Michel Friedman: After rejection, Mayor of Klütz resigns

After nationwide criticism of the cancellation of a reading by the Jewish publicist Michel Friedman in Clumsy does the mayor of the small Baltic Sea town, Jürgen Mevius, his resignation explained. “I’m this morning resigned “, said the local politician (independent voter community UWG) on Friday of the German Press Agency. The “Ostsee-Zeitung” had previously reported about it. At first Mevius did not want to say anything about the reasons – He referred to the statement that he sent to the newspaper.

As a result Mevius treated yourself unfairly. “What started with the simple cancellation of an appointment, for which there was no contract and no secure financing, became a defamation campaign against me and the city council, even against the whole region,” said the politician in the statement.

Friedmann was to perform in October 2026 as part of the Hannah Arendt Week in the Klützer Literaturhaus in the 3000-inhabitant city on the Baltic Sea. But the event was canceled. The head of the literary house, Oliver Hintz, justified the cancellation with a phone call from Mayor Mevius.

Accordingly, the majority of an urban body had spoken out against a reading by Friedman. One is concerned that right-wing interferers or Hamas sympathizers could come to Klütz and demonstrate.

Friedman, on the other hand, had criticized Mevius in an interview with the NDR: Art, culture and freedom of expression should not be at risk because intimidation of right-wing extremists is accepted.

Mevius contradicted this representation of Hintz and Friedmann and named financial reasons. Friedman’s fee is significantly higher than with readings by writers there. A representative of the Literaturhaus support association replied that the costs were not covered by the city, but from other providers.

This week Mevius also spoke in an explanation in the name of all city representatives “that the controversy around Michel Friedman’s participation in the Hannah Arendt Week sent a misleading signal”. He also wrote: “All the more we would like to confirm that tolerance, diversity and freedom of expression have always been clear guiding principles of our political work.”

The AfD parliamentary group, however, wants to rely on the agenda of the nearest interior committee of the state parliament. “We want to know whether there is actually a serious risk situation, as is said of interested circles,” said Group Chairman Nikolaus Kramer, according to the announcement.

The publication of the publicist triggered criticism across Germany. The Federal Government’s anti -Semitism representative, Felix Klein, said a preceding Back State bodies in front of democracy communities are directed against the basic values ​​of our society. It is irrelevant that the affected speaker Michel Friedman is Jewish faith. Friedman himself criticized sharply in an interview with the NDR Mevius and spoke of “embarrassing hypocrisy”.

The Pen Berlin Author Association will have a rally next Monday, around 5 p.m., called up at the Klützer Markt. In addition to the head of the Literaturhaus Klütz, Oliver Hintz, the writer and PEN Berlin spokeswoman Thorn as well as Michel Friedman, also the writer and PEN Berlin spokesman should speak there around whose unloading the controversy has flared up.

The concern of disorders, from which side, can never be an argument to cancel an event. “The preceding bending of people who do not have criticism in mind, but prevention is unacceptable,” wrote Pen Berlin.

The author association also records at the rally after Mevius’s resignation. “Pen Berlin has made it clear, whereas this rally is directed and what it advocates: above all for the autonomy of culture and against the cuts of cancer and counter-can-can-cancel. We never raised a resignation requirement, on the contrary: Of course we also invited Mr. Mevius to the rally,” said Dorn when asked by dpa. “Michel Friedmans through the city of Klütz, who prompted us to the rally on Monday, has not changed due to the announced resignation of Mayor Jürgen Mevius.”