Arson attack on synagogue: Wuppertal police assume sole perpetrator

The morning after the arson attack on the synagogue in Wuppertal, the investigative authorities continue to assume that the perpetrator was a lone perpetrator. A 37-year-old with Afghan citizenship is suspected, Niklas Rademacher, spokesman for the Wuppertal police, confirmed to taz on Friday morning. His residence status is currently being determined by the State Security Service, the police department responsible for politically motivated crime. The man has probably been in Germany “since at least 2014” – a “police contact” is on file from that year.

The 37-year-old is said to have "spread and set fire to" a "flammable liquid" on the steps of the synagogue in the Barmen district of Wuppertal at around 2:02 p.m. early on Thursday afternoon, three days before the highest Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. According to police spokesman Rademacher, an expert is currently investigating exactly what kind of fuel it was.

It currently appears as if the suspect transported the liquid “in a bag or a plastic container,” threw it in the direction of the church, then poured it out and set it on fire. The flames were extinguished by synagogue employees. This was apparently possible because there was hardly any combustible material at the site of the attack. “Everything there is made of stone,” said Rademacher.

The suspect was arrested “immediately after the crime was committed,” said the police spokesman - the Wuppertal synagogue, like many others, is guarded around the clock by police officers for fear of attacks. Dozens of people gathered at the crime scene on Thursday evening for a spontaneous vigil. Further solidarity actions are planned.

The Muslim Ditib community in Wuppertal-Elberfeld said on social networks that the attack was “an attack on peaceful coexistence in our city.” The organization, which reports directly to the Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, stands “in solidarity with the Jewish community,” it said on Facebook: “We must not allow hatred, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim racism or religious hostility to divide our society.”

The President of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, Thorsten Latzel, called it unspeakable “that anti-Semitic violence and attacks are taking place in our midst.” The chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Jochen Ott, declared his solidarity and warned that the protection of Jewish communities in North Rhine-Westphalia must continue to be ensured “with all consistency.” Politicians from the CDU and the Greens were also dismayed.

The chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, said in an initial reaction on Thursday that he was “deeply disturbed” by the “calmness with which the perpetrator in Wuppertal carried out this attack in broad daylight.” According to Schuster, there is no trace of awareness of injustice or shame: “This approach testifies to the progressive normalization of hatred of Jews, to which our society has not yet found an answer.”

The Central Council Chairman said that the timing of the attack, three days before the Yom Kippur festival of reconciliation, was “not chosen by chance.” Schuster recalled “the Hanukkah attack in Sydney in 2025, Yom Kippur in Manchester in 2025 and the attack in Halle in 2019.” There was already an arson attack on the synagogue in Wuppertal in 2014. Three men from Palestine, who were very drunk, threw six Molotov cocktails at the church. All three were given suspended sentences, which led to strong criticism at the time.

And in Bochum, almost 40 kilometers away, a man threw an incendiary device at the Hildegardis School in November 2023, which directly borders the synagogue there. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court found that “an Iranian state agency” was behind the attack planning, and sentenced the perpetrator, a 36-year-old German-Iranian, to two years and nine months in prison for aggravated arson.

In view of the chain of attacks, Central Council President Schuster warned that the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, would begin in three days. “All synagogues will be full,” said Schuster – and the German security authorities have a duty to ensure the safety of the services: “We do not want and will not allow ourselves to be deterred from living our religion,” explained the Central Council President. In Wuppertal, too, the protection of the synagogue around Yom Kippur is to be strengthened again.