Germany's first Friday prayer sign in Penzberg defaced with black paint within days of installation

The vandalism

On the night of 24 to 25 July 2026, unknown individuals used black spray paint to completely cover a newly installed sign at the city entrance of Penzberg, a town of 17,000 in Upper Bavaria. The sign, which listed the time of the Friday prayer at the local mosque, had been officially erected only on Tuesday 22 July. It was placed directly below existing signs that indicate service times for the Catholic and Protestant churches. By Saturday morning the text was illegible; Imam Benjamin Idriz posted a photo of the painted-over metal plate on Instagram.

A police spokesperson told Bayerischer Rundfunk that there were no clues about the perpetrator or perpetrators, but the damage had been documented. Officers notified municipal workers, and the sign was promptly cleaned so that it is once again fully readable. An investigation into criminal damage against unknown persons is underway.

Reactions from the Islamic community and the imam

Imam Benjamin Idriz, who has led the Penzberg Islamic community since 1995, issued a statement that drew a sharp distinction between the physical object and the values it represents.

It is only half a meter of metal. And yet this sign seems to disturb some so much that they fight against it at night with paint. Not against a sign, but against what it stands for: openness, religious freedom, mutual respect, and peaceful coexistence.

He added that the smeared sign was not an exercise of free speech.

The smeared sign is an expression of intolerance, hostility and anti-Muslim sentiment. Because freedom of religion, respect and human dignity either apply to everyone, or in the end to no one.

Idriz also called on members of the Islamic community to remain calm and not let the incident provoke a reaction.

Political and local authority responses

Penzberg's mayor, Thomas Kopf, said he had followed the online debates about the sign and had noted the intensity of some comments. He told Bayerischer Rundfunk that the act of vandalism itself clarified the moral direction.

But when I see that someone feels compelled to smear the sign, commit a crime, under cover of darkness, then I know who in this discussion stands on the radical side, and that is not the Islamic community or Islam.

Bavaria's interior minister, Joachim Herrmann of the CSU, also reacted to the incident. In a statement given to Bayerischer Rundfunk he said the act was unacceptable.

Religious diversity belongs to Bavaria. It is an expression of freedom and tolerance. Smearing a sign indicating Friday prayer times is unacceptable.

A first for Germany and the legal backdrop

Penzberg is home to about 800 Muslims, and the new sign was described by Deutsche Welle as the first official example of its kind in Germany. The municipality plans to install similar signs at other entrances to the town. The right to erect such wayfinding signs for religious services dates back to a 1960 regulation by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which originally permitted only Catholic and Protestant churches to place them. In 2008 the Federal Ministry of Transport issued a circular extending the permission to all religious communities. The Penzberg sign was the first to make use of that broader entitlement for a mosque.