German anti-Nazi protesters win right to display swastika
Anti-Nazi groups in Germany yesterday won the right to display the swastika after the country's highest court overturned the conviction of an activist who sold items that mocked the symbol.
Juergen Kamm was fined 3,600 euros by a lower court in Stuttgart in September for "selling unconstitutional symbols" of crossed-out swastikas on T-shirts, lighters and stickers through his mail order company Nix Gut (Nothing Good), in breach of a law prohibiting its use except in specific educational and artistic contexts.
But the federal court of justice in Karlsruhe, western Germany, found that Mr Kamm had committed no crime because the items "clearly and unambiguously" carried an anti-Nazi message and did not "did not go against the spirit of the law".
Judge Walter Winkler rejected claims that the ruling could be exploited by far-Right groups to wear a form of the symbol.
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Juergen Kamm was fined 3,600 euros by a lower court in Stuttgart in September for "selling unconstitutional symbols" of crossed-out swastikas on T-shirts, lighters and stickers through his mail order company Nix Gut (Nothing Good), in breach of a law prohibiting its use except in specific educational and artistic contexts.
But the federal court of justice in Karlsruhe, western Germany, found that Mr Kamm had committed no crime because the items "clearly and unambiguously" carried an anti-Nazi message and did not "did not go against the spirit of the law".
Judge Walter Winkler rejected claims that the ruling could be exploited by far-Right groups to wear a form of the symbol.