Spooky German mainstreet viral Racism : Pizza & Hitler a Miscellany

international | racism & migration related issues | news report

Saturday August 25, 2007 22:43

by Iosaf - Dr Fu Manchu & the peril of melanin.

There's definitely a lot in, on & under this. Earlier this week global media attention was brought yet again to far right street violence in Germany when a mob chased several men of Indian origin through the streets of a small town. It is just over a year since the book burning incident at Pretzien (see article footnotes) & thus there is no reason to believe that the soul-searching which followed that incident amidst promises of appropriate action & policy to stave off racism have had any real success. But back to that drawing board the German state went this week as then the anniversary of Rudolf Hess the deputy to Hitler was marked by calls by the Udo Viogt the leader of the German far right party to posthumously award Hess with the Nobel Peace prize. As of yesterday Voigt is in custody & may face three years in prison.

One of the men attacked in front of the boarded windows of the pizza parlour

The night of the 19th of August, a mob of around 50 people chased 8 Indian men through the streets of Mügeln a small East German town. No locals attempted to stop what they insisted was the action of outsiders & no-one known to their village. At end "order" was restored when a massive contigent of riot police were brought in to quell the town. One of the men (a German citizen) owns a Pizza Parlour in the town and after being beaten & "run" amid taunts of "auslander raus!" (foreigner go) through the town, the group finally found refuge in that Pizza parlour whilst the mob set about smashing its windows. The police held a line (pictured) in front of the parlour and the mob moved to destroy a car belonging to the Pizza parlour man. They obviously weren't local. In reaction to such hatred and the serious injuries of one of the men, the mayor offered the opinion that if the incident were indeed of far-right nature, those responsible weren't local people. The mainstream German press turned to discussing (yet again) how debate on stemming the tide of such hatred was raging on all their portals. Naturally amongst the debate is the idea (yet again) of illegalising the NPD party whose leader as I wrote in the introduction was arrested for his Hess speech and incitement to hatred yesterday.

links in English -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6956374.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_attack_of_M%C3%BCgeln
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,5016....html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,5013....html
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,5010....html

That's your base done, now your NZ topping -

Curiously across the globe in New Zealand a pizza parlour in Christchurch was forced to cancel an advertising campaign which featured Hitler saluting with a wedge of their "Hell" brand pizza in hand. Let's look at this & dot the dots - Kirk MacGibbon, executive with Cinderella advertising agency based in Auckland New Zealand confirmed that after complaints from "Jewish" motorists, he would suspend his agency's campaign image for the "Hell Pizza chain" but not the slogan "It is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell". The Nazi dictator image has been replaced with an image of the current pope Joseph Ratzinger. Mac Gibbon bent on publicity & honed in insensitive provacation made the now usual mistake of equating Judaism and the Holocaust with the Israeli state - "Isn't it interesting how only the Jews complain?" he said. Though MacGibbon said Hitler was still "persona non grata" he added ; "He's almost the poster boy for the Jewish people. Don't forget – but don't look when we invade Palestine,"....."If you laugh at something, you take its power away."......"there are certain things we are still unable to laugh about"
After a week of complaints in which MacGibbon claimed no Catholic had objected to the Ratzinger image with slogan "It is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell" both the Pizza company and Advertising agency reneged on their earlier statements to remove the billboards & they were merely moved across town. But Catholic Communications spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer said the ads had been "talked about" in Catholic circles. "They are hell-bent on kicking up merry hell," she said. Any complaints would be lodged by individuals, she said, as "the last thing we want to do is give publicity to Hell". http://www.stuff.co.nz/4177203a11.html
Further research by your trusted reported Iosaf found that Catholics did complain in great numbers last year when the same Pizza company using the same advertising agency promoted a meat flavoured pizza called "Lust" ( one of 7 topping options called "Seven deadly sins") by mailing condoms to Christchurch residents).

your footnotes, leaflet to remember what to get next time & general packaging -

Auditions were announced this last week for roles in the planned Spanish language musical based on the life of Anne Frank. They will be held on September 24th in Madrid, see the website for details www.eldiariodeanafrank.es
We mostly agree her life was no laughing matter, though a brief reminder that no East German police officer recognised her name so wouldn't get tearjerky if they went to Broadway & saw the show -

My article "Burning Books - the Pretzien "Bücherverbrennung"" http://indymedia.ie/article/81226 recounted an incident in Summer 2006 which has still not gone through the courts wherein the comments you may read how the 2007 G8 met in a town which till this year still counted Hitler as an honorary citizen............because they forgot.