German Spy Chief at Odds With Merkel Over Hounding of Migrants in Chemnitz

Hans-Georg Maassen, President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in Berlin, Germany on Jan. 30, 2018. Reuters/Axel Schmidt/File Photo

BERLIN—Germany’s domestic spy chief has expressed skepticism that migrants had been hounded in Chemnitz after the fatal stabbing of a German man, undermining Chancellor Angela Merkel who has said images from the eastern city “very clearly” showed hate.

Germany has been deeply shaken by the most violent right-wing protests in decades after the Aug. 26 killing of the German man in Chemnitz, in the state of Saxony, for which two immigrants were arrested.