites such as synagogues, demonstrations with antisemitic chants, vandalism and graffiti, and antisemitic messages on social media.
On December 19, the Duesseldorf Higher Regional Court convicted a German-Iranian from Dortmund of aggravated arson and attempted arson of a synagogue in the city of Bochum, NRW, and sentenced him to two years and nine months in prison. According to the indictment, a fellow Iranian, acting on behalf of Iranian authorities, instructed Babak J. to attack a synagogue in the Ruhr area. The prosecutor linked the act to the IRGC, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. The prosecutor’s action marked the first time the IRGC was linked to a terrorist act in the country.
In efforts to combat antisemitism, the government pursued a National Strategy against Antisemitism and for Jewish Life, released in 2022. The strategy emphasized five main areas of intervention: data collection, preventive education, boosting Holocaust commemoration, stiffer penalties for antisemitic offenders, and overall awareness of Jewish history and culture.
Bremen remained the only state in the country without an antisemitism commissioner. Representatives of the Jewish community in Bremen again said the community preferred to address antisemitism and other issues of concern in an existing forum that included the mayor and president of the legislature.
The Federal Ministry of Research and Education reported it again provided 12 million euros ($13.2 million) in funding to multiyear research projects and networks across the country during the year through its “Current Dynamics and Challenges of Antisemitism” initiative. Continuing projects funded included a study on the role of the justice system in combating antisemitism, an examination of how to convey knowledge of Jewish culture to the public, and a project to help teachers and police officers counter antisemitism.
The weekly newspaper Juedische Allgemeine reported that on March 31, the Saxony-Anhalt State Chancellery invited representatives of the state police, the attorney general’s office, the interior and justice ministries, the Jewish state association and civil society to the state’s first ever “Round Table on Antisemitic Violence in Saxony-Anhalt.” According to the report, the round table planned to meet regularly to exchange information on antisemitic incidents and discuss prevention strategies. On the same day, the “Advisory Council for Jewish Life in Saxony-Anhalt” met for the first time to explore how to promote Jewish culture and history in Saxony-Anhalt.
In negotiations with the Claims Conference in June, the federal government agreed to extend hardship payments to Holocaust survivors through 2027 and increase them in coming years. It also agreed to extend funding for Holocaust education through 2027 and raise it to 38 million euros ($41.9 million) in 2026 and 41 million euros ($45.3 million) in 2027 and to provide an additional $105.2 million (denominated in dollars) for home-care services for survivors in 2024. The country also supported numerous public and private international reparation and social welfare initiatives to benefit Holocaust survivors and their families.
The government continued to subsidize some Jewish groups. Based on an agreement between the federal government and the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the federal government provided financial support to the Central Council to help maintain Jewish cultural heritage and support integration and social work. In April, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced that the government would increase the support to 22 million euros ($24.3 million) during the year and in future years, a 69 percent increase over 2022. The Federal Government and Central Council of Jews in Germany said the council would use the money to increase the visibility of contemporary Jewish life, establish a nationwide training program for security personnel at Jewish institutions and for educational projects aimed at preventing antisemitism in schools, reflecting the country’s strategy for combating antisemitism. In April, Central Council of Jews in Germany President Josef Schuster said the largest portion of the additional funding would go towards the construction and operation of Frankfurt’s Jewish Academy, due to open in 2024. On October 19, the country’s parliament voted unanimously to approve the increase.
In addition, the federal government again provided financial support to the Institute for Jewish Studies in Heidelberg, the School of Jewish Theology at the University of Potsdam, and the Leo Baeck Institute, an international group researching the history and culture of German Jewry.
State governments continued to provide funds to Jewish communities and organizations in various amounts for such purposes as the renovation and construction of synagogues. The federal government continued to cover 50 percent of maintenance costs for Jewish cemeteries. State and local police units continued to provide security for synagogues and other Jewish institutions.
Many prominent government officials repeatedly condemned antisemitism throughout the year, including Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal Minister of Economics and Climate Robert Habeck, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, and Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger. Following the rise in antisemitic acts after October 7, politicians across all parties and federal states condemned the violence and reiterated support for the country’s Jewish community. At a public rally on October 22, President Steinmeier said, “The protection of Jewish life is a state duty – but it is also a civic duty!… Antisemitic incitement, attacks on Jewish synagogues, attacks on police officers are … criminal offenses…. Let us jointly condemn all forms of antisemitism … Let us show that people with Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Arab roots can and want to live together peacefully in Germany!” On November 9, Interior Minister Faeser stated in a speech before the lower house of parliament, “We stand by everyone who is affected by anti-Semitism, hate propaganda and violence. Today, the Jews under attack can count on the help of the state in which they live.… It is our common task to protect Jews in Germany.”
