The Unimpeded Murder

Forty-five years ago, rabbi Shlomo Lewin and his partner Frida Poeschke were murdered in their Erlangen home. The case, long shrouded in controversy, resurfaced in 2023 when newly declassified files exposed missed opportunities by Bavarian intelligence to prevent the killings. A key informant had spotted far-right activist Karl-Heinz Hoffmann handling suspicious materials just days before the crime—yet no action was taken.

On 19 June 1980, Lewin and Poeschke were found dead in their flat. Investigators recovered remnants of a homemade silencer and a distinctive pair of sunglasses at the scene. The latter were later linked to Hoffmann’s partner, Franziska Birkmann, who had received them as a gift.

Hoffmann, a known extremist, had previously organised the so-called 'Auschwitz Congress'—an event Lewin had publicly protested against. Hoffmann’s magazine had also targeted Lewin with antisemitic remarks. Despite this history, police initially focused on the victims’ personal lives rather than Hoffmann’s potential involvement. Six days before the murders, an informant for the Bavarian Constitutional Protection Agency observed Hoffmann, Birkmann, and an associate handling metal pipes. The report suggested they were assembling a silencer. However, officials prioritised a separate case—a pipe bomb found in Bonn—over any connection to the Lewin-Poeschke killings or the recent Oktoberfest bombing. No immediate searches or interrogations followed. In 1986, Hoffmann and Birkmann stood trial but were acquitted. The court accepted Hoffmann’s account of events, leaving the case unresolved. Decades later, activists like the Erlangen Initiative for Critical Remembrance continue to demand transparency and accountability for the failures that allowed the murders to happen.

The newly released files confirm that timely intervention by intelligence services could have led to searches, interrogations, or even the prevention of the murders. Instead, the lack of action left critical questions unanswered. Today, the case remains a stark example of how institutional oversight can have deadly consequences.