Full report on BBC News Online

A garden gnome giving the Nazi salute has landed a German artist in trouble with the authorities in Nuremberg.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the gnome, which went on show in one of the city's galleries, breaks the strict law banning Nazi symbols and gestures.

The Bavarian city is particularly sensitive about the Nazi era because Adolf Hitler used it for big rallies and leading Nazis went on trial there.

The artist, Ottmar Hoerl, says his gnomes poke fun at the Nazis.

"I'm astonished that a single garden gnome, in what is for me an obscure gallery in Nuremberg, has unleashed such a public discussion because of an anonymous denunciation by someone," Mr Hoerl said.

The 59-year-old artist has been president of Nuremberg's Academy of Fine Arts since 2005.

"I didn't put it in the art gallery. Someone must have bought it and put it there. But I don't know what all the fuss is about.

"With my gnomes I'm highlighting the danger of political opportunism and right-wing ideology. I get the feeling that this gnome has reopened an old wound," he said.

The results of the investigation are expected in a few days, the BBC's Berlin correspondent Steve Rosenberg reports, adding that the 40cm (15.7-inch) figure still reminds Germans of a terrifying past.

Last year hundreds of Mr Hoerl's "Nazi" gnomes went on show in the Belgian city of Gent, in an exhibition called "Dance with the Devil".

He said that Belgians had well understood the political meaning "when one portrays the master race as a garden gnome".

"In 1942 I would have been murdered by the Nazis for this work," he said.

A spokesman for the Nuremberg public prosecutor's office, Wolfgang Traeg, said "we're checking to see if garden gnomes fall into the same clear category as posters that show the swastika crossed out".

He said the aim was to establish whether the artist and the gallery owner had intended the gnome as an endorsement of the Third Reich or as a rejection of Nazi ideology.

Mr Traeg referred to a previous case: a swastika which had been graffitied onto a wall. No prosecution was brought because the picture featured a fist smashing the Nazi symbol.

The gallery owner who put the gnome in the window maintains he has done nothing wrong.

"I think it's quite harmless," Erwin Weigl told the BBC.

"It was sitting in the window for two weeks and no one complained. It's a comical figure. All kinds of people have made that gesture. Julius Caesar did it. Even Barack Obama does it now. To me, it looks a bit like when you gesture to a dachshund to jump up to your hand."

Here we go again.  Another debate about political correctness.

Well, the German constitution does not have robust freedom-of-expression provisions in it, so things like the gnome ban can be legal over there.

Full report on BBC News Online

A garden gnome giving the Nazi salute has landed a German artist in trouble with the authorities in Nuremberg.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the gnome, which went on show in one of the city's galleries, breaks the strict law banning Nazi symbols and gestures.

The Bavarian city is particularly sensitive about the Nazi era because Adolf Hitler used it for big rallies and leading Nazis went on trial there.

The artist, Ottmar Hoerl, says his gnomes poke fun at the Nazis.

"I'm astonished that a single garden gnome, in what is for me an obscure gallery in Nuremberg, has unleashed such a public discussion because of an anonymous denunciation by someone," Mr Hoerl said.

The 59-year-old artist has been president of Nuremberg's Academy of Fine Arts since 2005.

"I didn't put it in the art gallery. Someone must have bought it and put it there. But I don't know what all the fuss is about.

"With my gnomes I'm highlighting the danger of political opportunism and right-wing ideology. I get the feeling that this gnome has reopened an old wound," he said.

The results of the investigation are expected in a few days, the BBC's Berlin correspondent Steve Rosenberg reports, adding that the 40cm (15.7-inch) figure still reminds Germans of a terrifying past.

Last year hundreds of Mr Hoerl's "Nazi" gnomes went on show in the Belgian city of Gent, in an exhibition called "Dance with the Devil".

He said that Belgians had well understood the political meaning "when one portrays the master race as a garden gnome".

"In 1942 I would have been murdered by the Nazis for this work," he said.

A spokesman for the Nuremberg public prosecutor's office, Wolfgang Traeg, said "we're checking to see if garden gnomes fall into the same clear category as posters that show the swastika crossed out".

He said the aim was to establish whether the artist and the gallery owner had intended the gnome as an endorsement of the Third Reich or as a rejection of Nazi ideology.

Mr Traeg referred to a previous case: a swastika which had been graffitied onto a wall. No prosecution was brought because the picture featured a fist smashing the Nazi symbol.

