A shopkeeper in the northern German city of Flensburg is facing public outcry and police complaints after refusing to remove a sign banning Jews from his store, in what officials and community leaders called a blatant display of antisemitism reminiscent of the Nazi era.
The sign, posted on the window of a store that sells mainly Gothic items and secondhand books, read: “Jews are not allowed to enter here. Nothing personal, nothing antisemitic — I just can’t stand you.”
Hans Felten-Reisch, 60, the shop’s owner, told a local newspaper he stood by the notice and rejected claims it was antisemitic. “After all, there are Jews living in Israel, and I can’t decide who is for or against the attacks,” he said. “This is hypocrisy. They keep saying history must not repeat itself, but then they do it themselves.”
Felix Klein, Germany’s federal commissioner for combating antisemitism, condemned the sign as “antisemitism in its purest and most explicit form.” He drew direct comparisons to Nazi-era Germany, when Jews were barred from public spaces and signs banning them were common. “We cannot tolerate this under any circumstances,” he said.
Flensburg, Germany’s third-largest port city and its northernmost urban center, is not considered a far-right stronghold. In the last federal election, more than 38 percent of voters there backed the Green Party and other left-wing parties, while the far-right Alternative for Germany received just 13 percent, seven points below its national average.
The sign triggered swift backlash from residents and politicians. Former mayor Simone Lange said she filed a police complaint, while a local history teacher also reported the shop owner for incitement to hatred.
Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor sharply condemned the act: “In Flensburg, in 2025, signs saying ‘Jews not allowed’ are once again hanging in shop windows. Just like then, in the streets, cafés 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.’
"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.”
Local police visited the store Wednesday evening, but the sign remained in place as of late that night.