“When people dress up as Adolf Hitler, an investigation is always necessary,” a spokesman for Saxony police said Monday, according to state-owned Deutsche Welle.
The faux Führer –- sporting Hitler’s signature mustache and Nazi insignia –- was spotted in video shot at the classic motorcycle event in the city of Augustusburg near Chemnitz.
The motorcycle was being driven by another man dressed as a World War II German soldier, the footage showed.
In Germany, it is illegal to wear Nazi paraphernalia in public, so the impersonator faces possible legal action, the spokesman said.
The video also showed the motorcycle pulling up and parking next to a police car, where a cop could be seen smiling as he snapped photos of the pair and people laughed nearby.
Beim traditionellen Biker-Wintertreffen auf Schloss #Augustusburg in #Sachsen kam es zu einem Vorfall, der für die Beteiligten ein Nachspiel haben wird. Ein Motorradfahrer war mit einem als Adolf Hitler verkleideten Mitfahrer im Beiwagen aufgetreten. pic.twitter.com/ZnugYIxO7G— EHA News - Deutsch (@eha_deutsch) January 13, 2020
The officer may also face consequences for failing to take action during the event, which drew almost 10,000 people over the weekend. “We would have expected our colleague to put a stop to all this without the least hesitation,” the spokesman said.
Saxony premier Michael Kretschmer also slammed the Hitler lookalike. “Dressing up as a mass murderer is more than just bad taste,” he tweeted. “This kind of behavior is unacceptable and shouldn’t be repeated.”
The state in the former communist East Germany has seen a recent increase in the number of far-right and neo-Nazi events taking place.
SOURCE: EHA News