Flensburg shop owner handed suspended sentence for antisemitic sign banning Jews from his store

A German court has convicted a second-hand shop owner of incitement to hatred after he placed a clearly visible antisemitic sign in his store window for around four hours. The Amtsgericht Flensburg handed down a six-month suspended sentence on Monday and ordered the man to pay a €1,200 fine to the Ladelund concentration camp memorial as a condition of his probation.

The incident

On 17 September 2025, the 60-year-old defendant placed a sign in the window of his junk shop in Flensburg. The sign read "Jews are banned from this store!!!" and, according to one report, added "Nothing personal, not antisemitism either, I just can't stand you." The sign remained visible for approximately four hours and was only removed after persistent intervention by the police, after which the man initially hung it up inside his shop.

Through this sign, the man incited hatred against Jews living in Germany and attacked the human dignity of these people by disparaging them.

The case triggered outrage well beyond Germany's borders. According to the judge, numerous complaints were filed from both Germany and abroad, and international media reported on the incident.

The verdict

The court found the defendant guilty of Volksverhetzung — incitement to hatred. The presiding judge stressed that the sign was not protected free speech but deliberate agitation. She noted that the wording consciously evoked the Nazi-era boycott calls against Jewish business owners.

It is agitation, not a permissible expression of opinion.

The verdict is not yet legally binding and can be appealed.

The defendant's explanation

The defendant admitted to hanging the sign and had a statement read out by his lawyer expressing regret. He said he had not intended to hurt the feelings of the Jewish community and would refrain from similar acts in future.

During his police interrogation, he justified the ban by claiming that all Jews he knew were not opposed to the Gaza war. He later acknowledged that he should have distinguished between Jews who support the war and those who oppose it. The court rejected this reasoning, stating that the sign itself made no such distinction.

Broader context

Antisemitic incidents remain a widespread phenomenon in Schleswig-Holstein, according to the state's information and documentation centre on antisemitism (LIDA-SH). While the number of documented cases has recently declined, the level remains high. Most incidents occur in public spaces rather than at specific events.

LIDA-SH documented 411 antisemitic incidents in the most recent reporting period. The majority — 364 cases — took place in the state capital Kiel, followed by the Pinneberg district with 21 incidents, Lübeck with six, and Flensburg with five.