The gallery owner who put the gnome in the window maintains he has done nothing wrong.

"I think it's quite harmless," Erwin Weigl told the BBC.

"It was sitting in the window for two weeks and no one complained. It's a comical figure. All kinds of people have made that gesture. Julius Caesar did it. Even Barack Obama does it now. To me, it looks a bit like when you gesture to a dachshund to jump up to your hand."


If he were still alive,  my Dad (who was in a German concentration camp for 15  months and saw so many die) would not be impressed.

Whether under the Nazies or not under them, speech has never been free in Germany.

Nazis will stain the memory of Germany for a very long time.  I can see why the guy put it up however like I said the Germans are traumatized by the era of Nazism.

If he were still alive,  my Dad (who was in a German concentration camp for 15  months and saw so many die) would not be impressed.

Holy crap!  Your dad was in a Nazi concentration camp?  Was he POW or taken in one of the pogroms? 
???

If he were still alive,  my Dad (who was in a German concentration camp for 15  months and saw so many die) would not be impressed.


Many are still very much alive and those scars are still very fresh.  What I don't understand are Holocaust deniers.  There's more than enough evidence.  People still have the numbers tattooed, beside Hitler himself even admitted it in writing.

Many are still very much alive and those scars are still very fresh.  What I don't understand are Holocaust deniers.  There's more than enough evidence.  People still have the numbers tattooed, beside Hitler himself even admitted it in writing.


Agreed.  The deniers of the Holocaust are just as ridiculous as the deniers of the Armenian Genocide (which unfortunately includes even Cenk Uygur).

What I don't understand are Holocaust deniers.  There's more than enough evidence.  People still have the numbers tattooed, beside Hitler himself even admitted it in writing.


The Holocaust Deniers are basically a bunch of wankers, that's why. 

Of course on the other hand, you have extreme Zionists who, at a moment's notice will trot out The Holocaust to justify anything they want to do, or to hide behind their own sins. (i.e., "Why complain about the Shatila massacre?  The Holocaust was much bigger!", or "We are ENTITLED to the Holy Land... we had to go somewhere after The Holocaust!")

Survivors (and victims) of The Holocaust deserve alot better from both extremes...

Agreed.  The deniers of the Holocaust are just as ridiculous as the deniers of the Armenian Genocide (which unfortunately includes even Cenk Uygur).


Didn't congress decline to honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide because it would upset the people of Turkey?  Well Cenk is a Turk and they're hell bent on denying Armenians ever existed. 

Didn't congress decline to honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide because it would upset the people of Turkey?  Well Cenk is a Turk and they're hell bent on denying Armenians ever existed. 


Yep, pretty much.  A lot of Congress members are connected to the Turkish government's lobby.  Dick Gephardt is now a lobbyist for them.

Yep, pretty much.  A lot of Congress members are connected to the Turkish government's lobby.  Dick Gephardt is now a lobbyist for them.


Bleh!!! :P

Cenk was born in Istanbul, but he grew up in East Brunswick, NJ. 

Cenk was born in Istanbul, but he grew up in East Brunswick, NJ. 
...where he repeatedly denied the holocaust.

is'nt ana armenian? i never have heard cenkuyger ever heny the armenian genocide but i would think if he ever tried ana would totally cut him up for it.

as for holocoust denial, i finally broke down and saw a video on it, from more of a liberal peacenikthan a right wing antisemitic point of view and i'm sure i'll get hated on bet there were in fact a few moments that made me go, hmm. it's undeniable that hitler is evoked to justify just about every war that the west has waged since then and if the interrment of the untermensch dhadn't been as monstrous as presented, the establishment, knowing full well that they were about to embark on demonizing the soviets, had a good motivation to exaggerate it. boogeyman creation is the oldest trick in the book.

now i don't buy holocaust denial, and most deniers are bigoted, unpleasant people, but not all of them. and the fact that holocaust denial is so demonized is telling, i think. why is it that the 6 million figure is inviolable but we don't even know how many civilians died in the bombings in vietnam? or how many have died in iraq?

there. never let it be said i shrank from controversy.  :-\\

Whether under the Nazies or not under them, speech has never been free in Germany.


Was???


