An Anti-German’s Guide to Germany V

It’s the little things, the continuing sequence of unspeakable episodes which inside Germany most people don`t seem to mind and outside Germany hardly anybody will ever notice.

That`s why I`m telling. For example the attempted ban of Anti-Nazi stickers just recently. A local court ruled that stickers showing a cancelled Hakenkreuz or somebody throwing a Hakenkreuz into the trash bin were in fact illegal as they are showing Nazi symbols.

This was not a joke – and it went on. Inspired by this decision – and before a higher court eventually scrapped it – judges in Tübingen and München ruled alike. Attendants to political events were arrested for wearing obviously antifascist stickers. A book was almost put on the index because it showed members of Hizbollah presenting the “German salute” – right underneath the title line: “Critical Theory against Post-Nazism and Islamism”.

These rulings were overtly directed against antifascists – the antifascists were directly blamed for keeping these symbols alive.

And then, having taken a deep breath as thanks to decades of Western occupation none of these decisions could stand an appeal, then you find out that the same prosecutor`s office is dealing with an SS massacre in World War II where they just can`t find any real evidence for cruelty or base motives. On August 12, 1944, the soldiers had poured gas on children and set them on fire.

(first posted at the Trots’)