Marcel Hoffmann, leader of the Raelian Movement for Germany, has been cited twice in recent years by the city of Karlsruhe for “displaying signs of anti-constitutional organizations”. In both cases, the charges were eventually dropped, see the 2010 abatement of action order as well as the 2012 abatement of action order issued by the city prosecutor.
On June 8, 2013 the Karlsruhe police confiscated a poster Marcel was displaying publicly in the streets of Karlsruhe as well as some flyers.
The poster was showing on the front side:
And on the back side:
The confiscation was appealed and on July 15, 2013 the Karlsruhe District Court issued a court order saying the confiscation was lawful even though only swastikas of ancient religions and cultures as well as the Raelian symbol were being displayed which is clearly lawful under German law which doesn’t ban the display of swastikas for educational purposes.
Marcel obviously can’t accept this confiscation and decided to hit the Karlsruhe streets again. He tells us about his action there on July 29:
“I prepared for today a clothes poster i.e. I was naked underneath in case they wanted to confiscate it :) The display contained pictures of swastikas on which the courts hadn’t ruled yet since they hadn’t been part of our Swastika Day exhibits: Hindu and Buddhist swastikas, the one of Ein Gedi in Israel and the one of Schloss Benrath .
At least 5 police patrols came by, standing sometimes only 2 meters away from me and pretending not to see me whereas the passersby all saw me from over 10 meters away. It’s clear that the District Court which doesn’t want me to use our exhibits, prefers not to prosecute me in order not to give me the opportunity to plead our cause in front of a court (all court decisions so far were taken without a hearing).”
