Overview
- Brandenburg police said Monday the state security unit took over investigations into two Cottbus incidents that targeted a pastor active against right‑wing extremism and an antifascist cyclist.
- According to the victims’ group Opferperspektive, two young neo‑Nazis forced into the pastor’s building on Thursday, reached his floor, vandalized outside his door, and left right‑wing stickers, including one reading “Piss dich nach Berlin.”
- A second episode on the same street involved a youth on a bike who harassed an antifascist rider, demanded a bag, mocked the victim, and tore off an Antifa button, the initiative Sichere Orte Südbrandenburg reported.
- Police initially found no break‑in traces and treated the case as trespass based on stickers at the scene, but they now plan witness interviews as they examine a possible political motive.
- The regional bishop condemned the intimidation, and monitoring groups report a 2025 high of 290 right‑wing, racist, antisemitic, and anti‑queer attacks in Brandenburg, underscoring concern about Cottbus and the wider region.