A prominent legislator with the nationalist Alternative for Germany party has run into trouble with police and Twitter over her response to a Cologne police tweet offering new year greetings in Arabic.
Beatrix von Storch tweeted her objections to a police tweet issued in Arabic, alongside other foreign languages.
She wrote: "Do they think they will calm the barbaric, Muslim, group-raping hordes of men this way?"
Her Twitter account was blocked for several hours over a suspected breach of rules on hate speech.
Police said on Tuesday that they had filed a criminal complaint to prosecutors over suspected incitement.
Celebrations in Cologne were overshadowed two years ago when hundreds of women complained of being groped and robbed, mostly by groups of migrants.
- PA