[jh54]

i don’t see it like that. he could have just crossed the swastika and it wouldn’t have been a problem. it is common knowledge in germany that you are not allowed to use any nazi symbols. wether some putin supporter reported him to a police Meldestellen website doesn’t matter because what he did is illegal in germany. and it’s illegal for a good reason. the symbols played their part in forming a volksgeist. just look at the maga hat. it’s straight up illegal because there was so much nazi symbolism left after the 2nd war that the us/uk/france had to radically clean it no questions asked and no exceptions made

also it’s not illegal if the image is for educational or informational purposes so maybe he just could have claimed that. no reason to should “censorship” when it’s literally just a swastica or nazi greeting you can’t do in public.

[CLPadvocate]

crossed swastika would still be considered distribution of Nazi symbols. there was already a criminal case many years ago where (if I'm remembering it correctly) a student putting "no nazis"-stickers with a crossed swastika had to defend himself at the court.

but nevertheless - claiming to be victim of censorship is such a common trope nowadays, so maybe the author even reported himself to get some publicity. he is actually a pretty crappy - or let's say controversial - historian and is not really interesting enough for anyone to purposefully discredit him.

[jh54]

interesting, i didn’t know about that case, but i understand the courts decision that it’s just illegal to show no matter the intent, if it’s not educational