Hubert Aiwanger, head of the Free Voters party, campaigns ahead of Bavarian state elections in Maisach, Germany, July 24, 2023. (Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

(JTA) — The deputy premier of Bavaria, the German state where Munich is located, is ensnared in a scandal that involves a Nazi pamphlet from his high school years and could affect multiple upcoming elections.

When he was 17, Hubert Aiwanger, now head of the populist Free Voters party, distributed a pamphlet that mocks victims of the Holocaust and was a “Nazi admirer,” according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, which cited several witnesses in its report this weekend.

Aiwanger said he did not write the pamphlet but admitted to having copies of it in his school bag at one point. He also described the contents of the pamphlet — which called Auschwitz an “entertainment quarter” and proposed a quiz titled “Who is the biggest traitor to the Fatherland?” — as “disgusting and inhumane.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The episode is redounding negatively on Bavaria’s premier, Markus Söder, who leads a governing coalition that includes Aiwanger’s party. Söder called his deputy’s response to the controversy insufficient and, on Tuesday, demanded that Aiwanger answer a series of 25 questions about the affair and his views on antisemitism.

Söder’s political rivals have pounced on the incident. Chancellor Olaf Scholz threatened “political consequences” if the issue is not “cleared up comprehensively and immediately.”

Analysts say that Söder, a brash Donald Trump-like figure who heads Bavaria’s Christian Socialist Union party — which is slightly different than, but affiliated with, former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union party — has ambitions to become the country’s chancellor, or head of government.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount