Merchant's 'Adolf' sofa set angers critics

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A furniture-shop owner should be charged with breaking Germany's anti-Nazi laws for naming chairs and sofas after Adolf Hitler and other Third Reich leaders, a local Jewish community leader said on Monday.

Michael Fuerst, leader of the Jewish community in Lower Saxony state, urged state prosecutors in Hanover to charge store owner Franz-Georg Schwetje with violating strict laws against glorifying the Third Reich for using names such as "Adolf" and "Hermann" for his sofa sets.

Schwetje ran advertisements for his sofa sale in a local newspaper in Hildesheim, 18 miles (30 kilometers) south of the central city of Hanover, bearing the name "Three-piece sofa set Adolf" -- marked down to 2,998 marks ($1,600) from 5,998 marks.

He also listed a "Cabinet Rommel" and "Chest of drawers Paulus" after World War II generals Erwin Rommel and Friedrich Paulus. The "Hermann" three-piece sofa set, which recalls Luftwaffe Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, was also marked down.

"The ads represent a clear glorification of the Third Reich and we have urged the state prosecutors to initiate legal proceedings against Schwetje," Fuerst told Reuters. "We'll have to see what charges the state prosecutors decide to raise."

Schwertje insisted there was no Nazi connection.

"I simply passed along the names that my suppliers provided," he said in a telephone interview. "I'm not a Nazi and I don't want to have anything to do with such people. Those right-wing extremists should be locked up."

Schwetje, 57, added that he could "not remember" writing the advertisements because he takes pain-killers for bone cancer. He nevertheless said the names were harmless -- and that he had relatives in mind rather than Nazi leaders.

"If I'd given the furniture a name like Sachsenhausen, that would be a different matter," said Schwetje, referring to a notorious Nazi concentration camp. "But the sofa suite Hermann is named after my uncle -- Hermann Schwetje."

The Greens party in Lower Saxony called for a boycott of the furniture store. The local chambers of commerce were also considering legal sanctions.

"Not one of my customers has complained about the adverts," Schwetje said. "But the Jewish community said they were offended. So I am going to make a donation to the Jewish group. I'm not sure how much, but at least 1,000 marks."

Germany has been plagued by a surge in far-right crime since unity in 1990. The German government has responded by seeking to ban the far right National Democratic Party.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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