It is hard to imagine anything weirder or, for that matter, more German than the Nazi-era Easter sugar bunnies riding tanks that have caused such a stir in Tübingen, south-west Germany.
The weird moulds were found in the basement of Café Lieb and the bakery decided to reactivate them.
“Older people say they recognise them from their childhood, and many old people simply want to buy them as a souvenir,” said the comically named Ulrich Buob, head confectioner at Café Lieb. More curiously, Herr Buob argued for the relevance of the tank-straddling bunnies as Germany seeks to re-arm.
The photo I saw accompanying the story shows what appears to be Herr Buob behind a Covid-era screen in front of a mound of the large yellow candies. It’s more bizarre than menacing but to critics, this equates to a trip down memory lane of the era when Hitler ruled and thus treads on Germany’s softest spot.
As Reza Schwarz, of the Information Centre on Militarisation in Tübingen, put it: “It is as if people are mourning for the good old war days and I consider that to make a mockery of those who lived through them.”
At first I agreed: this does seem just the sort of creepy slippery (or sugary) slope towards Nazi-era appreciation one has to watch for in Germany.
But then I thought about the near-daily terror attacks in Germany and the ongoing problem with people glorifying Hamas. Germany should stay focused on that – and the Russian threat – and relax a little about the weird sugar bunnies which, if they make old people happy and are good business, seem fairly harmless. At any rate they are hardly likely to spark a deadly movement, unlike that of Germany’s pro-Palestine terrorist supporting citizens.
It is hard to imagine anything weirder or, for that matter, more German than the Nazi-era Easter sugar bunnies riding tanks that have caused such a stir in Tübingen, south-west Germany.
The weird moulds were found in the basement of Café Lieb and the bakery decided to reactivate them.
“Older people say they recognise them from their childhood, and many old people simply want to buy them as a souvenir,” said the comically named Ulrich Buob, head confectioner at Café Lieb. More curiously, Herr Buob argued for the relevance of the tank-straddling bunnies as Germany seeks to re-arm.
The photo I saw accompanying the story shows what appears to be Herr Buob behind a Covid-era screen in front of a mound of the large yellow candies. It’s more bizarre than menacing but to critics, this equates to a trip down memory lane of the era when Hitler ruled and thus treads on Germany’s softest spot.
As Reza Schwarz, of the Information Centre on Militarisation in Tübingen, put it: “It is as if people are mourning for the good old war days and I consider that to make a mockery of those who lived through them.”
At first I agreed: this does seem just the sort of creepy slippery (or sugary) slope towards Nazi-era appreciation one has to watch for in Germany.
But then I thought about the near-daily terror attacks in Germany and the ongoing problem with people glorifying Hamas. Germany should stay focused on that – and the Russian threat – and relax a little about the weird sugar bunnies which, if they make old people happy and are good business, seem fairly harmless. At any rate they are hardly likely to spark a deadly movement, unlike that of Germany’s pro-Palestine terrorist supporting citizens.