German Jewish leader receives death threat after call to ban far-right AfD

German authorities say that Charlotte Knobloch, a prominent leader of the Jewish community in Munich has received death threats over her call to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD.)

The prosecutor’s office tells DPA an investigation has been opened into suspected incitement to hatred, threats and criminal damage.

German media reports say that the message “the AfD has won, now we will hang Knobloch” was carved on a park bench in the city.

Knobloch, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor, is the head of the Jewish community in Munich and Upper Bavaria.

The incident that took place Thursday comes after she called to ban the far right party after it won an election in the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt, and is now seeking to form the first extreme-right state government in Germany since World War II.

Yesterday,  About 150,000 demonstrators took to the streets in around 20 cities nationwide, including Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, in protests that were called by Pruef, which advocates for a ban on the AfD, organisers say.

The rise of the AfD has unnerved many who feel Germany has a special responsibility to atone for its Nazi past, and calls have grown for mainstream parties to seek to ban the group.

But hurdles for a formal ban are high in Germany, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz, of the centre-right CDU party, remains sceptical about taking such an approach.

In Berlin, police said several thousand protesters took part in several demonstrations.

The AfD held a counter-demonstration in the capital, attended by Kristin Brinker, its lead candidate in next weekend’s regional elections in Berlin.