According to the Humanistic Union, an organization that describes its mission as working to protect and enforce civil rights, including the right to free development of the personality, state government contributions during the year to the Catholic Church and the EKD totaled approximately 602 million euros ($665 million), compared with 594 million euros ($656 million) in 2022. The union said it calculated its estimate based on budgets of the 16 states. The Humanistic Union advocates the abolition of state-provided church privileges, such as faith-based religious education as a regular school subject, collection of church taxes, and other financial aid to religious groups.
The states of Schleswig-Holstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, NRW, Lower Saxony, Hesse, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Bavaria, and BW provided chaplain services to Muslim prison inmates, according to figures published in 2021, the most recent data available. The states of Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, where Muslims accounted for between 4 and 13 percent of prison inmates, did not offer Muslim prison chaplains. Catholic and Protestant chaplains were available to inmates throughout the country.
The military reported it appointed two additional Jewish chaplains during the year – in Leipzig in July and in Hamburg in October – bringing the total number of Jewish chaplains nationwide to five, with a goal of eventually appointing 10 rabbis to serve the 150-300 Jews in the armed forces.
On July 28, the Neustadt (Rhineland-Palatinate) Administrative Court ruled that female motorists were not allowed to wear the niqab while driving, stating the ban did not severely infringe upon women’s religious freedom. A Muslim woman had sued the local DMV for refusing to grant her a special permit to wear the niqab while driving.
Representatives of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat again said that officials and judges in asylum proceedings often expressed skepticism about Ahmadi individuals’ professions of faith or disregarded concerns that they could not practice their faith openly in their homeland. The representatives said this resulted in denial of the asylum claims of three community members, who were deported to Pakistan, where the representatives said they would be subject to persecution.
On January 19, the lower house of parliament unanimously passed a resolution recognizing crimes committed against the Yezidis in Iraq in 2014 by ISIS as a genocide under the UN Genocide Convention. The resolution also called upon authorities to continue to prosecute perpetrators of the genocide, strengthen European prosecution efforts, fund a center to document Islamic State crimes against minorities, and continue providing refuge to Yezidis, among other measures.
On June 22, the lower house of parliament, unanimously approved the erection of a memorial for Jehovah’s Witnesses persecuted and killed under National Socialism. During the debate, Bundestag Vice-President Petra Pau said, “It is high time [to acknowledge this victim group], especially since Jehovah’s Witnesses are also currently exposed to attacks and defamation repeatedly.”
The government continued the German Islam Conference dialogue with Muslims in the country during the year. The dialogue’s stated aim was to improve the religious and social participation of the Muslim population, give greater recognition to Muslims’ contributions to society, and – in the absence of a central organization representing all Muslims in the country – further develop partnerships between the government and Muslim organizations. Federal Interior Minister Faeser, State Secretary in the Ministry of Interior Juliane Seifert, and other government officials met with dialogue participants and other representatives of the Muslim community several times during the year to discuss combating anti-Muslim hatred, involvement of Muslim congregations in local government affairs, training of imams in Germany, chaplain services for Muslims, security needs, and other issues. Meetings on October 17 and November 21-22 focused specifically on how to combat antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred and ensure the security of religious communities in the country.
According to broadcaster Bayrischer Rundfunk, on December 19, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig rejected the appeal by a humanist organization, the Association for Freedom of Thought in Bavaria and Munich, of a lower court’s ruling against the group’s lawsuit challenging Bavaria’s decree that all state government buildings display a crucifix in their public entrances. The Leipzig court wrote in its ruling that the decree had no legal effect, did not violate the plaintiffs’ rights, and did not result in preferential treatment of Christian communities. The association told the Sueedeutsche Zeitung newspaper the group would appeal the case to the Federal Constitutional Court.
The country is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
There were numerous reports of antisemitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Christian incidents across the country, including assaults, threats, verbal harassment, discrimination, and vandalism.
