“Fucking wog”: Racism accusation against Berlin left-wing woman
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Berlin politician Manuela Schmidt of Die Linke (The Left) is facing allegations that she racially insulted a resident during a dispute after a minor parking incident in June 2025. Police investigated the accusation as a possible hate crime, but no criminal case followed.
According to research by Tagesspiegel, the incident happened on June 5, 2025, in Berlin-Marzahn. A resident reportedly saw a car touch another vehicle while being parked and went outside to speak to the driver. The driver was allegedly Schmidt, who is also deputy parliamentary group leader in Berlin's Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Representatives).
The resident, identified under the pseudonym Moritz Linse, told investigators that an argument followed. He alleged that Schmidt called him a racist slur and also referred to him as a “Drecks-Ausländer” (“filthy foreigner”). He further claimed she questioned why he was interfering when the damaged vehicle did not belong to him.
A construction worker who was nearby reportedly witnessed the confrontation and later gave a statement that supported parts of Linse's account. The Landeskriminalamt (LKA, State Criminal Police Office) investigated the allegations through a department responsible for politically motivated and hate-related crimes. However, the investigation did not establish Schmidt's guilt.
Schmidt has denied the allegations through a spokesperson for the Linke-Fraktion in the Abgeordnetenhaus. The parliamentary group said there was neither an accident nor an insult and argued that the criminal proceedings were closed without establishing any criminally relevant conduct. It also said the accounts of the complainant and witness were not identical.
The case was ultimately not pursued because of a procedural issue. For an insult offence in Germany, the victim generally must submit a formal Strafantrag (criminal complaint request) within three months. Linse said he tried to initiate the process, but the necessary paperwork was allegedly not sent to him before the deadline expired. Police later cited the delay and a name discrepancy in the original report.
The separate investigation into alleged Unfallflucht (leaving the scene of an accident) was also closed. Authorities considered the alleged vehicle damage minor, while the vehicle's owner reportedly did not provide information about the value of the damage. As a result, the incident remains politically controversial but was never tested in court, and no criminal conviction was issued.