German celebrity chef Atilla Hildmann. Photo: Imago Pictures/Reuters.

A German celebrity chef with a penchant for conspiracy theories was being investigated by police in Berlin on Friday for a series of antisemitic postings on social media.

A police spokesperson told German news outlets that postings over the last four weeks by Attila Hildmann — the author of best-selling vegan cuisine cookbooks who frequently appears on German TV — were being examined for their hateful content.

Hildmann’s posts on the Telegram social media platform have attacked Jews and “Zionists” as “parasites” and “subhumans.” Many of the outlandish themes he has pushed are familiar in far-right and neo-Nazi circles — for example, the claim that the “Jewish tribe of Zionists” sought to destroy Germany after World War I with financial reparations.

Hildmann has also opined that the Holocaust was financed by “Zionists,” and that Adolf Hitler was a “blessing” when compared with Germany’s current Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he described as a “communist.”

Related coverage

September 19, 2020 10:51 am

0

White House Says Five More Countries Seriously Considering Israel Deals

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Thursday that five more countries are seriously considering striking a normalization...

The Hungarian-Jewish financier George Soros — arguably the most popular hate figure on the far right globally — was accused by Hildmann of planning a “global genocide” alongside Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and the Rothschild banking dynasty.

As well as facing potential criminal charges, Hildmann is also contending with loss of revenue as a result of his social media antics. A music portal and an energy drink that featured Hildmann as part of their brands announced on Friday that they would no longer work with him, and more companies were expected to follow suit.