Incidents of antisemitism, including physical attacks and verbal manifestations, occurred at public demonstrations, sporting and social events, in schools, on the street, in certain media outlets, and online. Apart from antisemitic speech, desecration of cemeteries and Holocaust monuments represented the most widespread antisemitic acts, although there were a rising number of physical assaults on individuals perceived to be Jewish. The federal government attributed most antisemitic acts to neo-Nazi or other right-wing extremist groups or persons, and such acts increased during the year. According to a preliminary figure obtained by the Left Party caucus from the Ministry of Interior, there were 1,365 crimes motivated by antisemitism in the first three quarters of the year, compared with 1,112 such crimes cited in preliminary statistics for the same period in 2022, and a final figure of 2,639 such crimes in all of 2022. In the third quarter, the number of crimes increased 76 percent over the same period in 2022. Jewish organizations also cited antisemitic attitudes and behavior by some Muslim youth and left-wing extremists. NGOs agreed right-wing extremists were responsible for most antisemitic acts but cautioned federal statistics misattributed many acts committed by Muslims as right-wing acts. Ministry of Interior officials cited an increase in antisemitic crimes committed by left-wing extremists since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
The number of antisemitic incidents rose sharply in the fourth quarter of the year, concurrent with conflict between Hamas and Israel in the Middle East. The NGO RIAS, which collects and monitors reports of antisemitism, announced on October 18 that it recorded 202 antisemitic incidents from October 7 to 16, up 240 percent from the same period in 2022. Incidents included physical attacks on persons and damage to buildings, chants at demonstrations, messages on social media, vandalism, and graffiti.
According to preliminary figures provided by the German Ministry of Interior in response to an inquiry by the opposition center-right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), a total of 5,154 crimes were motivated by antisemitism during the year, an increase of 95 percent compared to 2022; 56 persons were injured in such incidents. Of the total antisemitic crimes during the year, 3,789 took place in the fourth quarter. Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight Against Antisemitism, Felix Klein, said Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack resulted in an unprecedented increase in antisemitic crimes in Europe. On May 9, the Ministry of Interior revised slightly the total number of crimes motivated by antisemitism in 2022 to 2,641, a decrease of 12.7 percent compared to the 3,027 crimes it registered in 2021. Of the 2022 crimes, authorities attributed 83 percent to far-right ideology, compared with 84.3 percent in 2021. According to the Federal OPC annual report for 2022, released in June, membership in right-wing extremist parties such as the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (now known as Die Heimat [The Homeland]) grew by 31 percent, to approximately 15,500 persons in 2022.
RIAS, where victims may report antisemitic incidents regardless of whether they filed charges with police, said there were 2,480 such incidents in total in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, NRW, Saarland, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia in 2022 (the latest year for which data is available), including nine incidents of extreme violence (which RIAS defined as actual or attempted physical attacks which might result in loss of life or serious bodily harm), 56 assaults, 186 incidents of damage to property, and 1,912 incidents of “hurtful behavior.” Approximately one-third of incidents took place on the internet and one-fourth “on the street,” with other locations including public transportation, educational institutions, workplaces, and restaurants, among others. The RIAS annual report for 2022, released in June, attributed much of the increase to antisemitism at protests against measures aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 and protests tied to violence in the Middle East.
A preliminary report from the Ministry of Interior indicates that the number of crimes motivated by anti-Muslim hatred rose 140 percent in the same period, to 1,464 incidents during the year that resulted in 53 injuries. Of the total anti-Muslim incidents, 935 occurred in the fourth quarter of the year. In 2022, the ministry registered 610 crimes targeting Muslims and Islamic institutions, a decrease of 16.7 percent from 2021, when it registered 732 such crimes. Of the 610 crimes in 2022, 43 were violent and 62 targeted mosques.
The ministry classified most antisemitic and anti-Muslim incidents as having been carried out by right-wing extremists. Other incidents included online hate speech against Muslims, hate mail, and aggressive public behavior against persons who appeared to be Muslim. According to information provided by the NRW interior ministry to the state legislature in February, NRW authorities recorded 358 instances of crimes motivated by hatred of Islam in 2022. In 34 cases, they brought charges against perpetrators and secured convictions in 13 cases. In 248 cases, they ended investigations without bringing charges.
The Ministry of Interior report released in May counted 135 anti-Christian crimes in 2022 – including three cases involving violence – a 24 percent increase compared to the 109 cases recorded in 2021, of which five involved violence. Of the crimes in 2022, 118 targeted churches; the ministry classified 39 of the crimes against churches as motivated by right-wing ideology, 18 as motivated by left-wing ideology, 12 motivated by a “foreign ideology,” and six as religiously motivated. The ideological motivation, if any, for the remaining crimes was unclear.
