*Event date: 2025-04-07*
Several schools in Duisburg, in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, were closed after threatening messages with right-wing extremist language were sent to local schools. Police said the closures were precautionary and that investigators did not currently believe the threats reflected a serious or immediate plan, but the scale of the response was still substantial.
The packet says a comprehensive school first received a threatening letter on Friday and then another on Sunday, this time linked to 13 other schools in the city. State officials then suspended in-person classes at all secondary and comprehensive schools and one grammar school. Online teaching was offered at some sites, while others allowed parents to decide whether to send children in.
The scale matters. About 17,980 children at 15 comprehensive schools and two secondary schools were affected, according to the report. That is a large disruption for a single city and shows how a threat can ripple through an education system even before the identity of the sender is known. In practical terms, parents, teachers and school administrators were forced to react to uncertainty rather than to a confirmed attack.
Police said experts from Duisburg's state security service did not believe the announced offences would actually be carried out, but the decision to shut schools was taken to minimise risk. That distinction is important: the authorities were not saying the threats were harmless, only that they were treating them as a possible threat while not seeing enough evidence yet to call them imminent. In such cases, the precautionary response is often the headline event itself.
The packet also notes that police kept a presence at affected schools to reduce any residual risk. That is a sign of the tension these incidents create. Even if investigators think the threat is not credible, the public still sees armed or visible security around schools, which can deepen fear among families.
The source excerpt does not identify the author of the letters, give a motive or explain whether the threats were part of a broader extremist campaign. Those gaps should stay open. The only supported conclusion is that police are investigating threatening material with right-wing extremist wording and that school closures were judged the safest immediate response.
For Duisburg, the episode is a reminder that school safety now includes the threat of hoaxes and ideological intimidation, not only physical intrusion. For parents and pupils, the effect is simpler: a normal school day was replaced by cancellations and online lessons because authorities judged the risk too uncertain to ignore.
