A mayor-elect in Germany is found with serious stab wounds. Investigators see no political motive

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A police officer talks on his phone at a street in Herdecke, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, after the newly elected mayor of Herdecke, Iris Stalzer, has been found critically injured in her apartment. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Forensic investigators appear at the crime scene at a street in Herdecke, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, after the newly elected mayor of Herdecke, Iris Stalzer, has been found critically injured in her apartment. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) — A police officer talks on his phone at a street in Herdecke, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, after the newly elected mayor of Herdecke, Iris Stalzer, has been found critically injured in her apartment. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

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8:42 AM on Tuesday, October 7

The Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — The newly elected mayor of a town in western Germany was found with life-threatening wounds on Tuesday. Investigators said there was no evidence of a political motive and that they suspected a family connection to the attack.

Iris Stalzer was elected 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., police and prosecutors said. The 57-year-old 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 Tuesday afternoon that “we heard a few minutes ago that newly elected Mayor Iris Stalzer was stabbed in Herdecke.”

A later statement from police and prosecutors said that, as things stand, “there are no indications of a politically motivated act," adding that a family connection was “presumed.”

It didn't elaborate but said that the victim's children were still with police to clear up what happened.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Stalzer was the victim of “an abhorrent act.” He wrote on social media that “we fear for the life of Mayor-elect Iris Stalzer and hope for her full recovery.”

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 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.