...where he repeatedly denied the holocaust.

is'nt ana armenian? i never have heard cenkuyger ever heny the armenian genocide but i would think if he ever tried ana would totally cut him up for it.

as for holocoust denial, i finally broke down and saw a video on it, from more of a liberal peacenikthan a right wing antisemitic point of view and i'm sure i'll get hated on bet there were in fact a few moments that made me go, hmm. it's undeniable that hitler is evoked to justify just about every war that the west has waged since then and if the interrment of the untermensch dhadn't been as monstrous as presented, the establishment, knowing full well that they were about to embark on demonizing the soviets, had a good motivation to exaggerate it. boogeyman creation is the oldest trick in the book.

now i don't buy holocaust denial, and most deniers are bigoted, unpleasant people, but not all of them. and the fact that holocaust denial is so demonized is telling, i think. why is it that the 6 million figure is inviolable but we don't even know how many civilians died in the bombings in vietnam? or how many have died in iraq?

there. never let it be said i shrank from controversy.  :-\\


I agree with you, find it interesting how these days the Holocaust is used by some to justify the exact same atrocities made back then, instead of remind us that one inocent victim should be enough to shame us all.

...where he repeatedly denied the holocaust.

is'nt ana armenian? i never have heard cenkuyger ever heny the armenian genocide but i would think if he ever tried ana would totally cut him up for it.

as for holocoust denial, i finally broke down and saw a video on it, from more of a liberal peacenikthan a right wing antisemitic point of view and i'm sure i'll get hated on bet there were in fact a few moments that made me go, hmm. it's undeniable that hitler is evoked to justify just about every war that the west has waged since then and if the interrment of the untermensch dhadn't been as monstrous as presented, the establishment, knowing full well that they were about to embark on demonizing the soviets, had a good motivation to exaggerate it. boogeyman creation is the oldest trick in the book.

now i don't buy holocaust denial, and most deniers are bigoted, unpleasant people, but not all of them. and the fact that holocaust denial is so demonized is telling, i think. why is it that the 6 million figure is inviolable but we don't even know how many civilians died in the bombings in vietnam? or how many have died in iraq?

there. never let it be said i shrank from controversy.  :-\\


This is where I got the Armenian Genocide denial thing from about Cenk:  http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2008/3/3/14450/33428/Diary/Cenk-Uygur-owes-us-explanation-regarding-Armenian-Genocide

He does a good job of bull****ting his way through the issue, but the fact remains that it really was a genocide, and that Turkey doesn't have the balls to admit it.

Was???

Hmmm?

Holy crap!  Your dad was in a Nazi concentration camp?  Was he POW or taken in one of the pogroms? 
???

Yes he was a prisoner.. He told me the only reason he survived is because he wasn't Jewish. As soon as more Jewish people came into the camp, they went to be "first in line" to be gassed. He's lucky.
I believe his heavy drinking problem resulted for being in the camp.


Many are still very much alive and those scars are still very fresh.  What I don't understand are Holocaust deniers.  There's more than enough evidence.  People still have the numbers tattooed, beside Hitler himself even admitted it in writing.


His scars stayed with him for a long time. #1 was a lifelong hatred of Germans, #2 was empathy for Jewish people, #3 was our home was overflowing with food. (He was always afraid we'd run out)

Yes he was a prisoner.. He told me the only reason he survived is because he wasn't Jewish. As soon as more Jewish people came into the camp, they went to be "first in line" to be gassed. He's lucky.
I believe his heavy drinking problem resulted for being in the camp.

His scars stayed with him for a long time. #1 was a lifelong hatred of Germans, #2 was empathy for Jewish people, #3 was our home was overflowing with food. (He was always afraid we'd run out)





Jesus, I'd hit the bottle too.  I can't imagine that kind of horror...I mean literally. 

...where he repeatedly denied the holocaust.



Wait a minute...did he deny the genocide of the Armenians by the Turks, or did he deny the Holocaust holocaust? 

I mean, killing is killing, but the cultural fallout from denying the Holocaust is much greater.

The term "Young Turks" itself has origins in the Armenian genocide, which is why I dislike its colloquial usage.
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/young_turks.html

Remember the Rod Stewart song?

