Germans dig up coffin of neo-Nazi after tip-off it was draped in swastika flag

Police dug up the freshly buried coffin of a neo-Nazi activist in Germany because it was draped with a swastika flag.


Publicly displaying any symbols of Hitler’s regime is strictly prohibited in Germany – apparently even in the afterlife.

Officials heard that seconds before the coffin bearing Friedhelm Busse was lowered into consecrated ground at Passau on Saturday, a neo-Nazi fan wreathed his coffin in a WW2 ‘battle flag’ which has a huge swastika in its centre.

Busse, the last leader of the Free German Labour Party which was outlawed in 1995, went to his grave wrapped up in the symbol he loved.

But not for long.

Passau senior prosecutor Helmut Walch said the grave was exhumed soon afterwards and the flag removed. The far-right skinhead who placed it there was arrested and charged with carrying a banned object.

Reporters said the flag was cast on the grave by Thomas Wulff, an activist in the far-right National Democratic Party NPD. If he were convicted of displaying an "unconstitutional symbol," he could face a fine or up to three years in jail.

Walch said an inquiry was continuing into the violence by 90 admirers of Busse against anti-Nazi groups who were observing them at the Passau cemetery and against police who intervened.

A Mongolian woman was later attacked in the Passau downtown area, apparently because of her appearance.

Germ any's national council of Jews was among groups which voiced outrage that the racists had been able to terrorize people.

Here

Sheppard & Whittle Defy Jewstice

Swastika Shows Up as Number 1

We've see a lot of crazy search trends on Google and other online search engines, but nothing prepared us for the shocking number one search trend that we saw on Google's list of top search terms this morning: a Swastika, the Hindu-symbol-of-peace that was then hijacked by the Nazis and mostly now symbolizes....Nazis, neo or otherwise.

We first saw news of this on the Drudge Report, which has a screenshot of the symbol appearing as the number one search term. By the time we got to the page, however, it was already down to number 3 (as you can see from our above screen shot, taken this AM).

How one even creates a swastika with a computer is beyond us -- though we guess you could just cut and paste it into the search field -- but this is no doubt the work of hackers or some sort of neo-Nazi Google bomb. I DOUBT THAT...PEOPLE ARE FASCINATED WITH THE SYMBOL.

When you click on the term on the Google Hot Trends page, you get a bunch of links in Chinese, so could it just be something random and coincidental, or some kind of Chinese character we're misreading? We're not so sure: Pretty much all of the Chinese-language links you get when you actually click on the symbol refer to the word swastika. Maybe there was some big article about swastikas on the news in China today? We also looked up the swastika character in a Chinese character dictionary, and it means

Jet Man

Aryan Genius

Armed with slightly more than wax and a few feathers, Yves Rossy has taken to the skies to show Icarus how it should be done.

Swooping and diving above the mountainous town of Bex in western Switzerland, the self-styled "Rocket Man" flew at 8,200ft for more than five minutes thanks to an 8ft jet-powered wing strapped to his back.

It has always been Mr Rossy's ambition to fly freely, but it has taken four years of working on his jet design for that dream to become reality.

To achieve his bird-like status, the former Swiss fighter pilot was taken up in a light aircraft, just like a normal skydiver.

More

National Socialist Racial Policy

When Germans come together today to discuss the things that concern us both as individuals and as a nation, it is a solemn occasion, whether we wish it to be or not. During the political struggles of the past, we could speak of party programs or of civilization without any involvement of our soul.

Now we have forgotten how to approach an issue merely with our understanding, merely with our mouth, merely with our heart. We have become whole people once again. When we speak with others, we do so with our full being.

More

National Socialists in German sporting hall of fame

A German sporting hall of fame has included five former Nazi Party members - but has ignored famous names such as Michael Schumacher and Boris Becker.

Deutsche Sporthilfe, the German sports foundation, set up the pantheon of 40 sports men and women in an effort to encourage youngsters to take up sport.

But the project, which was inaugurated by President Horst Köhler earlier this week, has been dubbed the “Hall of Shame” for its inclusion of Nazi figures.

They include Sepp Herberger, who was Germany’s football manager during the rein of Adolf Hitler, who often used sport for propaganda purposes.

Others include Josef Neckermann, an Olympic riding champion and former Nazi party member, Willi Daume, a former member of the International Olympic Committee member, and Gustav Kilian, a cyclist.

Criticism of the list was met with an angry response from organisers, who said “sport was no better than society”.

“These people led a life after the Nazi era and in some cases they went on to receive awards of merit for the contributions to society,” said Hans Joachim Eltz, a spokesman for Sporthilfe.

The panel of sports officials and journalists, led by Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Interior Minister, was also criticised for including only three women and one sportsman from the former East Germany.

Among the anti-Nazi figures included on the list were Albert Richter, a cycling champion who refused to wear a swastika while competing, and Werner Seelenbinder, a wrestler executed in 1944 for his links to the anti-Nazi resistance.

Organisers plan to add three athletes to the list each year.

Here