According to Hamburg police and multiple media reports, on March 9, a man killed six Jehovah’s Witnesses and an unborn child and injured another eight persons in a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witnesses gathering in northern Hamburg. Police identified Philipp F. as the suspected shooter; his body was found upstairs with self-inflicted wounds after he apparently fled when the police arrived during the shooting. Police had received an anonymous tip about Philipp on February 7, including the information that he hated religious groups, but after interviewing him found no indications of a crime or mental illness. Thousands of people, including Hamburg Mayor and President of the Bundesrat (the upper house of parliament) Peter Tschentscher, attended a memorial ceremony on March 19. President Steinmeier, Chancellor Scholz, and Interior Minister Faeser issued public condolence statements.
In their 2023 report on the country, covering the period September 1, 2022 to June 22, 2023, Jehovah’s Witnesses reported more than 50 cases of assault against individual members, all of which occurred while they were engaged in peaceful religious activities. In March, a man pushed a female Jehovah’s Witnesses down the stairs at his home in Duisburg, NRW, breaking her arm and severely bruising her. Criminal proceedings were reportedly pending. In Hassloch, Rhineland-Palatinate in February, a man threatened three Jehovah’s Witnesses and veered his car into one, knocking him down. Police did not identify any suspects.
The newspaper BZ reported that three unknown men attacked a Jewish tourist in Berlin on August 5 after they heard him speaking Hebrew. After the victim fell to the ground, the three men continued beating him before escaping by car. The victim, who said he was attacked “by Arabs because he was Jewish,” suffered a concussion and required hospital treatment. Police investigated the incident but had not announced any arrests by year’s end.
Broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk reported that a Jewish tourist in Munich wearing a kippa was attacked by a group of six persons, including German, Syrian, Yemeni, and Eritrean citizens on December 14. After asking him if he was Jewish, the group beat him on the body and face. The victim ran to a passerby who called police; officers then called paramedics, who took the victim to the hospital. At year’s end, police were investigating the members of the group for aggravated assault and the victim for intentionally causing bodily harm while defending himself, according to the newspaper TZ.
According to broadcaster MDR, on April 29 unidentified persons in Dessau-Rosslau, Saxony-Anhalt attacked two girls, ages 14 and 15, wearing headscarves from behind as they were walking down the street. The attackers tore off the victims’ headscarves, causing them to fall to the ground, whereupon the attackers repeatedly kicked them, inflicting light injuries, before leaving the scene. Saxony-Anhalt Interior Minister Tamara Zieschang condemned the attack. Police sought witnesses but had not made any arrests by year’s end.
The website IslamiQ reported that in Hamburg in December, an unidentified man insulted a 14-year-old girl wearing a headscarf and then punched her in the face as she waited at a bus stop. The girl fled from her attacker and later received medical treatment. Police were seeking witnesses in the case at year’s end.
According to the newspaper Welt, in January, a group of seven football fans in Merseburg, Saxony-Anhalt, assaulted a Muslim family comprising a woman wearing a head scarf pushing a child in a baby carriage and her male companion, after first shouting xenophobic insults at them. Bystanders came to the defense of the victims, allowing them to escape uninjured. Police were investigating suspects for possible charges of verbal assault, inflicting bodily harm, and coercion but had not announced any arrests by year’s end.
Broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk reported that on August 4, a woman in Munich shouted antisemitic insults at a group of approximately eight school children, ages seven and eight, who were participating in an outing organized by the Jewish community of Munich. A chaperone contacted police, who arrested the woman; she said that she had insulted the children because she heard them speaking Hebrew. According to media reports, the woman was known to police and had a criminal record. No further information on the case was available at year’s end.
RIAS reported 177 antisemitic demonstrations in Berlin, NRW, Bavaria, BW, and Lower Saxony between October 7 and November 9. RIAS said it based its assessments on eyewitness accounts and first-hand, media, and police reports. The newspaper Tagesspiegel reported that demonstrators shouted slogans glorifying violence and threw objects, including bottles and fireworks, at police during protests in Berlin on October 21. The magazine Focus reported that Berlin police ended an antisemitic demonstration there on October 19 after demonstrators threw stones, bottles, burning liquids and fireworks at police, injuring more than 60 officers. On October 28, hundreds of marchers at a Hamburg protest shouted antisemitic slogans and attacked police, according to broadcaster NDR.
Several media outlets reported that in October and November, several mosques in Recklinghausen, Castrop-Rauxel, Herne, Bochum and Essen received insulting and threatening anonymous letters that included burned Quran pages, pork meat, and excrement.
