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General Category => Off the Record => Topic started by: Richard Hakluyt on July 17, 2009, 09:47:21 AM

Title: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Richard Hakluyt on July 17, 2009, 09:47:21 AM
In Nuremburg as well!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8155542.stm


"Germany opens 'Nazi' gnome case
Ottmar Hoerl gnome in Nuremberg gallery
The artist says his gnomes ridicule, rather than glorify, the Nazis

A garden gnome giving the Nazi salute has landed a German artist in trouble with the authorities in Nuremberg.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the gnome, which went on show in one of the city's galleries, breaks the strict law banning Nazi symbols and gestures.

The Bavarian city is particularly sensitive about the Nazi era because Adolf Hitler used it for big rallies and leading Nazis went on trial there.

The artist, Ottmar Hoerl, says his gnomes poke fun at the Nazis.

"I'm astonished that a single garden gnome, in what is for me an obscure gallery in Nuremberg, has unleashed such a public discussion because of an anonymous denunciation by someone," Mr Hoerl said.

The 59-year-old artist has been president of Nuremberg's Academy of Fine Arts since 2005.

"I didn't put it in the art gallery. Someone must have bought it and put it there. But I don't know what all the fuss is about.

"With my gnomes I'm highlighting the danger of political opportunism and right-wing ideology. I get the feeling that this gnome has reopened an old wound," he said.

Last year hundreds of his "Nazi" gnomes went on show in the Belgian city of Gent, in an exhibition called "Dance with the Devil".

Mr Hoerl said that Belgians had well understood the political meaning "when one portrays the master race as a garden gnome".

"In 1942 I would have been murdered by the Nazis for this work," he said.

A spokesman for the Nuremberg public prosecutor's office, Wolfgang Traeg, said "we're checking to see if garden gnomes fall into the same clear category as posters that show the swastika crossed out"."





Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Caliga on July 17, 2009, 09:49:57 AM
How can I get one for my garden.  This article fails epically at answering that question.  :mad:
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Savonarola on July 17, 2009, 09:51:43 AM
 :mad:

They should take the artists house away and make him a gnome-ad.
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: derspiess on July 17, 2009, 09:54:22 AM
Quote from: Caliga on July 17, 2009, 09:49:57 AM
How can I get one for my garden.  This article fails epically at answering that question.  :mad:

x2.  Give me a Goering gnome & tell me how much I need to pay.
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: garbon on July 17, 2009, 09:56:33 AM
Why don't you two clowns contact the artist listed?
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: derspiess on July 17, 2009, 10:04:56 AM
Quote from: garbon on July 17, 2009, 09:56:33 AM
Why don't you two clowns contact the artist listed?

Okay.
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: saskganesh on July 17, 2009, 10:07:12 AM
Quote from: Caliga on July 17, 2009, 09:49:57 AM
How can I get one for my garden.  This article fails epically at answering that question.  :mad:

Texas: http://www.cleanairgardening.com/gardengnomes.html (ok, no nazis)

however, the owner manual says that you are really supposed to steal one from a random European's lawn, and then post random pictures of said gnome on the random internet.
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Syt on July 17, 2009, 10:08:16 AM
Odd. Back in my home town there was a guy with all kinds of garden gnomes in his garden. Right next to his door stood a two foot tall one, opening his trench coat to reveal his goods.
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: garbon on July 17, 2009, 10:14:38 AM
Quote from: derspiess on July 17, 2009, 10:04:56 AM
Okay.
That said, he doesn't list it as a product available in his website's shop.
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Caliga on July 17, 2009, 10:26:04 AM
Quote from: derspiess on July 17, 2009, 10:04:56 AM
Quote from: garbon on July 17, 2009, 09:56:33 AM
Why don't you two clowns contact the artist listed?

Okay.
Thanks.  :hug:
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Josquius on July 17, 2009, 10:41:18 AM
Silly but just imagine the uproar there would be if they suggested getting rid of this outdated law...
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Zanza on July 17, 2009, 10:45:43 AM
Maybe I just never notice them or the places I live are not their natural habitat, but I can't think of when I have last seen a garden gnome.
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Drakken on July 17, 2009, 11:41:53 AM
Heil Gnome!  :lol:

(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Ftelegraph%2Fmultimedia%2Farchive%2F01134%2Fnazi-gnomes_1134291i.jpg&hash=56394d455a4f7c709ccbb119ab0cc7c69cf5b724)
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Norgy on July 17, 2009, 11:47:10 AM
I suppose he should be free to litter his own gnome with them. But does he have a gnome-du-plume?
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Valmy on July 17, 2009, 12:33:06 PM
The poor Romans.  They used this salute for centuries and then some barbarian Germans use it for a decade and suddenly it is a 'Nazi' salute.

Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Malthus on July 17, 2009, 12:37:38 PM
I wonder if this guy will make "death camp inmate gnomes", shaved bald in striped PJs with a number tattood on each (and a frowny-sad expression).  :D
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Norgy on July 17, 2009, 12:51:21 PM
Quote from: Valmy on July 17, 2009, 12:33:06 PM
The poor Romans.  They used this salute for centuries and then some barbarian Germans use it for a decade and suddenly it is a 'Nazi' salute.

Yeah, but what ever did the Romans do for us, huh? At least Hitler built better roads. Damn Latin nobodies.
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: PDH on July 17, 2009, 01:25:53 PM
True, the Romans only gave us Italians as a lasting legacy...
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Norgy on July 17, 2009, 01:28:51 PM
Which, in some ways, is good. But in most ways, Italians fail to deliver apart from when doing The Dive.
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: citizen k on July 17, 2009, 02:47:37 PM
I wonder if he'll make one that "highlights the danger of political opportunism and left-wing ideology"?   ;)

Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Jaron on July 17, 2009, 03:10:57 PM
Quote from: PDH on July 17, 2009, 01:25:53 PM
True, the Romans only gave us Italians as a lasting legacy...

:yes:

Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Martinus on July 17, 2009, 03:12:56 PM
Quote from: Savonarola on July 17, 2009, 09:51:43 AM
:mad:

They should take the artists house away and make him a gnome-ad.

:bleeding:
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Monoriu on July 17, 2009, 04:40:12 PM
In Taiwan, the president and other senior officials do the nazi salute when they are sworn into office. 
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Lucidor on July 18, 2009, 03:00:47 AM
With the German law, can you still get Nasi Goreng, or is it too close to Nazi Göring?
Title: Re: Germany in Nazi Gnome horror!
Post by: Tonitrus on July 18, 2009, 03:21:26 AM
Quote from: Monoriu on July 17, 2009, 04:40:12 PM
In Taiwan, the president and other senior officials do the nazi salute when they are sworn into office.

It's ok, and hip, to use Nazi symbolism in the Orient.  Heck, they put swastikas on their temples!  :P