A now-deleted video published on X by Bavaria’s interior ministry has drawn comparisons to Nazi-era propaganda for its depiction of an ethnic minority.
The cartoon video, which purports to warn against the Islamic Salafi movement, shows a Muslim woman watching an explainer video about whether Muslim women are allowed to wear make-up.
She eventually falls into the mouth of a maniacally laughing man, who is shown wearing a skullcap — headgear worn by some Muslims — in an apparent metaphor for her falling victim to radicalization.
“What unbelievable racist garbage,” former member of the German Bundestag Niema Movassat said of the clip, which depicts the radicalization of a Muslim woman in a manner some X users have described as reminiscent of anti-Jewish propaganda from the 1920s through the 1940s.
“Der Stürmer is back and runs the propaganda department of the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior,” wrote Movassat — who now works as a lawyer — adding that he will examine whether pressing charges is possible. “Muslims are demonized in the clip,” he said.
“Der Stürmer” was a notorious antisemitic newspaper published in Germany from 1923 to 1945, known for its virulent propaganda against Jews and its role in promoting Nazi ideology.
The ministry’s official X account ran the video — which has been viewed over 900,000 times — shortly after midnight on Monday, just a few hours after results of two eastern German state elections confirmed the far right’s biggest success since World War II. The video was deleted late in the evening.
Ferat Koçak, a member of the Berlin house of representatives, took to X to decry the “hatred” apparent in the video, saying that anyone who is still wondering why the far right is on the rise should see the video.
“The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior (!) is agitating against Muslims with caricatures that are reminiscent of the times of Nazi propaganda against Jews,” he wrote.
Left legislator Nicole Gohlke decried the clip as “pathetic.”
“Instead of exclusion and agitation, we need to take a stand against anti-Muslim racism, especially in these times, ” she wrote.
Approximately 5.5 million Muslims live in Germany, the majority of whom are German citizens. In 2023 an independent report commissioned by the government to research anti-Muslim racism found that half of the population holds hostile views toward Islam and perceives it as a danger to German society. A third called for restrictions on practicing the Islamic faith. This would violate the fundamental right to freedom of religion.
The Bavarian Interior Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
This article has been updated to reflect that the Bavarian Interior Ministry deleted the video from its X feed.
