Late Friday morning, Michael Stürzenberger was preparing to speak on the market square in Mannheim, a Rhine city in southwest Germany. The BPE. Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa (Pax Europa Citizen Movement) had set up a stand there with the aim of warning against “the dangers of the influence of political Islam on democratic societies in Germany and Europe”.
The participation of this anti-Islam activist had been highlighted by this far-right movement on social networks, notably on X. But the diatribe of this controversial figure well known in Germany did not have time to begin.
A young man, of Afghan origin, attacked Michael Stürzenberger and five other Pax Europa activists, injuring them with a knife, the life of a police officer is also in jeopardy. One of its managers, Stefanie Kizina, “in shock”, denounced “a targeted attack” targeting Michael Stürzenberger who was injured in particular “in the face and legs”, she added. Was it he who attracted the perpetrator of what German Chancellor Olaf Scholz quickly described as “an attack”, even though the police now consider the Islamist motive plausible?
Under surveillance
The Bavarian Michael Stürzenberger, born in 1964, has been organizing anti-Islam demonstrations in Munich for many years, where he distinguished himself by launching petitions against the construction of new mosques. The Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution eventually classified the BPE movement and Stürzenberger as representatives of “Islamophobia relevant to the protection of the Constitution” and is monitoring their activities. On its internal website, the BPE makes no distinction between Islam and Islamism: it attributes, among other things, “aggressive contempt and intolerance” to both, notes the Tagesschau.
The almost sixty-year-old has already been found guilty, among other things, of insulting religious communities. He was given a four-month suspended prison sentence and 960 euros in 2015 for declaring that all Muslims were potential terrorists at a Pegida (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes, abbreviated PEGIDA) rally. In the past, Michael Stürzenberger has used videos of attacks and insults against him to promote his cause, the ZDF channel also notes.
