Germany: Far right lead in upcoming state election polls

Here is a roundup of top stories from and about Germany on Friday, September 11, 2026:

Eva Umlauf, a Holocaust survivor and the president of the International Auschwitz Committee, has written an open letter calling for a move to ban the AfD in Germany.

She addressed the letter to Henrdik Wüst, a prominent CDU politician and the state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia , most likely because he has in recent days called for the establishment of some kind of working group to evaluate the case for a ban motion.

"Let deeds follow your words," Umlauf wrote in the letter to Wüst, published in full by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper . "Set an AfD ban case in motion. Now, before it is too late."

She recounted her own time in Auschwitz, having been brought there in her mother's arms aged two.

"At some point, and it is not so far away now, the last of us survivors will be gone," Umlauf wrote. "Therefore we are passing on the burden that we have carried for a lifetime: to this country, to this society and in particular to you as a politician."

She recalled that the first state government led by Hitler's NSDAP was Anhalt in 1932.

"Eight months later, Hitler became chancellor," she said. "It was possible, because others believed that they could contain him. And because many looked the other way. Because they thought it would pass. The Holocaust did not start with gas chambers, it began with apathy."

She issued three requests to Wüst in the letter. First, to ensure that "steps towards an AfD ban process are taken rapidly." Second, to speak to Holocaust survivors and people in Saxony-Anhalt "who are afraid right now."

And finally, to support a potential bid for an investigation into a ban from his position in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament. Such a motion would need to clear that chamber with majority support.

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This public transport update is accompanied by a magnitude 3.7 myopia warning from our Bonn newsroom.

The company that runs Bonn's public transport, Stadtwerke Bonn, has said that two of its 60 defective city trams or streetcars are back in service.

It said they would help out with the annual fair in the Pützchen district over the weekend, which brings additional visitors to the eastern part of the city.

The need to take some 60 vehicles out of service for repairs was announced a full seven weeks ago on July 21. It's not clear how far the other 58 are from resuming service.

Replacement buses have been trying to pick up the slack, and some subway stations have also been shut for repairs.

This is exacerbated by ongoing road disruptions in the former capital due to the long-term closure of the main highway bridge over the Rhine River.

The chairman of the oversight committee that monitors Stadtwerke Bonn, David Lutz, recently conceded: "Our patience really is somewhat at an end and used up."

Lutz called on the company to issue a fixed timetable for its plan to reestablish the tram services. A legal firm has also been asked to evaluate any potential shortcomings.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party says it is seeking to prosecute Chancellor Friedrich Merz for comments he made during Wednesday's general debate in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament.

Merz had said that the AfD's contentious "remigration" policy amounted to "nothing other than an ethnic cleansing by skin color and heritage." The comment prompted jeers from AfD members in parliament, but Merz repeated a paraphrased version of the allegation over the commotion.

It's extremely rare for parties to seek to prosecute politicians for comments they make in parliament, which are subject to far-reaching parliamentary privilege and in most cases are exempt from prosecution under Article 46 of Germany's constitution.

However, the AfD believe that Merz's comments constituted defamatory insults, the only type of speech that is not necessarily protected by indemnity. Senior AfD politician Stephan Brandner described Merz's comments as "relevant to prosecution."

Under German law, authorities are typically allowed to investigate parliamentarians for such comments if they see fit. However, the Bundestag must also vote to revoke the lawmaker's immunity.

Police in Munich said on Friday that they had launched an investigation into a potential death threat against Charlotte Knobloch on a park bench in the English Garden in the city center.

Knobloch, 93, is a Munich resident and former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and fairly well known throughout the country.

Police said that a female witness on Wednesday saw and reported the graffiti, which it described as "personal threat in white lettering against a member of the Israeli cultural center" in Munich.

Knobloch, whom the police did not name, chairs that organization. She had issued a public response to Sunday's AfD election victory in Saxony Anhalt.

"On days like these it is hard for me to recognize my home," the Holocaust survivor wrote. "I never could have imagined in my worst nightmares that right-wing extremists in Germany would again win elections in this manner."

According to media reports in Bavaria, including from the Abendzeitung München , the message had read "The AfD has won, tomorrow we will hang up the Knobloch," which would be a play on her surname sounding similar to the German word for garlic, Knoblauch .

Police confirmed to the dpa news agency that the alleged threat was contextually linked to Sunday's election result, without offering specifics.

Investigators appealed for further information from members of the public.

The Bundesliga's new smalltown team Elversberg will have their coach in the dugout for the biggest home game of the season this Sunday.

Vincent Wagner has successfully appealed a touchline ban which would have consigned him to the stands when champions Bayern Munich visit the western town near the French border.

Wagner was dismissed last weekend during Elversberg's 4-3 away win at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

The 40-year-old was given two yellow cards, the first when he entered the pitch to protect a decision which replays showed was a mistake by the match officials. He was later dismissed with a second yellow card when he again approached the referee.

"I felt my reaction was inappropriate," ref Martin Petersen said with the benefit of hindsight. Given a second chance, he said he would have acted differently.

Others including Bayern Munich's coach Vincent Kompany had voiced confusion at the suspension, and at the DFB electing to uphold it at the first of Elversberg's two permitted appeals, speaking out in favor of lifting the touchline ban.

Elversberg is one of the smallest clubs ever to reach the Bundesliga , and has two wins from its first two top-flight league games. Making it three in a row against Bayern on Sunday, while surely unlikely, would turn the volume of the fairytale David-versus-Goliath chatter up to 11.

The AfD's candidate to lead the state government in Saxony-Anhalt faced widespread criticism in Berlin on Friday after comments he'd made in Magdeburg on Thursday evening.