PA/PolizeiSachsen/TwitterLocal Germans bought up an entire town’s beer in a bid to ‘dry out’ hundreds of neo-Nazis who descended into the town for a far-right music festival.
The Schild und Schwert Festival (the Sheild and Sword Festival to you and I) took place in the town of Ostritz in Saxony over the weekend, but ahead of the event a court banned the sale or possession of alcohol in a bid to stop violence from breaking out, Deutsche Welle reported.
Saxony Police revealed they’d confiscated around 4,000 litres of alcohol on the first day of the festival alone, with another 200 litres seized on the second day. The officers even took to Twitter to show off images of the seized alcohol during the festival.
PA ImagesThe force tweeted:
The alcohol ban at the meeting/event site of the Neo-Nazi meeting in Ostritz has been consistently enforced by our forces since yesterday. Alcoholic beverages are taken off before entering the premises.
However, citizens in Ostritz predicted that revellers might attempt to buy more alcohol once they descended into the town, so they took it upon themselves to stock up on hundreds of crates of beer from their local stores.
Local activist Georg Salditt told the Bild newspaper, as reported by BBC News:
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].
PA ImagesWhile the festival was taking place, two counter-protests appeared in the town, as well as a Peace Festival celebrating the 100th anniversary of the local football team.
Michael Kretschmer, Saxony’s state premier told DPA news agency:
I am very impressed with how in such a small town…the citizens stand up to make it clear that right-wing extremists are not wanted here.
PA ImagesAround 600 people are thought to have been in attendance at the neo-Nazi festival, although it’s reported numbers began to dwindle by the second night, and it’s not exactly hard to see why.
Police said they dealt with 32 crimes over the weekend, including 16 violations of assembly law, with 10 people reportedly displaying anti-constitutional organisations.
Citizens of Ostritz, cheers.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.