Days after a street killing sparked violent anti-migrant protests, the mayor of Chemnitz sought Friday to reassure foreign visitors, students and investors that the eastern German city is safe, even as authorities prepared for further demonstrations at the weekend.
Images of neo-Nazis shouting “foreigners out” and performing the stiff-armed ‘Hitler salute’ during a protest Monday made headlines far beyond Germany, prompting concern among businesses and the city’s University of Technology, which has a large share of students from abroad.
“At the moment there’s a lot of uncertainty and fear on various sides,” Chemnitz’s mayor, Barbara Ludwig, told reporters on the city’s cobble-stone market square. “We’re going to make clear in the coming weeks and months that foreign students and foreign investors do indeed have their place in this city and will be safe here.”
Switzerland’s foreign ministry has already updated advice for its citizens traveling to Germany in the wake of the protests. It didn’t single out Chemnitz but said that “there may be demonstrations in big cities” and cautioned that “rioting is possible.”
The protests followed the fatal stabbing early Sunday morning of a 35-year-old German man, Daniel Hillig. Two men, a 22-year-old Iraqi and a 23-year-old Syrian, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.