A German gun shop has been accused of xenophobia after putting a multi-lingual sign in the window telling would-be customers only German passport holders would be admitted.
Written in five languages on an A4 sheet of paper tacked in the window: Arabic, Albanian, Persian, Somali and Bosnian — but not German — the sign on the store reads “No admittance for people without a German passport”.
The proprietor of the Laubegaster Wache military surplus, sports equipment and gun shop in Dresden’s Laubegast neighbourhood refused to comment when pressed by local media on the notice. Why he chose those particular languages and why he didn’t also write it in English could not elicit a response, however he confirmed the sign wasn’t in German so not to give the “wrong impression” to his local customers, reports the Sachsische Zeitung.
Regardless, the sign has generated outrage among some in the East German city which has grown increasingly polarised about migration matters since the emergence of the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) movement last year.
The inevitable comparisons to Nazi Germany have been made by a local pro diversity and refugee assistance campaign group, ‘Laubegast is colourful’. Group leader Claus Dethleff said of the sign “I think it’s racist and scandalous… this poster reminds me of 1933”.
There may also be legal implications for the shop owner, according to a local lawyer and expert on administrative law. Attourney Robert Uhlemann said of the sign: “Even if the shopkeeper exercised the home rights in his shop, a ban on foreigners is still not permitted… This notice is contrary to the General Equal Treatment Act. Entering a shop should not be made dependent on the origin or skin color”.
The lawyer said anyone who wanted to access the shop but were turned away because they didn’t have a German passport could sue.
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