Ahead of a neo-Nazi concert, residents in Ostritz bought out the German town’s beer supply to “dry the Nazis out,” despite a court prohibiting the sale and possession of alcohol at the Shield and Sword Festival.
“The plan was devised a week in advance. We wanted to dry the Nazis out,” local activist Georg Salditt told Bild, a popular publication in Germany. “We thought, if an alcohol ban is coming, we’ll empty the shelves at the Penny [supermarket].”
A resident told local press, “For us, it’s important to send the message from Ostritz that there are people here who won’t tolerate this, who say ‘we have different values here, we’re setting an example,’ which is not the image of a far-right concert, which dominates the media coverage.”
The Saxony Police tweeted on Saturday, “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.”
The concert went on, as 1,400 police supervised a crowd of 500 to 600 attendees that decreased slightly on the second night.
“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,” Saxony Minister-President Michael Kretschmer told the DPA news agency.
