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Nuremberg, Germany - Prosecutors Probe Heil Hitler Garden Gnome |
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The golden gnome has gone on display at an art gallery in Nuremberg, the Bavarian city that hosted huge Nazi party rallies before the Second World War and the major war crimes trials afterwards.
Walter Traeg, a spokesman for the Nuremberg public prosecutors office, said that investigators had to ascertain whether the gnome breached post-War laws banning Hitler salutes and other Nazi symbols.
But he said that they may decide it is in fact a piece of art ridiculing the Third Reich.
“It is also a question of art a bit .. and a garden gnome,” he said. “It will also depend on what the artist and the owners of the gallery have to say for themselves about the whole thing."
The gnome is the work of Ottmar Hoerl, the 59-year-old president of the city's Academy for Fine Arts, who has designed numerous exhibitions and projects in public spaces including the large blue euro sculpture in front of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. Mr Hoerl said that he first designed the Nazi gnome for an exhibition in Belgium.
"Portraying the German 'master race' as garden gnomes was an ironic gesture," said Professor Hoerl, who created a stir six years ago by placing 7,000 green hares in Nuremberg's main market square.
"I was a bit surprised that this gnome has produced a reaction like this. Until now everyone has understood it." Hoerl said, calling his artwork "an image of the German master race."
"I view (this investigation) with a certain irony."
He said he has been making gnomes for the past nine years, and put them on display for the first time in Belgium in 2008 in an exhibition called "Dance With The Devil." Others have take place in Austria and Aschaffenburg, Germany.
But Arno Hamburger, who represents the town's Jewish community, called it "utterly tasteless". "The joke stops here," he told the Bild newspaper.
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Read Comments (2) — Post Yours »
1
Jul 16, 2009 at 03:22 PM Five Towns Resident Says:
For crying out loud, the little statue is just waving! Are we seeing Nazi salutes everywhere?
Silly.
2
Jul 17, 2009 at 08:02 AM za003 Says:
“ For crying out loud, the little statue is just waving! Are we seeing Nazi salutes everywhere?
Silly. ”
well ya in the article they guy said he made a *nazi* gnome to show that the master race is just a mere garded gnome and besides none waves like that