On Monday October 12th, the trial against a Traunstein (Bavaria) police officer has begun. The accused was the responsible official in the state security department. He is accused of the “use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations” (§ 86a of the Criminal Code). He hung a 70 centimeters by one meter large collage on the wall in his office displaying among other things, ten swastikas, a victory rune (also used by the SS) and two pictures of Adolf Hitler.
When a colleague complained about it, he covered one of the Hitler pictures with a cartoon Minion – a Minion with a Hitler mustache. Interrogations, often with interpreters, were carried out in the defendant’s office, “the symbols shown on the collage were therefore perceptible to an incalculable number of people,” said the public prosecutor.
He is also accused for covering up and having saved a police colleague from criminal proceedings for racist message in a Whatsapp group.
