An American tourist gave the Nazi salute in Germany - so a stranger beat him up, police say

The American was outside Cafe Europa in Dresden when he started doing a Nazi salute. Photo / Cafe Europa

By Amy Wang, Rick Noack

An American tourist in Germany was beaten up by a passerby after he began giving the Nazi salute outside a cafe in Dresden, police said yesterday.

The incident occurred about 8.15am on Saturday as the man left a cafe called Cafe Europa in the Neustadt district of Dresden, police said in a statement. The district is known to be a liberal part of the town and a popular meeting spot for students.

The tourist was identified only as a 41-year-old American man who was "severely drunk," according to police. He suffered minor injuries, while the stranger who assailed him fled the scene, police said.

Police said the US national is under investigation for violating German laws prohibiting Nazi symbols and that they are still seeking the passerby for causing personal injury, according to the Associated Press.

The Nazi salute - the right arm straight and angled slightly up, palm down - was used as a greeting and a way of expressing devotion to Adolf Hitler under the Third Reich. Germany outlawed the salute after World War II, along with Holocaust denial and other symbols and signals associated with the Nazis. A conviction can carry a prison sentence of up to three years, although courts often impose fines instead.

The Dresden incident occurred just a week after two Chinese tourists were detained for giving Nazi salutes outside Berlin's Reichstag, once home to the Imperial Diet. The two tourists were fined nearly $600 each but were permitted to leave the country with their tour group, police said. Similarly, a 30-year-old Canadian tourist was detained in 2011 after being photographed giving the Nazi salute outside the Reichstag. He, too, got off with a fine.

Germany is not the only European country to ban the salute. Earlier this month, Switzerland's Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a man who appeared in 2013 photos making the Nazi salute outside a Geneva synagogue.