In May, unknown persons spray-painted the message “Kill all Jehovah’s Witnesses + Children” on the facade of the Brunswick Palace in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. Police investigated but could not identify a perpetrator.
According to reports by the newspapers Welt and Berliner Zeitung, Jewish students in Berlin, Bavaria, and other parts of the country reported feeling unsafe on university campuses due to an antisemitic climate and sentiments expressed by other students as well as faculty.
In May, the U.S.-based NGO Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued the results of its survey of antisemitic prejudice in Germany, based on data collected in November and December 2022. The survey asked approximately 500 respondents whether 11 stereotypical statements about Jews were “probably true.” Based on responses, ADL estimated 12 percent of all individuals over 18 in Germany agreed that six or more statements were “probably true,” compared with 15 percent in 2019 and 16 percent in 2015. Among the statements were: “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to Germany” (44 percent); “Jews have too much power in international financial markets” (21 percent); “Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust” (33 percent); “Jews don’t care about what happens to anyone but their own kind” (16 percent); “Jews have too much control over the global media” (13 percent); and “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars” (4 percent).
After the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, many Muslim organizations reported a dramatic increase in anti-Muslim sentiment, acts, and discourse. For example, an October 20 statement by the Central Council of Muslims decried a “new level of escalation” in slandering and demonizing Muslims, in which Islamic religious communities in the country were “repeatedly – and with some outrageous falsehoods – being pilloried.” Muslim communities, the statement continued, were repeatedly being required to distance themselves from terrorism, although they had done so many times clearly in the past. Members of the Muslim community also expressed concern that Islamist thinking was rising in the country due to a lack of education and social integration of Muslims; they emphasized the need for continued dialogue between Jews and Muslims, especially in light of the rise of right-wing extremism.
On November 7, the Coordinating Council of Muslims, which brings together the country’s largest mosque associations, issued a statement decrying a “media and political discussion” that was “fueling prejudices and leading to verbal or physical attacks against Jews and Muslims.” According to the statement, both Jews and Muslims and mosques and synagogues were receiving threats and subject to violent acts.
On March 14, the Office of the Halle Prosecutor General announced it would prosecute a man for attempted dangerous bodily harm and damage to property. The individual had fired test shots from a newly purchased air rifle out his apartment window at the Islamic Cultural Center in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, in 2022, according to the prosecution. While no one was injured, the prosecution assessed the man was aware of the risk of injury and therefore decided to prosecute, but it said it had no evidence his actions were politically motivated.
The television news program Hessenschau reported that in November 2022, the Frankfurt Regional Court convicted Alexander M. of 85 counts of defamation, incitement, and coercion for sending 116 threatening letters in 2018-21 to prominent parliamentarians, women, and members of minority groups active in campaigns against extremism. The court sentenced him to five years and 10 months in prison. It ruled he acted alone despite investigation findings that a police database at a Frankfurt police station was used to obtain personal data of the recipients.
TAG24 reported that on August 25, an anti-Muslim protest led by the Free Saxons Party, commonly described as right-wing extremist, took place in Dresden to signal opposition to a planned new mosque to be constructed in Dresden’s Johannstadt by the Marwa al-Sherbiny Culture Center. In its 2022 report, the OPC in Saxony cited the center’s director as a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. Dresden’s Frauenkirche Foundation organized a counterprotest titled “For Religious Freedom, Against Islamophobia.”
Media outlets reported that women who wore a hijab continued to face employment discrimination and that discrimination was made easier by the customary practice of requiring photographs as part of job applications. According to a Ministry of Interior report produced by an independent panel of experts and released in June, women who wore hijabs experienced problems obtaining employment and similar opportunities, such as internships, were sometimes denied entry to swimming pools or gyms and faced discrimination in the housing market as well as in other areas.
The Catholic Church and the EKD continued to oppose the COS publicly. “Sect commissioners” or “departments on sects and worldview matters” of the EKD and the Catholic Church reportedly continued to investigate “sects and cults” and to publicize what they considered to be the dangers of those groups. On its website, the EKD Center for Questions of World Views continued to warn the public about what it said were the dangers posed by multiple religious groups, including the COS, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (Unification Church), Bhagwan-Osho, Transcendental Meditation, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Universal Life. The EKD also continued to produce literature criticizing the groups.
