While you are saying that it doesn't matter because it doesn't matter?

No, it does matter, mostly to the people who live there. But I'm pretty sure most, if not all, of the people in here are just turning this into a big circlejerk over immigration and after they've received confirmation of their political agenda by each other they'll move on and forget about it, because in reality they don't give a shit about the people of Bad Schlema.

And single stupid statements by local politicians don't cause revolutions. The example of WWI doesn't fit this story at all, because it wasn't just "an austrian", but the archduke which makes it more than just an unimportant local event. But I guess if you're actively trying to find something that can start the "revolution" you're keen on, than anything will do, if you just blow it completely out of proportion - even unimportant local events.

And how is this case poorly researched?

First of all, he says that his granddaughter is in 10th grade, but the subtitles falsely translated it as 10 years old and the Independent picked that false information up. Of course, you'll say that this fact won't change anything, but it does paint a different picture in peoples head. The old man is clearly talking about underage asylum seekers, because he said "Kinder" (children). And he never said anything about rape, even though many in here are taking it that way. He said "anpöbeln" which I'd translate as being "dissed" / "cussed out" or maybe "verbally abused", but he clearly means that they're making inappropriate comments. So what do we have there? Some of the foreign boys who live there at the gym making inappropriate comments to girls who are probably about the same age. What does r/europe make of it? Dirty migrants trying to rape a 10 year old girl on her way to school. Now the verbal harassment should be addressed either way and these boys should be disciplined and taught how to treat women in our country - but there's a completely different scenario going on in the readers' heads thanks to that false piece of information and it changes their perceiption of the whole political situation, because these misinformations keep on adding up and then you come along saying: "the outcome of this case may set a precedence, since dissatisfaction in that town can be reflected over the whole country".

This leads me to my second point. The Independent article doesn't even mentioned that this was a protest organized by a member of the fascist NPD party (and no they're not by any means just "right wing", but real nazis) and that they basically crashed a council meeting which was not supposed to be a place of public discussion - even though that's the main news being discussed in the German article that the Independent's author cites. In the German article it also says that many of the protesters were not even residents of Bad Schlema. That leaves the story as a bunch of people entering this meeting and acting all rudely, the whole thing being organized by a NPD member, instead of local citizens who simply voice their concerns. So the old man's question was not just poorly translated, but also taken out of context.

Now the mayor's statement can't be excused and he should face consequences, which is a matter of the local citizens to deal with. That being said you can't be sure that he actually supports victim blaming, because for all we know the situation with angry people entering a meeting, unexpectedly brought in by your political opponent, was just too much for him to handle and he didn't think before opening his mouth. So you shouldn't blindly take this as "another liberal who blames female rape victims, because he cares so much about immigrants" or whatever fits your political agenda.