A newly elected mayor in Germany is found with serious stabbing wounds

Emergency services stand next to a rescue helicopter in Herdecke, Germany, Oct. 7, 2025, after the newly elected mayor of Herdecke, Iris Stalzer, has been found critically injured in her apartment. (Alex Talash/dpa via AP)

BERLIN — The newly elected mayor of a town in western Germany was found with life-threatening wounds on Tuesday, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz said she was the victim of “an abhorrent act.”

Iris Stalzer was elected as mayor of Herdecke on Sept. 28. She is a member of the center-left Social Democrats, the junior party in Germany’s conservative-led national government.

Stalzer was found at her home with life-threatening wounds shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday, police and prosecutors said in a statement. She was taken to a hospital by helicopter.

They didn’t comment on the nature of the wounds, but the leader of the Social Democrats’ parliamentary group in Berlin, Matthias Miersch, told reporters that “we heard a few minutes ago that newly elected Mayor Iris Stalzer was stabbed in Herdecke.”

Merz wrote on social media that “we fear for the life of Mayor-elect Iris Stalzer and hope for her full recovery.”

The statement from investigators said that they are “investigating in all directions” and that “a family background also cannot be ruled out at present.”

Stalzer, who beat a candidate from Merz’s center-right Christian Democrats in a runoff vote to win election, is due to take office on Nov. 1. Herdecke is a town of about 23,000 people in western Germany’s Ruhr region, between the cities of Hagen and Dortmund.

Stalzer’s website says she is 57 and married with two teenage children. It says she has spent almost her whole life in Herdecke and has worked as a lawyer specializing in labor law.