According to broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk, on October 6 two men threw stones through the glass door and a display window of a mosque in Siegburg, NRW, shattering them. Police later found right-wing extremist flyers at the scene and attached to one of the stones. On October 7, two suspects surrendered to police in Berlin; No trial date had been set as of year’s end.
In Berlin, unknown persons threw Molotov cocktails at a synagogue complex on October 18; there were no injuries or damage. The Berlin public prosecutor was investigating the case but had not announced any suspects or arrests by years’ end.
On February 10, a man set fire to a Roman Catholic church in Wissen, Rhineland Palatinate, destroying an 18th-century altar and causing two million euros ($2.2 million) in damages. Police arrested a suspect on February 14, and on August 7, a court convicted him of arson and willful damage to property and sentenced him to three years and nine months in prison, according to SWR television.
On February 23, according to Jehovah’s Witnesses, an unknown person set off a pyrotechnic device at the entrance to a Jehovah’s Witnesses kingdom hall in Siegburg, NRW, during services there.
According to broadcaster Suedwest Rundfunk, the trial of a Turkish citizen charged with attempted aggravated arson for the June 2021 attempted firebombing of the synagogue in Ulm began at the Ulm District Court on December 21. Authorities reportedly arrested the man, who had fled to Turkey, upon his return to Germany in July.
MDR television reported that on the weekend of September 16, unknown individuals knocked over the tombstones of more than 40 Jewish graves in the Koethen municipal cemetery in Saxony-Anhalt. Unidentified persons knocked over markers at 16 Jewish graves in the same cemetery in 2022.
On November 29, during his trial on defamation charges, Jewish singer Gil Ofarim confessed to and apologized for making up an October 2021 accusation that employees of a Leipzig hotel had asked him to “put away” a Star of David pendant before he was allowed to check in. The Leipzig court ordered Ofarim to donate €11,000 ($12,200) to the Jewish community of Leipzig and a Berlin Holocaust memorial museum.
Fewer than a dozen churches in the country continued to use bells cast during the Nazi era and bearing Nazi symbols and inscriptions. According to media reports, of five churches known to be using such bells in Saxony at the beginning of the year, two replaced theirs by September, and two others planned to remove them before the end of the year. Four bells remained hanging as part of a carillon in Loessnitz, Saxony, with a “memorial plaque” explaining the history of national socialism.
The U.S. embassy and the five U.S. consulates general in the country continued to engage closely with authorities at all levels of government regarding responses to incidents of religious intolerance. Embassy officials met with Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism Felix Klein and Ambassador Robert Klinke, Germany’s Special Representative for Relations with Jewish Organizations, Issues Relating to Antisemitism, International Sinti and Roma Affairs, and Holocaust Remembrance, on multiple occasions to discuss antisemitism, the growth in antisemitic incidents and violence, antisemitic conspiracy theories, and Holocaust denial and distortion. Consulate general officials also met with the state commissioners for antisemitism. Embassy and consulate general officials engaged other local, state, and federal officials, including meetings with state interior ministers, state parliamentarians from the Social Democratic, CDU, and Green Parties, and mayors to discuss religious freedom issues, including bias, hate, discrimination, and violence targeting Muslims and other religious groups.
On January 30-31, the Second Gentleman of the United States and the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism spent two days in Berlin focusing on Holocaust remembrance and combating rising antisemitism. The two met with Commissioner for Jewish Life Klein, European Commission coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life Katharina von Schnurbein, and visiting special envoys focused on antisemitism from several EU member states and other European countries. They also participated in an interfaith roundtable on combating antisemitism and hate hosted by the Central Council of Jews in Germany. The Second Gentleman toured the Jewish Museum Berlin, met with Jewish community representatives, and laid a wreath at Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. In the memorial’s information center, he met with Holocaust survivors.
The embassy used its school outreach program “Meet US” to address the topics of religious freedom and tolerance and the need to combat antireligious hate in conversations with high-school students.
On November 5-10, the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism visited Munich, Berlin, Halle, and Leipzig. During her visit, she met with Berlin Governing Mayor (Governor) Kai Wegner; Bavarian State Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich; State Secretary Hans-Georg Engelke at the Federal Ministry of the Interior; President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Schuster; Chair of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria Charlotte Knobloch; Chair of the Jewish Community of Saxony-Anhalt Max Privorozki; members of parliament; members of the Jewish Communities in Halle and Leipzig; the Bavarian branch of the antisemitism reporting NGO RIAS; the interfaith organization House of One; several journalists; and representatives of organizations involved in educational efforts to combat antisemitism. She also spoke at the Leipzig event marking the anniversary of the “night of broken glass” pogroms of 1938, where she spoke of an individual and societal duty to ensure that antisemitism and hate are not allowed to spread.
