Head of German Jewish community's 'Jewishness' questioned: report
For the last 15 years, Wolfgang Seibert served as the head of the liberal Jewish community in Pinneberg, near Hamburg. The 71 year-old is a prominent figure, well-known for his interfaith dialogue, honored for his work with refugees and a regular speaker at demonstrations. However a recent slew of allegations have called his legacy into question: is the respected community leader even Jewish?
The Hamburg-based weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday that Seibert is an impostor, who lied about his family history. According to the report, municipal documents and church archives show that Seibert was born on 16 August 1947 in Frankfurt to a protestant family and was baptized when he was three days old.
His claim that his grandmother Anna Katharina Schmidt (born Marx) was an Auschwitz survivor cannot be true, the magazine claims. Neither are his assertions that his father had fled to England and his mother came from Ukraine.
In a book interview, Seibert once described how, as a boy, he saw the tattooed number on the arm of his grandmother. He then asked her if she was in Auschwitz, and she “yes.”
“I was the only family member she told things about Auschwitz,” Seibert said at the time.
The weekly also found evidence that Seibert’s paternal grandfather and his father were soldiers at the Wehrmacht during the Second World War – which would have been impossible if they were Jews.
In addition, according to the report, Seibert was convicted several times of fraud and embezzlement, including for stealing money from the local Green party.
The weekly noted that some were aware of his troubled past but no one questioned his background in public, likely fearing to be accused of anti-Semitism.
Seibert has been chairman of the Pinneberg Community since 2003. In 2014 he made nationwide headlines after granting “church asylum” to a Muslim refugee in his synagogue. In 2017, he was awarded the Human Rights Award of the humanitarian organization Pro Asyl.
Two years ago, his congregation was the first in Germany to sign a Christian-Jewish partnership agreement with the Protestant Jerusalem community in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel.
When confronted with the uncovered facts, Seibert reportedly told Der Spiegel that, “I think I wanted to have a Jewish history to match my feeling of having a Jewish identity.”
But over the weekend Seibert rejected the allegations made by the magazine. He stated that he plans to respond to the claims later this week after consulting an attorney. He also denied that he plans to resign as community chairman.
Polina Garaev is the i24NEWS correspondent in Germany