A shopkeeper in Germany has sparked nationwide outrage after posting an antisemitic sign in the window banning Jews from the store.
The message, which was placed on the door of a shop in the northern town of Flensburg, declared “Jews not allowed”, adding: “Nothing personal, nothing antisemitic – I just can’t stand you.”
The sign has since been removed from the door, with the public prosecutors’ office saying there is “reasonable suspicion that the words are likely to disturb the public peace and incite hatred towards Jews living in Germany”. However, according to local media, it is still visible on a wall inside the shop.
Local and national leaders condemned the message, which had echoes of the brutal oppression faced by Jewish people in Nazi Germany during the 1930s and 40s.
Felix Klein, Germany’s federal commissioner for tackling antisemitism, told broadcaster Welt TV it was a “very clear case of antisemitism”, adding that “action must be taken”.
Flensburg mayor Fabian Geyer said: “This is a reminder of the darkest chapters of Germany’s history and has absolutely no place in this city.”
Speaking to local newspaper Schleswig-Holsteinische Zeitungsverlag, shop owner Hans Velten-Reisch, 60, attempted to defend the sign by claiming he had put it up in response to the war in Gaza. “I’m not inciting hatred, I’m just saying what I think,” he said.
“After all, there are Jews living in Israel, and I can’t decide who is for or against the attacks. This is hypocrisy. They keep saying history must not repeat itself, but then they do it themselves.”
Israeli ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor also slammed the sign, saying: “In Flensburg, in 2025, signs saying ‘Jews not allowed’ are once again hanging in shop windows. Just like then, in the streets, cafes and stores of the 1930s.
“This is exactly how it began – step by step, sign by sign. It is the same old hatred, only in a different font. After the signs came shards of glass, fire and destruction. And today, people behave as if it were ‘nothing personal’.”
He added: “It was never about Zionism. It was always about Jewish life. And it has never ended harmlessly. Politicians cannot wait until it is too late – they must act now, before words once again turn into actions. Jewish life must be safe and visible in Germany! I hope that no Christian, no Muslim, no atheist and no Jew will ever again enter the store whose owner hung this sign.”
On Thursday morning, the Flensburg police confirmed to Stern magazine that they had received at least four complaints against Mr Velten-Reisch. “These are now being examined by the public prosecutor’s office for possible offences,” a spokesperson said, according to local news reports.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that criticism of Israel was increasingly being used in Germany as a pretext for stoking hatred against Jews.
Speaking at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Mr Merz said that antisemitism had “become louder, more open, more brazen, more violent almost every day” since the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023, which ignited the Gaza war.