As part of the United States-Germany Dialogue on Holocaust Issues, to promote Holocaust education and combat Holocaust denial and antisemitism, embassy officials continued to meet regularly with representatives of the country’s foreign ministry, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe to develop programs and initiatives, including combating Holocaust distortion and denial on line, developing a Holocaust education program with the Marshall Center, and researching the “rehabilitation” of figures who had participated in the Holocaust.
In February, the Ambassador delivered remarks at the 80th anniversary commemoration of the February 1943 Rosenstrasse Protest in Berlin against the arrest and potential deportation of approximately 2,000 Jewish men by the Gestapo in February 1943; she spoke about how individuals can take action to combat antisemitism and all forms of hatred.
In September, the Ambassador and a Holocaust survivor whom the embassy sponsored on a visit to the country engaged in a lively discussion with 22 high school students in Potsdam, during which the Ambassador stressed the importance of standing up and speaking out against antisemitism and all forms of hatred and bullying. Local media covered the event.
In September, the Ambassador recorded a video greeting for the annual meeting of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Germany.
In November, the Ambassador launched a program encouraging youth to stand up and speak out for diversity and democracy and combat intolerance, bias, antisemitism and all forms of hatred. The campaign included meetings between the Ambassador and youth groups, a social media campaign, and new embassy and consulate general partnerships in several German states.
The Ambassador and embassy and consulate general representatives met with members and leaders of numerous local and national religious and civil society groups regarding their concerns related to tolerance and freedom of religion. The Ambassador met with President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Schuster; director of the AJC Berlin Lawrence and Lee Ramer Institute for German-Jewish Relations Remko Leemhuis; Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin Hetty Berg; representatives of the Leo Baeck Institute New York and Berlin; and a senior representative of the Chabad Jewish Education Center in Berlin. Embassy officials also met with Imam Seyran Ates of the Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque in Berlin; representatives of the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany; Catholic and EKD and other Protestant churches; Jehovah’s Witnesses of Germany; the Association of Islamic Cultural Centers; the World Uyghur Congress; the Alevi Muslim community; the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat; and the MTO Shahmaghsoudi.
Topics of discussion with Jewish groups included concerns regarding the rise in antisemitic incidents in the country in the last half of the year and what they characterized as the growing acceptance of antisemitism throughout the country, exacerbation of antisemitism by right-wing conspiracy groups, the challenges involved in supporting Jewish refugees from Ukraine, and growing antisemitism on the intellectual left, including in the cultural sphere.
Embassy and consulate general officials discussed topics with Muslim groups and representatives that included stereotypes and discrimination against Muslims and Jews, attempts by right-wing extremists to foment and exploit anti-Muslim prejudice, the need for interreligious dialogue, socioeconomic and cultural obstacles encountered by Muslim residents and immigrants, difficulties that members of religious minorities faced when attempting to obtain refugee status, and the training of imams. Embassy officials met with representatives of the Muslim community to discuss social tensions following Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel.
The Ambassador regularly highlighted her family’s history of fleeing religious persecution by the Nazis in her press engagements, including in feature articles in national newspapers, among them Berliner Zeitung and Juedische Allgemeine.
In May, the Frankfurt Consul General visited the UNESCO world heritage ShUM medieval Jewish sites in Speyer and Worms and discussed the significance of Jewish heritage for the region with local, state, and community representatives. Also in May, the Frankfurt Consul General visited the Jewish community in Ulm, where he discussed with the local rabbi issues including ways to combat antisemitism, cooperation with police, and the situation of the city’s Jewish community.
The embassy and consulates general worked closely with Jewish communities, especially in the country’s east, to provide small grants in support of programs promoting religious tolerance to leading NGOs countering violent extremism related to religion and antisemitism. For example, the embassy sponsored media literacy workshops directed at countering hate speech and disinformation. The consulate general in Leipzig supported Jewish remembrance week in Goerlitz, Saxony, by covering travel costs for U.S. descendants of the town’s former Jewish community, enabling them to participate in the week-long program. The consulate also supported an exhibition about a Jewish resident of Leipzig who fled Germany to escape Nazi tyranny as part of the Jewish Week Leipzig 2023 cultural festival by covering costs of educational programs and the installation of the exhibition.
