Acorn Translation Services UK

A German court has made an unusual ruling on the use of Nazi slogans.

All Nazi symbols and slogans have long been outlawed in the country. However, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice said that such slogans may be okay as long as they are translated into another language.

The decision reversed the conviction of a man who was fined the equivalent of nearly £3,500 after German police found a hundred T-shirts in his car printed with the words “Blood and Honour”. That is the English translation of the Hitler Youth slogan. However, the court said changing the language had “fundamentally transformed” the phrase because the slogan was “characterised not just by its meaning but also by the German language”.

The court was quick to add that the man could still get in trouble for the slogan in the future because “Blood and Honour” is also the name of a far-right organisation that is banned in Germany.