German politicians call for Europe-wide ban on swastika

David Crossland in Berlin
Monday January 17, 2005
The Guardian

  German politicians called yesterday for a Europe-wide ban on the display of Nazi symbols, saying the whole of Europe had suffered from Hitler's crimes and should show sensitivity in remembering the terror he caused.

 The call follows the furore caused by Prince Harry when he wore a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party, and his refusal to apologise in person.

 Displaying the swastika and other Nazi symbols such as the S-rune symbol of Hitler's SS is illegal in Germany.

 Michael Müller, a senior member of parliament for Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrats, told the Guardian: "We'll ask our EU politicians to look into a ban, and we may also ask our justice minister to look into what can be done. I can't understand Harry, educated at elite schools and then he does this shit."

 Mr Müller's comments came amid a chorus of calls for a ban on Nazi symbols from members of all Germany's mainstream parties at the weekend.

 Germans have resigned themselves to the flippant use of Nazi stereotypes abroad. But there was surprise in the media at the sight of a swastika on the arm of a British prince.

 "Following the recent events surrounding Prince Harry the German government should urge our European friends in London to improve education in schools about the history of Germany since the Nazi era," the general secretary of the opposition conservative party the CSU, Markus Soeder, told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "In a Europe of peace and liberty there can be no room for Nazi symbols."

 Silvana Koch-Mehrin, deputy leader of the German liberal Free Democrat party in the European parliament, urged the EU commission to put a European ban on the agenda of the next meeting of EU justice ministers.

 Mr Müller said the use of Nazi symbols and wartime stereotypes was not just a British problem. "You get this in all countries but it's a bit more scurrilous in Britain than elsewhere. We shouldn't forget what Berlusconi did," he said, referring to the Italian prime minister's comparison of a German European MEP to a Nazi concentration camp guard during a 2003 debate.