Did German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung report that Saxony-Anhalt Minister-President Sven Schulze was somehow connected to abduction of three Afghan children? No, that's not true: A search across the Süddeutsche Zeitung website showed no such report. Lead Stories found no other credible sources confirming the purported story.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here, here and here) on X where it was published by @ROYALMRBADNEWS on August 19, 2026. It included a video, and opened:
This could become one of Germany's most explosive political scandals. Sven Schulze, Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, is linked in the report to a property where Afghan children were imprisoned and sexually abused. One child reportedly escaped. Two others may still be there.
This is how the video shared in the post appeared on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @ROYALMRBADNEWS on X.)
The German text in the above thumbnail read:
Sven Schulzes afghanische Jungen.
As translated to English by DeepL, it meant:
Sven Schulze's Afghan Boys.
Lead Stories used Whisper, an AI-powered speech recognition tool, to transcribe and translate to English the original German-language voice-over from the video, and this is what it said about Süddeutsche Zeitung:
Exclusive to the SZ: Afghan children were allegedly held against their will on the farm of Sven Schulze in his home village of Heteborn. Only one boy, who is 12 years old, managed to escape. His parents were killed in an attack in Kabul in 2023. As an unaccompanied minor, he was placed in Saxony-Anhalt for housing.
In the summer, he was offered a summer job: He was supposed to help with the harvest and take care of the animals. But on the very first evening, he and two other boys, aged 12 and 14, were allegedly locked in a basement. According to his account, there was total isolation, no daylight, and systematic sexual abuse by Sven Schulze and guests who reportedly arrived on the weekends.
At the beginning of August, the boy managed to escape through a gap in the lock. He ran about 7 km to the next town and turned to a hospital for help. Doctors documented numerous bruises and injuries, as well as signs indicating sexual abuse.
The SZ inquired with the land registry office. The information: The owner of the farm is Sven Schulze. He is a CDU politician, Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, and the CDU's lead candidate for the upcoming state election. The SZ has called upon the responsible authorities to immediately investigate the allegations and the witness testimony.
The claim went viral during a closely watched campaign. Schulze (archived here) represents the Christian Democratic Union of Germany. On Sept. 6, 2026, his party was scheduled (archived here) to face Alternative for Germany at the regional election in Saxony-Anhalt.
Lead Stories searched for the politician's name on the media outlet's website. It showed (archived here) 14 reports about him but none of the reports said what the viral post attributed to Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Lead Stories opened Google News Germany, using a VPN to be able to have a better access to local news reports published by German media, and a search for the keywords seen here (archived here) did not produce any corroboration for the purported story.
Earlier reports covering the claim (archived here) said that the rumor reviewed in this fact check originated from a bogus website that tried to mimic a real one of Süddeutsche Zeitung but had the wrong ending -- .com, not .de. As of this writing, however, that website was already unavailable.
Lead Stories contacted Süddeutsche Zeitung and and Schulze's office. If we receive their responses, this article will be updated as appropriate.
