Beer and marching songs may have fuelled Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, but neo-Nazis faced an alcohol ban at a German rock festival at the weekend.
The ban was a new tool in the fight against neo-Nazi influence. Some 2,000 locals in the eastern town of Ostritz also rallied against the far right.
Police seized 4,200 litres (924 UK gallons) of beer in Ostritz on Friday, then 200 litres more on Saturday.
Locals also bought more than 200 crates of beer in the town’s supermarkets.
They suspected that fans going to the “Shield and Sword” (SS) festival would descend on supermarkets, knowing about the alcohol ban, which had been imposed by a Dresden court.
An Ostritz society activist, Georg Salditt, told Germany’s popular Bild daily: “The plan was devised a week in advance. We wanted to dry the Nazis out. We thought, if an alcohol ban is coming, we’ll empty the shelves at the Penny [supermarket].”
Das Alkoholverbot auf dem Versammlungs-/Veranstaltungsgelände des Neonazi-Treffens in #Ostritz wird durch unsere Kräfte seit gestern konsequent durchgesetzt. Alkoholhaltige Getränke werden vor dem Betreten des Geländes abgenommen. pic.twitter.com/swTsqvIX9U
— Polizei Sachsen (@PolizeiSachsen) June 22, 2019
