Saturday, July 18, 2009



"Hitler" garden gnome sparks police inquiry

How trivial can you get? Criminal garden gnomes??
"German prosecutors say they have launched an inquiry into whether a garden gnome with its right arm raised in a Hitler salute in a Nuremberg art gallery is against the law. "The investigation is ongoing and people are being interviewed," Wolfgang Traeg, a spokesman for the public prosecutors office in the southern city, said.

Hitler salutes and Nazi symbols have been illegal in Germany since World War II, but Traeg said that investigators may establish that the garden gnome is in fact ridiculing the Third Reich.

"It is also a question of art a bit .. and a garden gnome," he said. "It will also depend on what the artist and the owners of the gallery have to say for themselves about the whole thing."

According to media reports, the artist in question is German-born Ottmar Hoerl, who has designed numerous exhibitions and projects in public spaces - and since 2005 has been president of the Academy for Fine Arts in Nuremberg.

Source

13 comments:

Stan B said...

I find it hard to believe that the German's are still so paranoid about Nazi imagery and art. Are there still millions of closet Nazis there, ready to unfurl the swastikas and march off to war if some garden gnome just gives them the word?

One would hope these laws fade with time - that as they get several generations of Democracy under their belt, they become less paranoid.

One would hope....

Anonymous said...

That will never happen Stan so long as there's one jew in the vicinity. You can bet that's how this fuss started.

mcnasty said...

If you seriously screw up and your neighbors come burn your house down & generally beat the crap uoout of you, you too might make damn sure that you never let make that mistake again. The Germans had their ass kicked twice during the first half of the 20th century.
They may be overly cautious, but they're pretty surer that will never happen again.

Anonymous said...

I think it had more to do with the Allies imposing de-nazification rules on the Germans who only had real independence again after ca.1990, and the mindset has remained with them.

Anonymous said...

Nothing like finding out that your ancestors of 60 years ago were complacent in the killing of over 12 million people, some in gas chambers and some in medical experiments to make you a little paranoid of it ever happening again.

Mobius

Bobby said...

"Are there still millions of closet Nazis there, ready to unfurl the swastikas and march off to war if some garden gnome just gives them the word?"

---I think they are. A friend of mine was in Iraq and het met a german soldier, being the asshole he is, he raised his right hand and shouted "sig heil." The german looked to his left, then his right, and after making sure no one else was around, returned the salute. No smile, no joke, he really meant it.

So yes, Germany has lots of closet nazis and sympathizers. That doesn't justify the censorship, but maybe the German bureaucrats know something we don't.

Anonymous said...

The Nazi movement is still alive and well in Germany and other parts of the EU. That the EU is awash in socialism makes them harder to see, but they're there. Remember, the "only" reason most of the world isn't speaking German today, is because of the fact that Hitler was a psycho.

Anonymous said...

All gnomes are creepy anyways

Anonymous said...

"All gnomes are creepy anyways"

Anon,

Is that a derogatory statement about midgets?

Anonymous said...

Rent a copy of the old movie, "The Quiller Memorandum". The subject is not fantasy, although looking at the actress Senta Berger back then would certainly give rise to some real fantasies!

Anonymous said...

German nazi laws are ridiculous. They have raised the bar to such extremes that any little detail that might or might not have anything to do with nazis is now a code red situation. They have for example forced the removal of Finnish veteran organization insignia stickers from suitcases at the airport, forced a man to wear his shirt upside down, forced people to cover their tattoos, removed shoelaces, censored ebay and other sites that sell nazi memorabilia etc. etc. These are just a few examples of stupidity that immediately pop to mind.

The sad thing is that Germans are so brainwashed that they accept these things as normal. Reminds me of The Boss' Born In the USA - "You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just covering up".

James Bacque's 'Other Losses' should be required reading in all German schools.

Anonymous said...

The U.S. pledge of allegiance (by the way, I am pretty sure our Framers would have been outraged by an oath that pledged allegiance to anything but the Constitution) was originally delivered not with the right hand over the heart, but with what was called the "Roman Salute," the right hand held up and out with the arm straight. It was the Roman Salute that the Nazis copied as well. It was dropped in the U.S. after the War in favor of the right hand over the heart salute.

This fear of Nazism has gotten so squirrelly that models of Nazi aircraft today omit the ubiquitous swastika. When you can't be historically accurate because of political correctness you have a real problem.

Robert said...

I noticed my own example of anti-Nazi German laws when I noticed that Castle Wolfenstein could not be sold anywhere in Germany. Not because as the player you shoot and kill Nazi guards, but because the main theme music, which also plays in the background during the game, is an old Nazi hymn.