Firstly, great pics!
Thanks for the response Matthias. Just a few additional thoughts.
Matthias Dorst wrote:
ChrisDNT wrote:
Yes you´re right, but this example is an museum aircraft. Things in a museum, art and historical documents are not defeated by law. But outside museums, theatres and historical collections showing the swastika is forbidden by law.
State owned static aircraft usually have the Swastika applied (where appropriate) in museums, and my understanding is there is an absolute prohibition for airworthy aircraft. Where privately owned static aircraft would sit, I don't know; certainly non-state museums can show it, so if there is a historical educational element, I suspect you may get an exception made.
And it's changed. The Deutsches Museum in Munich, pre-dating the fall of the Berlin Wall, has no Swastikas on the aircraft, while the Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin - post-Wall - does have them painted on. My assumption is that it was not legal (or wise) to display the Swastika when the museum was re-constituted postwar, and for the curators of the Deutches Museum to go around now with a variety pack of Swastikas would be politically a very bad idea.
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You might remember the airshow Hahnweide 2009. The french Flugwerk Fw190 A8/N was also taped, in France it is no problem to fly with the swastika, but dont try this in Germany. The law is so hard, that it is forbidden to show swastika-killmarkings on a plane. Btw. The law also includes modelairplanes, display model kits and so on.
I wouldn't say 'no problem', I think French law has become more relaxed on the matter recently, as German requirements for museums have evidentally changed.
Likewise the Swastika has issues for display in Italy and Spain (the other ex-faschist nations).
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Some weeks ago I bought a 1/6 scale pilot figure of a german WW2 pilot from Dragon for my next radio controlled scale-project. The customs made me a big problem cause the pilot weared a ribbon round the neck, the so called "Ritter Kreuz" (a medal for aircombat successes) and on this cross was a swastika .... big big problem. Luckily for me they gave me the chance to destroy the medal and I was not sentenced to pay a fine. When the police see you flying with a fully decorated modelplane, you will at first loose your plane with all the quipement build in the plane (the whol ship will be destroyed later) and you will get a fine about 8.000 Euros .... so please dont try
Pretty extreme! I've seen the 1/72 kits with the decal sheets with two squared off 'S' shapes that the modeller can combine into 'the symbol that must not pass customs...'
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Yes the Germans and the german law are sometimes a bit strange ..... sometimes very strange !
Firstly we should remember
why it's an issue, and the fact that the Swastika
is an issue is right and proper (IMHO).
Secondly most people don't realise that the Swastika is not a national marking as, say, the cross on the wings and fuselage, or the German flag on the tail of modern Luftwaffe and civil German aircraft are, but
the Swastika is the badge and symbol of a legally-banned political party, the Nazi Party. As well as being a historical fact, thanks to the activities of the far right and Neo-Nazis in Europe, the Swastika remains a current political problem in Germany, which prevents the symbol being seen
only in its proper historical context.
(And of course the Swastika symbol itself pre-dates the Nazis and their use. It was a good luck symbol from India to the Americas, with the Ryan
Spirit of St Louis having a good luck Swastika inside the prop spinner, and the 'Lafayette' used (American) Indian head marking having a Swastika in the headdress, as just two examples on aircraft. Also the variant marking was the national marking for the Finns in W.W.II for a time.)
Just some thoughts - and I may be wrong in details as it's a minefield to make sense of!
Regards,
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