German commenting on this were OUTRAGED and believed that Germany's foreign minister knew about this. He had recently visited Israel and Merkel signed on for the UN's "Resettlement and Relocation" program.
Berlin said later that they didn't have any knowledge about this.
The comments, I read, mostly showed that German citizens doubted Berlin's statement.
Most thought that this was a test balloon and that it was retracted, because of the outrage it caused.