On December 16, 2025,  Christina Brüning, a history professor at Philipps-Universität Marburg, was targeted by threatening graffiti. She reported multiple threats over the following few months, through May 2026.

The first threat, discovered in December 2025, was graffiti in the men’s restroom of her office building reading, “Throw Prof. Christina Brüning off the roof of the Faculty of Philosophy!” A few days later, graffiti found in a restroom adjacent to her seminar room sought volunteers to “hunt” and “gut” Brüning. In mid-May 2026, the university discovered additional graffiti, this time containing antisemitic language targeted at her.

These threats occurred alongside Brüning’s reports of increasingly disruptive behavior in her history classes. Students confirmed that classmates were making disrespectful remarks toward minorities with derogatory interjections during history didactics lectures.

Both Brüning and the university filed complaints with state security forces. As of this writing, the investigation had been closed without identifying any perpetrators, and Brüning had transitioned to working exclusively from home.

Scholars at Risk is concerned about the intimidation and harassment, including threats of violence, of a faculty member for exercising their freedom of expression – conduct which is protected by international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Members of the public must refrain from actions that chill or restrict such conduct, regardless of political or ideological differences. In addition to harm to the immediate victims, intimidation and harassment in response to peaceful expressive activity undermine academic freedom and democratic society generally.

Sources:
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/hessen/hr-professorin-berichtet-ueber-morddrohungen-an-uni-marburg-ist-fuer-mich-zum-angstort-geworden-100.html
https://www.hessenschau.de/gesellschaft/marburger-uni-professorin-bruening-erhaelt-morddrohungen-polizei-ermittelt-wieder-v1,morddrohung-uni-marburg-102.html
https://www.melanchthon-akademie.de/solidaritaet-mit-prof-dr-christina-bruening