German artist faces legal probe over "Hitler salute" garden gnomes

Jul 16, 2009, 14:36 GMT

Nuremberg, Germany - A German artist is under investigation for designing garden gnomes with their right hand raised in a Hitler salute, prosecutors said Thursday.

Police want to determine whether Ottmar Hoerl violated German laws prohibiting the reproduction of Nazi symbols or slogans.

One of the 700 garden gnomes that Hoerl made for an exhibition entitled 'Dancing with the Devil' is on display at a Nuremberg art gallery.

A visitor to the gallery objected to the figure and lodged a complaint, which landed in the office of the local prosecutor, spokesman Walter Traeg said.

'I'm flabbergasted such a discussion has arisen over the denunciation by an anonymous person of a single garden gnome displayed in a Nuremberg art gallery,' Hoerl said.

The 59-year-old sculptor, professor of design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg, said the figure was intended to poke fun at the Nazis.

Hoerl said no one took offence when the sculptures were displayed at exhibitions in southern Germany, northern Italy and the Belgian city of Ghent earlier this year.

'The Nazis would have massacred me for the work if it had been done in 1942,' he said.

The case bears similarities to that of a German trader who was fined 3,600 euros (5,000 dollars) in 2006 for using crossed-out swastikas on stickers, buttons and T-shirts to protest far-right extremism.

The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe later overturned the verdict, saying it was not a criminal offence to display symbols that are 'obviously and clearly' meant to demonstration an opposition to Nazism.