The embassy helped to fund a visit of #StolenMemory by the Arolsen Archives, a traveling exhibition featuring containers of personal items confiscated from Jews and others by the Nazis, to the Ravensbrueck concentration camp memorial in Brandenburg in July and August and publicized the exhibition on social media. The exhibition educated the country’s public about the Holocaust and Nazi persecution while also encouraging the public to locate family members of Holocaust victims and attempt to return artifacts to them.
In April, the Ambassador hosted an iftar for representatives from the country’s interfaith and civil society community at her residence. This was the embassy’s first Ramadan event in more than five years. The event included representatives of the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities, diplomats from Muslim-majority countries, members of parliament and German officials working on religious freedom, NGOs active in migration and integration issues, and alumni of embassy exchange programs. The Ambassador spoke on religious freedom, tolerance, and the need to combat antireligious hate, subjects central to the discussions that followed during the evening.
In December, the Ambassador hosted a Hanukkah event with representatives of the Jewish, Christian, Sunni, Alawite, Alevi, and Ahmadiyya Muslim communities as well as NGOs and state and federal government officials from Berlin and the east of the country who were active on religious freedom issues. The Ambassador spoke on the need to combat antisemitism and other forms of hatred, including of other religions, and to promote tolerance and respect the dignity of persons of all religions and beliefs.
The embassy utilized virtual programs in which presenters spoke on ways of preserving and promoting accurate Holocaust narratives in the fight against antisemitism. The embassy and consulates general also continued to actively promote religious freedom and tolerance through their social media channels, utilizing X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram to highlight the engagement of senior embassy officials on the issue. Content included greetings from the Ambassador on Jewish and Muslim holidays, social media posts on the right to freedom of religion, public meetings between U.S. government and German officials and religious community members, and public engagements by embassy and consular officials. Religious freedom and tolerance were frequent topics of focus on the embassy’s and consulates generals’ digital platforms. Following the rise in antisemitism in the final quarter of the year, the embassy released a podcast on combating antisemitism and hatred of religions as part of its podcast series “Unter Freunden” (Among Friends) in November. Embassy and consulate general personnel at all levels attended events in support of the country’s Jewish communities.
The embassy regularly supported cultural events and festivals to promote religious tolerance, for example, by funding American participants in the Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg in June.
In November, the embassy funded the participation of high-level American experts in a conference on Holocaust distortion and denial that took place in Berlin and Brandenburg.
In July, the U.S. embassy organized a tour program through the country for a Uyghur American activist and advocate from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China to speak about religious freedom issues.
Funded by the Department of State, the U.S. embassy and consulates organized a one-week tour in June with an accomplished documentary producer and a distinguished Washington University expert specializing in antibias research and training for law enforcement personnel. In presentations to police officers and trainees, film and media students, young journalists, science faculty, and students across the country, the speakers addressed ways to identify and mitigate biases, including towards religious groups.
The embassy and consulates sent a total of 18 participants from across the country to various U.S. government programs in the United States on countering racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism and antisemitism.
Hamburg’s Consul General participated in an Israel solidary event in Hamburg with 1,500 participants outside of city hall following the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. He also expressed the embassy’s and consulates generals’ solidarity to Stefan Hensel, Hamburg’s Antisemitism Commissioner, after unknown persons attacked Hensel and two of his staffers following the demonstration. Hamburg Consulate General staff regularly met with Jewish community leaders throughout the five northern German states of the consular district. At the invitation of Jewish community leaders, in May, a Hamburg consulate general official discussed her experience as a religious Muslim U.S. diplomat wearing the hijab with students from Hamburg’s Jewish High School. Hamburg’s Consul General joined local volunteers and the local chief rabbi to clean “stolpersteine,” memorial bricks commemorating individual victims of Nazi Germany, in Schwerin (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) on November 9, the anniversary of the 1938 pogroms against German Jews. The Consul General also attended annual memorial events at the concentration camps of Neuengamme (Hamburg) and Bergen-Belsen (Lower Saxony). The Consul General joined an LGBTQI+ “Pride Shabbat” by Hamburg’s Liberal Jewish Community in August.
On February 6, the Duesseldorf Consul General and an embassy official attended a conference at the Duesseldorf synagogue by the NGO Sabra, a civil rights group affiliated with the city’s Jewish community, that taught educators how to combat antisemitism and identify Holocaust distortion and denial. At the event, the Consul General and the embassy official met with NRW State Commissioner for the Fight against Antisemitism Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.
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