In the station of Neubrandenburg in eastern Germany, the permanently hoisted rainbow flag was stolen in favor of a standard with a swastika, an act of “glorification” of the Nazi ideology firmly condemned Saturday by the city.
Warned early in the morning by a passerby, the German police seized the flag and announced on Saturday the launch of a call for witnesses to find the perpetrators of this crime. This rainbow flag, which evokes peace, gender diversity and freedom of sexual orientation, had already been stolen several times in the past from the station of this city of more than 60,000 inhabitants of the former – Communist GDR, located north of Berlin. But its replacement this time by a swastika flag represents an escalation, warn the authorities.
“It is not a peccadillo”
“With the public display of far-right symbols and signs, a new dimension is reached in the glorification of the inhuman ideology of National Socialism,” the city lamented in a statement.
“It is not a peccadillo or a joke of young people”, she continued, believing that the authors must be identified and punished by the authorities “with all the severity required by law”. An investigation has been opened for the use of unconstitutional symbols, an offense punishable by up to three years in prison. German law strictly prohibits the use of Nazi-era slogans or the public display of swastikas or other symbols of the Third Reich.