Its illegal in Germany to have statues of Hitler.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed horror at the racist marches that roiled Charlottesville, Virginia, this past weekend. “It is racist, far-right violence, and clear, forceful action must be taken against it, regardless of where in the world it happens,” she said on German television Monday.
She might have added that such a thing wouldn’t have happened in today’s Germany — because it’s illegal.
While America protects the right of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, and other hate groups to hold public rallies and express their views openly, Germany has strict laws banning Nazi symbols and what’s called Volksverhetzung — incitement of the people, or hate speech. Like more than a dozen European countries, Germany also has a law criminalizing Holocaust denial.
And while Confederate statues can be found in many American cities south of the Mason-Dixon Line, there are no statues of Adolph Hitler or Joseph Goebbels gracing public squares in Berlin, let alone Nazi flags or other Nazi art. Public Nazi imagery was long ago destroyed, and swastikas were long since knocked off the walls of Nazi-era buildings. The only Nazi imagery you’ll find is in exhibits devoted to understanding the horror of the period.
The former Gestapo headquarters complex was destroyed in the 1950s. The land it once stood on now houses the Topography of Terror, a memorial and museum made of glass and steel filled with panels that narrate the brutal history of the Nazi regime. And on streets across the country, there are small brass cobblestones called stolpersteine (literally “stumbling blocks”), which tell passersby brief biographical details of each man, woman, or child who was deported from that spot, that house, or that block.
The Civil War may have ended more than 150 years ago, but America is still dealing with how to reconcile, and memorialize, that dark period of its history. And while freedom of speech — even vile, racist speech — is an inviolate part of the US Constitution’s First Amendment, Germany’s commitment to facing its own dark past led that country to believe a mix of education — and limiting free speech — was the only way to ensure the past would remain past.
more:
http://www.vox.com/world/2017/8/16/16152088/nazi-swastikas-germany-charlottesville
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