A German shop owner in the northern city of Flensburg posted a sign on Wednesday banning Jews from entering his store, prompting outrage among state officials in Schleswig-Holstein.
Hans-Velten Reisch, 60, who owns a store selling Gothic utensils and technical literature, displayed a sign reading: “Jews are banned from entering here! Nothing personal. No antisemitism. Just can’t stand you.”
Germany’s largest daily newspaper, Bild, reported on Thursday that Reisch defended the sign. He told the paper, “I watch the news every evening. And when I saw what the Jews were doing in the Gaza Strip, I lost my temper and printed out the poster.”
The remarks come amid Israel’s defensive military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, following the October 7, 2023, attack by the militant group that killed over 1,200 people, including American citizens.
Reisch said the police instructed him on Wednesday evening to remove the poster.
A street view shows the Gothic-Utensils and technical literature shop owned by Hans-Velten Reisch, where he posted the antisemitic sign.
Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of Culture, Dorit Stenke, and Gerhard Ulrich, the state’s controversial antisemitism commissioner, condemned Reisch’s actions in a joint statement on the state government’s website.
“A sign that denies Jews access to a store is a frightening signal and an attack on the principles of our free coexistence,” Stenke said. She added, “We cannot allow such things to continue in our society and must take decisive action together. Antisemitism is a threat to our democracy and must not be tolerated in any form.”
Reisch said the police instructed him on Wednesday evening to remove the poster.
Gerhard Ulrich, Schleswig-Holstein’s antisemitism commissioner, stated, “We must stand together against every form of antisemitism. The fight against antisemitism is a special responsibility that we bear as Germans.”
The State Prosecutor has launched an investigation into Reisch for incitement of hatred. Ulrich himself filed a criminal complaint, and according to Bild, a total of five complaints have been filed against Reisch.
“Antisemitic hate speech like this not only harms those affected, but also disrupts public peace. The Flensburg incident, with its contemptuous rhetoric, is fatally reminiscent of Nazi-era hate speech against Jews,” Ulrich added.
A sign displayed in the store window in German read: “Jews are banned from entering here! Nothing personal. No antisemitism. Just can’t stand you.”
State officials said the incident in Flensburg reflects a troubling rise in antisemitism in Schleswig-Holstein. In 2024, 588 antisemitic incidents were documented—an increase of 390 percent compared with 2023.
However, Ulrich himself has faced criticism for allegedly contributing to anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiments during his previous tenure as Bishop for northern Germany in the Protestant Church.
Dorit Stenke, Minister for General and Vocational Education, Science, Research, and Culture in Schleswig-Holstein, spoke in a plenary chamber regarding the Flensburg incident.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles–based Simon Wiesenthal Center—a Jewish human rights organization named after the famed Nazi hunter—warned in December 2022 about Ulrich’s alleged antisemitism. Cooper urged the Schleswig-Holstein government to dismiss Ulrich, stating he “is unfit to denounce the very antisemitism that he unfortunately legitimized and helped to spread in the mainstream of German society.”
Ulrich, the former bishop, has previously remarked, “The name ‘Israel’ is burdened with the horror and misery of this Middle East war.” He also compared Israel’s security fence to the now-defunct Berlin Wall, suggesting it should be dismantled.
Counter-terrorism officials in Israel note that the anti-terrorist fence has saved the lives of thousands of Israelis from attacks by Palestinian militants coming from the West Bank, also known as the biblical region of Judea and Samaria.
