Swastikas may be banned in Berlin, but Confederate flags still fly.
Alongside Make America Great Again hats and Trump 2020 banners, Reich flags and Brandenburg eagles, the American South’s battle flag has been raised high during Germany’s anti-lockdown demonstrations – the most recent of which took place in Dresden in early March.
It is appeared in the window of an apartment complex and in advertisements for an annual Christmas carnival. The flag has also reportedly been seen in Berlin’s bars.
Perhaps its presence in Germany simply represents how the Confederate battle flag has become an international meme of the contemporary far-right. The Stars and Bars could exist as just another image decontextualised and propagated through the internet’s airless corridors like, say, Che Guevara. German Neo-Nazi websites do sell “Südstaaten” – or Southern – gear, along with Ansgar Aryan and Thor Steinar merch.