Photo with young Angela Merkel does not show Theresa May and Dalia Grybauskaitė, nor a “worldwide elite conspiracy”
The long-debunked conspiracy theory about an old photo of Angela Merkel sparked antisemitic comments, which are becoming increasingly prevalent on Instagram.
On Instagram, an older fake is spreading again, showing a genuine photograph from a New Year’s Eve party in Berlin in 1972. Allegedly, the picture shows Angela Merkel (then Angela Kasner), Theresa May (later Prime Minister of the UK) and Dalia Grybauskaitė (later President of Lithuania). Different versions of the same false claim have circulated online for years, sometimes replacing Grybauskaitė with other prominent women such as Ursula von der Leyen (now President of the European Commission).
The image is shared with the narrative that everything is a big “conspiracy” and that powerful circles are connected. While the photo indeed shows a young Angela Merkel, the other two young women are not Theresa May and Dalia Grybauskaitė. The three women also grew up in different countries: Merkel in East Germany (GDR), May in the United Kingdom and Grybauskaitė in Soviet Lithuania. The posting, by a page that promotes conspiracy theories and questionable content in general, received numerous antisemitic reactions.
Additionally, some users spread the well-known fake that Merkel, born in 1954, is the daughter of Eva Braun, but also that all three (May, Grybauskaitė and Merkel) are “Hitler’s daughters”. The claim about Merkel is chronologically impossible alone: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun both died by suicide in 1945 (this is, of course, also disputed by conspiracy theorists), nine years before Merkel was born.
Antisemitic comments and conspiracy theories
Some users use a code for Jews commonly used in these circles: the emoji showing a small pack of juice with a straw (because “Jews” and “juice” sound similar). These kinds of reactions on Instagram (and also on TikTok) appear to be increasing these days. This can also be illustrated by a rather non-political posting on Instagram that went viral, showing a woman putting her feet on another passenger’s seat on a train. Various accounts commented that this woman must be Israeli or Jewish and spoke about “Zionist activities”, although there was no evidence pointing to that, and the woman was reading a book in Portuguese.
Links & Fact Checks:
LRT FACTS – “Did Dalia Grybauskaitė, Angela Merkel and Theresa May go to the same school?”
Jurga Bakaitė, 2020
https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1178988/lrt-facts-did-dalia-grybauskaite-angela-merkel-and-theresa-may-go-to-the-same-school
Euronews / EuroVerify – “Tausendfach geteilt: Zeigt dieses Foto Merkel als Teenager mit May und von der Leyen?”
Estelle Nilsson-Julien, 2025
https://de.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/07/30/foto-merkel-teenager-may-von-der-leyen
Jovan Byford – “Conspiracy Theory and Antisemitism”
Chapter in Conspiracy Theories: A Critical Introduction, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230349216_5
Full Fact – “Picture doesn’t show Theresa May, Ursula von der Leyen and Angela Merkel together as teenagers”
Full Fact, 2025
https://fullfact.org/politics/theresa-may-merkel-image-von-der-leyen/
Dietmar Pichler ist Chief Analyst und Redakteur bei INVED und verfügt über umfassende Expertise in den Bereichen Desinformation, Medienkompetenz und ausländische Einflussnahme. Er analysiert Desinformationskampagnen sowie propagandistische Einflussstrategien autoritärer Regime. Neben seiner Tätigkeit bei INVED ist er als freiberuflicher Medienkompetenztrainer, Berater für strategische Kommunikation und Desinformationsanalyst in Wien tätig. Er ist Vizepräsident der NGO „Vienna Goes Europe“ und Gründer der Initiative „Disinfo Resilience Network“, die sich der Vernetzung von Fachleuten zur Aufdeckung und Einordnung hybrider Bedrohungen widmet.