Miscellaneous NEWS

Nazi gnomes invade Germany

Published by onlines on November 14, 2009

Art work with 1,250 gnomes giving the Hitler salute goes on display in Straubing

You wouldn’t normally think of garden gnomes as being leading advocates of fascist ideology, given that they’re mostly concerned with sitting on logs in gardens, wearing hats, and fishing in small ponds.

But these gnomes are a bit different – and 1,250 of them just appeared in a public square in the German town of Straubing, all with arms raised in the Nazi salute.

Back in July, German artist Ottmar Hörl raised a lot of eyebrows with his display of a gilded lawn gnome presenting the fascist salute at a Nuremburg gallery.

German prosecutors have decided to take no action against artist Ottmar Hörl. They say the gold-painted gnome was mocking the Nazis rather than promoting their return.

However, the prosecutors in Nuremburg, Bavaria, warned against any attempt to copy the idea behind the exhibit.

Hörl and his 1,250 of his gnomes are back, now in black, lining the streets of Straubing in Bavaria.

They’re the work of Ottmar Hörl, a professor at the Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts, and far from being an insidious attempt to spread far-right ideals through the medium of novelty garden ornaments, the art work is actually intended as a warning about the manipulation of the masses through fascist politics.

You’ll be surprised to learn that it’s attracted a certain amount of controversy.

Glorifying Nazism or Hitler – by giving the salute, saying ‘Heil Hitler’, displaying Mein Kampf in a shop window or using the swastika – are criminal offences in Germany, carrying up to a three-year jail term.

A previous art work by Professor Hörl, which featured just a single Nazi gnome in an art gallery, attracted complaints and an investigation by the local prosecutor, although the case was eventually dropped.

Hörl insists that his artwork, entitled Dance With The Devil, is satire which mocks fascism. However, in anticipation of the controversy the piece will attract when it opens today, all police leave in Straubing has been cancelled.

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