Further incident of openly racist revelry sparks outcry in Germany
A mayor and local organizers have denounced racist chanting at a Bavarian festival, as the fallout from a similar incident on the northern German island of Sylt continued.
The latest occasion - which again involved people singing racist lyrics to the tune of "L'amour toujours" by Italian DJ Gigi D'Agostino - occurred at the Bergkirchweih festival in the southern city of Erlangen.
The caterers reportedly decided to stop playing the song after police said two visitors chanted racist slogans to the tune on Friday evening. The organizers and city mayor Florian Janik criticized the incident afterwards.
The Erlangen criminal investigation department launched an investigation and the 21 and 26-year-old suspects have been banned from entering the festival, police said.
Police attending the festival from a different state in a personal capacity reported that two guests were shouting "foreigners out."
The incident follows a similar event in an upscale resort on the northern island of Sylt earlier this week.
A video showed young people chanting racist slogans to the same song, with one man appearing to imitate a Hitler salute. It later went viral and was widely condemned across the country, including by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The operators of the well-known Pony bar where the incident took place said on the social media platform Instagram on Sunday that they have received death threats in the wake of the incident.
They said the majority of people in the crowd had been fully unaware of the chanting and published a surveillance video of the scene "to protect ourselves, our employees and our loyal guests."
The operators previously said they would press charges against the offenders, who are already beginning to suffer consequences.
The man who performed the Nazi gesture, which is banned in Germany, apologized on social media, according to the Bild newspaper.
He said he made a "very bad mistake" and was ashamed of his actions. The young man stated that he had turned himself in to the police and was ready to face the legal consequences.
Another person involved was dismissed by their employer, German social media influencer Milena Karl. "I am a migrant myself and as an expectant mother, everything that can be seen in this video represents a society in which I do not want to raise my child," she said.
Previously, advertising agency Serviceplan Group announced on Instagram on Friday evening that it had dismissed an employee involved in the incident without notice.
Police in the north-western German state of Lower Saxony said racist slogans were also used at a festival last week in the town of Löningen. Authorities are investigating the incident.
