Detmold – An extreme right-wing lawyer wants to demolish the old synagogue in Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia
It is one of the oldest synagogues in northern Germany. It was probably built in 1633. The owner of the building, Hendrik Schnelle, is a criminal defense lawyer who has represented several well-known right-wing extremists in court in the past. He has been active in the right-wing scene for at least two decades. In 2002 he was convicted of hate speech by the Detmold district court because he had publicly demanded that homosexuals be “gassed like the Jews were then”. Schnelle wants to demolish the prayer house to have parking spaces built there.
Although the city wants to buy the building and has made the owner an offer, Schnelle insists on his parking space idea. He went several times to court to sue for the demolition of the listed building. Most recently, it was the administrative court in Minden that rejected his application, but Schnelle, who represents himself in court, announced that he wants to go as far as the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if necessary.
Former Bundestag member Volker Beck, asked NRW state government to intervene to prevent demolition and initiate an expropriation. He argued that because of his sympathies for right-wing ideologies, Schnelle wants to erase this testimony of Jewish life