I mean, killing is killing, but the cultural fallout from denying the Holocaust is much greater.

what about the cultural fallout from using the holocaust to justify subsequent atrocities? at some point we're going to need to start measuring one against the other.

i mean, the holocaust was evoked to justify both wars in iraq and just about every other war the US has chosen to wage since wwii. it's used to justify what israel's doing in the gaza strip. those who use world war ii to justify atrocities that are actually unrelated seem to have quite a bit of bblood on their own hands, i'm noticing.

what about the cultural fallout from using the holocaust to justify subsequent atrocities? at some point we're going to need to start measuring one against the other.

i mean, the holocaust was evoked to justify both wars in iraq and just about every other war the US has chosen to wage since wwii. it's used to justify what israel's doing in the gaza strip. those who use world war ii to justify atrocities that are actually unrelated seem to have quite a bit of bblood on their own hands, i'm noticing.


For the most part, Israel does like to pull the Holocaust card as they do nasty things to the Palestinians, so I can see what you mean.

Even Elie Wiesel has become a hypocrite concerning Palestinian relations, and you'd think a Holocaust survivor would sympathize with oppressed people....

Nazi gnome?

Someone has too much time, on their hands.

Jesus, I'd hit the bottle too.  I can't imagine that kind of horror...I mean literally. 


He hit the bottle, hit me, hit my mom, etc...

For the most part, Israel does like to pull the Holocaust card as they do nasty things to the Palestinians, so I can see what you mean.

Even Elie Wiesel has become a hypocrite concerning Palestinian relations, and you'd think a Holocaust survivor would sympathize with oppressed people....


I think Wiesel would use the Holocaust as a reason to annihilate anyone who disagreed with Israel even though Palestine has nothing to do with the Nazi regime.  I also think some people who are abused tend to abuse in some way.

Hmmm?


Learn some german, silly :P

This is a fait diver,doesn't mean a thing. Saying Germany doesn't have freedom of speech with places like China or Iran around is almost comical.

He hit the bottle, hit me, hit my mom, etc...


Domestic violence often occurs with PTSD.  At least, I'm guessing your dad suffered from what we now called PTSD.  I think they were just calling it "battle fatigue" after WWII.  It's a problem we ignore with the Greatest Generation.  They did indeed save the world from Nazism, they came home, they were celebrated as heroes, and then expected to go on with life even though they endured mind-shattering traumas in those few, short years.  Men were supposed to be men.  Suck it up.  Keep it in.  Don't complain.  In the forties and fifties you either got locked up in a mental hospital or you were just left on your own to deal with it.  A lot of guys drank and lashed out at their families like that. 

My paternal grandfather suffered from bipolar disorder.  He committed suicide in 1943.  He never saw combat.  In fact, he was never deployed.  He had a psychiatric illness to start with.  He was in officer's training school when his behavior became erratic and paranoid.  The army diagnosed him "manic depressive" and let him out with a medical discharge.  Back then, however, there were no medications and psychiatry was rather primitive compared to today.  Mental hospitals were hellholes people often when in and never came out.  So the family was trying to keep an eye on him at home, but he found a way to procure a shotgun, and that was the end of him.  My dad was three at the time. 

my maternal grandad had some issues from being a combat bombardier. my uncle has serious psych issues related to the war in vietnam.

Learn some german, silly :P

This is a fait diver,doesn't mean a thing. Saying Germany doesn't have freedom of speech with places like China or Iran around is almost comical.


True...  but Germany is still less free than America when it comes to speech.

Domestic violence often occurs with PTSD.  At least, I'm guessing your dad suffered from what we now called PTSD.  I think they were just calling it "battle fatigue" after WWII.  It's a problem we ignore with the Greatest Generation.  They did indeed save the world from Nazism, they came home, they were celebrated as heroes, and then expected to go on with life even though they endured mind-shattering traumas in those few, short years.  Men were supposed to be men.  Suck it up.  Keep it in.  Don't complain.  In the forties and fifties you either got locked up in a mental hospital or you were just left on your own to deal with it.  A lot of guys drank and lashed out at their families like that. 

My paternal grandfather suffered from bipolar disorder.  He committed suicide in 1943.  He never saw combat.  In fact, he was never deployed.  He had a psychiatric illness to start with.  He was in officer's training school when his behavior became erratic and paranoid.  The army diagnosed him "manic depressive" and let him out with a medical discharge.  Back then, however, there were no medications and psychiatry was rather primitive compared to today.  Mental hospitals were hellholes people often when in and never came out.  So the family was trying to keep an eye on him at home, but he found a way to procure a shotgun, and that was the end of him.  My dad was three at the time. 

Thanks for sharing that with me, appreciate it.