A court in Bavaria has ruled that the Munich police may not dismiss a police officer, despite his growing alignment with far-right groups in Germany and Nazi ideology. Among other things, the officer sent messages with antisemitic content, including references to Nazi symbols. The ruling was issued in February, but details were published only this week.
The court upheld an earlier 2023 decision from the Munich court, arguing that the officer’s statements were protected under freedom of speech laws. It further determined that the messages were shared in private settings and thus were entitled to remain confidential. Most, the court claimed, were made in jest among friends and involved a form of "playful provocation" regarding taboo subjects. Therefore, the court concluded, they did not constitute criminal offenses or improper conduct affecting his work as a police officer.
The court agreed that the officer would be restricted to administrative duties, allowing Munich police to monitor him more closely. However, it reduced a financial penalty previously imposed on him. While the lower court had demoted him by two salary levels, the latest ruling lowered the penalty to just one.
But the story takes a troubling turn. The officer in question, Michael R., 45, sent the offensive messages between 2014 and 2016 while serving as the bodyguard for Dan Shaham, Israel's consul in Bavaria, and for Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and former president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews. Today, she is president of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria and is considered one of the most prominent voices of German Jewry.
Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play: https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store: https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv
While assigned to protect her, Michael R. sent messages stating that he wanted to defecate on her doorstep. He wished for her death in a gas chamber in Auschwitz and wrote that he hoped she would be sent to Dachau instead, so he could get home earlier. He ended several messages—or responded with a smiling emoji to similar ones—with the abbreviations "SH" or "HH," standing for the Nazi slogans Sieg Heil and Heil Hitler.
2 View gallery
He was assigned to protect Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and former president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews
(Photo: Getty Images)
Michael R. also complained to a friend—using a derogatory German slur against ethnic groups—about traveling on a train crowded with foreigners. Despite all this, the German court viewed the messages as mere mischievous banter and allowed him to return to work, rejecting Munich police's demand to fire him.
"I find myself at a loss in the face of this ruling," said Knobloch. "This is about trust. If I rely on security personnel to protect me, I must be able to trust them. Unfortunately, we see antisemitism everywhere today, but it cannot be tolerated in places where people are supposed to safeguard minorities."