German Faces Charges for Selling Adolf Sofa

[Anonymous]

Monday December 4 9:56 AM ET
                German Faces Charges for Selling
                Adolf Sofa Set 

                By Fiona Shaikh

                BERLIN (Reuters) - A furniture-shop owner should be charged with breaking Germanys
                anti-Nazi laws for naming chairs and sofas after Adolf Hitler and other Third Reich leaders,
                a local Jewish community leader said on Monday.

                Michael Fuerst, leader of the Jewish community in Lower Saxony state, urged state
                prosecutors in Hanover to charge store owner Franz-Georg Schwetje with violating strict
                laws against glorifying the Third Reich for using names such as Adolf and Hermann for
                his sofa sets.

                Schwetje ran advertisements for his sofa sale in a local newspaper in Hildesheim, 18 miles
                south of the central city of Hanover, bearing the name Three-piece sofa set Adolf --
                marked down to 2,998 marks ($1,600) from 5,998 marks.

                He also listed a Cabinet Rommel and Chest of drawers Paulus after World War Two
                generals Erwin Rommel and Friedrich Paulus. The Hermann three-piece sofa set, which
                recalls Luftwaffe Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, was also marked down.

                The ads represent a clear glorification of the Third Reich and we have urged the state
                prosecutors to initiate legal proceedings against Schwetje, Fuerst told Reuters. Well have
                to see what charges the state prosecutors decide to raise.

                Schwertje insisted there was no Nazi connection.

                I simply passed along the names that my suppliers provided, he told Reuters in a
                telephone interview. Im not a Nazi and I dont want to have anything to do with such
                people. Those right-wing extremists should be locked up.

                Schwetje, 57, added that he could not remember writing the advertisements because he
                takes pain-killers for bone cancer. He nevertheless said the names were harmless -- and that
                he had relatives in mind rather than Nazi leaders.

                If Id given the furniture a name like Sachsenhausen, that would be a different matter,
                said Schwetje, referring to a notorious Nazi concentration camp. But the sofa suite
                Hermann is named after my uncle -- Hermann Schwetje.

                The Greens party in Lower Saxony called for a boycott of the furniture store. The local
                chambers of commerce were also considering legal sanctions.

                Not one of my customers has complained about the adverts, Schwetje said. But the
                Jewish community said they were offended. So I am going to make a donation to the Jewish
                group. Im not sure how much, but at least 1,000 marks.

                Germany has been plagued by a surge in far-right crime since unity in 1990. The German
                government has responded by seeking to ban the far right National Democratic Party.