On the sidelines of a rally by conspiracy supporters on Max-Joseph-Platz, there was an incident with longtime city councilor Marian Offman on Wednesday evening, which may have repercussions in the state parliament. In any case, the SPD MP Florian Ritter has already announced an inquiry, and the specialist department for democracy in the state capital of Munich also wants to deal with the case, as Offman told the SZ.
The 74-year-old, who sat on the city council for the CSU and later for the SPD between 2002 and 2020, was roughly led away by police officers from Max-Joseph-Platz shortly after the start of the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Videos show him being grabbed by the upper arms from both sides. According to the police, this was preceded by a “verbal argument” that ultimately led to mutual complaints about insults.
The incident is explosive on the one hand because of the date – on November 9, the Jewish community commemorates the pogrom night of the National Socialists in 1938. On the other hand because of the constellation on the square in front of the opera – many right-wing thinkers had also gathered there, under the pretext that to get involved with political prisoners. According to Offman, the former vice president of the Jewish Community for Munich and Upper Bavaria, he became involved in a dispute when he criticized a poster showing a Star of David. Later, Offman, a man he later identified as an AfD politician, and a woman exchanged insults. His faith was discussed with Offman, who countered “once with morally derogatory statements, once with politically derogatory ones,” as a police spokesman put it.
“I would like to emigrate”
In order to establish their personal details, the participants should be brought out of the meeting, which Offman initially resisted, as he admits. “But I would have shown my ID on the spot,” he assures. He then found the subsequent discharge not only physically painful, but above all as “great humiliation. It was like running the gauntlet for me”. He must now ask himself how he should deal with this case, he admitted: “I would prefer to emigrate.”
In any case, Offman considers the actions of the police officers to be “disproportionate” and a “massive misconduct”, especially since his opponents were treated disproportionately more carefully. Andreas Franken, spokesman for the Munich police, defended his colleagues on Thursday and explained: “It was a group of young police officers from a hundred units. They didn’t know the name of the person and didn’t know who it was either. I can understand that a citizen of the Jewish faith feels emotionally burdened in such a situation with the context of the meeting and the special date.”
Offman himself received no response from police headquarters. “They’ll never admit a mistake there,” he said. “They’re more likely to retire.”