German man charged with teaching dog Hitler salute

[Alyrium Denryle]

Dogs can'y even do the Hitler salute because they can't hold their front paws fully extended in front of their body for any length of time unless their feet are resting on something, but that's besides the point. How does teaching your dog to do a stupid tasteless trick warrant 3 years in the can?

Germany takes its anti-Nazi laws very, very seriously. I think it's a violation of free speech, although I can certainly understand why things are the way they are.

The Germans value freedom very highly after the nazi stint... But what everyone here must understand is that nazis... well they were nazis.

They started a war that lead to the deaths of millions and the bombing of cities... They do their best as a culture to put those years behind them.

[Strate_Egg]

I cannot fathom why someone would purpousfully do that.

[Gandalf]

I don't know why but I find this story rather comical. I'd like to see pics of the dog heiling.

[Sebastin]

It is my understanding that the German constitution outlaws the Nazi party. That brings me with two questions for the various Germans we have here on SD.net;

1. Does this prohibition really exist in the constitution, and to what extent of association does it cover?

2. In your personal opinion as a German, do you think that this prohibition of a particular political party is a good and/or necessary law?

1. Yes and no. The german constitution does not outlaw the nazi party. It does outlaw "organizations and political parties that attack the free-democratic-basic-order of the german republic in an offensive, aggressive and threatening way". this was done twice to the nazi party in ´49 and to the KP in the late 50s (IIRC). It was attempted against the NPD (neo-nazi-skinhead scumbags) last year but failed and the party still exists.

2. Yes I personally think it is a good law. First it protects things that are not meant to change however much the voters are being idiots and want it. Free democratic basic order in this context refers only to the form of government (federation/democracy) and to the first 17 articles of the basic law which are designated unchangeble anyway.
Second you got to understand that the threshold before this law can be applied is very high. "in an offensive, aggressive and threatening way" means that for being eglible for banning a organisation not only needs to be offensive to the afromentioned values it has to try and agressively promote it´s agenda (try and convert people/spread) and enjoy some level of success in their efforts, thus being actualy threatening to that order. That last point being the reason the kommunist party was banned while the even more radical marxist party wasn´t. It never became large enough to be taken serious.

Oh, and on topic: the basis for proseciuting this guy and others who wear swastikas, SS-runes or whatever is that they plead allegiance to a banned organization and imply support for violations of the basic law (said 17 articles). This guy in question does deserve some kind of punishment but not 3 years, and he won´t get them.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Regardless of such happenings, Germany is still in my list of major nations I'd love to live in along with Australia and Japan.