Thor Steinar

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Mediatex
legal form GmbH
founding 2002
Seat Koenigs Wusterhausen , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management Marco Waespe
Number of employees up to 160 (2015)
sales 1.27 million euros (2008; only sales from thorsteinar.de)
Branch clothing
Website www.thorsteinar.de

Thor Steinar is a clothing brand of the German Mediatex GmbH .

The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution , the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony , many civil society organizations and most media reports see Thor Steinar as a distinguishing feature of the right-wing extremist scene. In public, the brand is usually discussed in this context. It is expressly forbidden to wear Thor Steinar clothing in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament and in various football stadiums.

On November 4, 2008, Mediatex GmbH was sold to the trust company Al Zarooni Tureva , based in Dubai , and an Arab managing director was appointed, which resulted in a boycott of the brand by several neo-Nazi groups. At the beginning of 2010 the Arab investors withdrew from the company and the Swiss Marco Waespe (also Wäspe) took over the management of Mediatex GmbH with business address in Mittenwalde together with Uwe Meusel .

brand

The Thor Steinar brand was registered in October 2002 by Axel Kopelke from Königs Wusterhausen . Since 2003 the Mediatex GmbH of Axel Kopelke and Uwe Meusel based in Königs Wusterhausen has been performing for Thor Steinar . Between 2009 and 2010 Faisal al Zarooni (International Brands General Trading (IBGT) based in Dubai) took over the management of Axel Kopelke and Uwe Meusel.

Men's, women's and children's clothing is sold under the brand name. The clothing is mainly produced in Turkey (jackets and sweaters) and in China .

Original (left; until 2004) and current logo (right; from 2005)

Thor Steinar's original logo was a tie rune made from a combination of the Tyr and the Siegrune . The Tyr rune stands for fight and action in runesotericism . The reference to “pagan” mythology is also supported by prints on clothing.

The logo looked like a horizontal wolf tang with an arrow attached. Several public prosecutor's offices and courts saw it as a criminal offense of using symbols of unconstitutional organizations ( Section 86a of the Criminal Code ), see the section on legal disputes .

After the local court in Königs Wusterhausen ordered the nationwide confiscation of the clothing with the logo on November 9, 2004, Thor Steinar designed a new logo. This consists of a Gebo rune, which is supposed to symbolize gift, hospitality and marriage, with two dots.

Since 2013 at the latest, the original logo has been used again in a modified form (inscribed in a circle with rays of the sun) on the website.

design

Most of the textiles bear the word Thor Steinar and a logo of the brand. The latter was also often used in conjunction with the Norwegian flag , with the logo mostly located in the center of the Norwegian flag's cross. The original Norwegian flag is used for newer textiles. The government of Norway approached the German authorities in 2006 to prevent the misuse of the Norwegian flag, and in February 2008 filed a complaint against the manufacturer, then trading under the name of Protex , on the grounds of "illegal use of state emblems" .

The use of stain camouflage is typical for some of the textiles . Stylistically, the brand is based on existing streetwear styles . Thor Steinar also offers a range of clothing items that come very close to classics or the current fashions of established brands.

According to the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution , the lettering on the garments "[in] content [...] refers to the pre-Christian Germanic cult and a glorifying view of the Wehrmacht ". Characteristic for the range is a "game with more or less concealed hints at the border of criminal liability".

Public reception

The Thor Steinar brand is accused by Antifa groups and in newspaper reports of being a “designer brand by and for rights”. This is justified with the following arguments:

  • The owners and employees of Mediatex GmbH are members of the neo-Nazi scene . According to reports in the daily newspaper , an employee of the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution is said to have confirmed the work of “right-wing extremists” in the “closer and wider environment of the company”. The Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung quoted a constitutional protector as early as 2004: "There are right-wing extremists who belong to the company." The managing director Uwe Meusel is said to have denied this. These allegations were supported by a press release from the anti-fascist information sheet. There it was alleged that a former Thor Steinar employee, Udo Siegmund, to whom the brand's websites were registered for a while, had contacts with the militant neo-Nazi scene in Sweden and had attended a right-wing rock concert by the neo-Nazi organization Nationalsocialistisk Front (NSF) .
  • On some of Thor Steinar's clothes, advertisements for the Swedish rock band Ultima Thule (dt. The extreme Thule ) were made. Because of their involvement in the far-right scene in Sweden and some nationalist songs the band is often the right rock associated
  • The combination of the runes in the old logo is also used as a logo by the far-right Thule seminar in the same order . The old logo is also similar to the logo of the neo-Nazi “Kameradschaft Treptow”.
  • The print on the hood Jacket "No Inquisition", which is an eagle holding a fish in its claws, is a neo-Nazi embossed figurative mark, the neo-Nazi and Neopagan organization " Artgemeinschaft " in January 2003 by its then chairman Juergen Rieger as picture mark have protected.
  • In Switzerland , a longtime activist of the neo-Nazi Swiss Hammerskin scene runs an internet mail order company that sells only Thor Steinar's clothing . In addition, the operators of the only Swedish Thor Steinar shop in Huddinge near Stockholm belonged to the neo-Nazi group Svenska motstandsrörelsen ("Swedish Resistance Movement", SMR). An editor of the SMR newspaper Nationellt Motstand works in the shop and sells the newspaper there.

According to the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution , Thor Steinar is popular among right-wing extremists and is regarded as a "scene-typical identification and delimitation feature".

Legal disputes

On November 9, 2004, the local court in Königs Wusterhausen ordered the nationwide seizure of clothing with the old logo of the brand, but enforcement was initially suspended. Prosecutors and police took action against MediaTex on November 17, 2004, sealing the warehouse and securing evidence.

At the same time, the Neuruppin Regional Court rejected the complaint of a 20-year-old man whose Thor Steinar T-shirt had been confiscated during a demonstration in Oranienburg in August 2004. The court rejected the complaint as unfounded and, in an eleven-page decision, stated that the public use of the trademark's logo was a criminal use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations according to Section 86a (2) sentence 2 of the Criminal Code , because Thor Steinar's rune logo was the symbol look confusingly similar to an anti-constitutional organization. According to this view, anyone who is “aware of this likelihood of confusion”, ie deliberately, wears such a piece of clothing in public is liable to prosecution.

As a result, there was no uniform case law regarding the old logo. Only through decisions of the Brandenburg Higher Regional Court in September 2005, the Berlin Higher Regional Court in December 2006 and the Dresden Higher Regional Court in February 2008, which did not see criminal liability under Section 86 (2) sentence 2 StGB, the case law was aligned.

The Norwegian state filed a complaint against the company in February 2008 because the company had sewn the Norwegian national flag onto numerous items of clothing. The democratic state of Norway does not want neo-Nazis to misuse the flag for their advertising purposes, said the envoy of Norway in Germany. The company lodged an objection against the public prosecutor's notice of fines. A decision was still pending in November after the Potsdam District Court declared that it was “not locally responsible” and passed the proceedings to Bonn.

In addition, since August 2008, Heckler & Koch has been resisting the depiction of a silhouette of the G36 assault rifle under the imprint "House visits" on a sweater. She is aiming for a warning against MediaTex GmbH and dealers who sell the sweater.

After the eight-member NPD parliamentary group appeared forbidden in Thor Steinar clothing at a session of the Saxon state parliament on June 13, 2012 , state parliament President Matthias Rößler made use of his house and police rights and expelled the eight members of the hall.

Protests against Thor Steinar shops

Tønsberg shop in Berlin-Mitte, closed in 2010 : facade with traces of paint and plexiglass protection, access only after knocking.

After paint bomb attacks and protests from local residents and traders was the lease of Protex GmbH Uwe Meusel Koenigs Wusterhausen for short-opened before Thor Steinar shop Tønsberg terminated in Berlin in February of 2008. After an eviction action in November 2010, the shop was closed. The eviction suit was also successful against another shop in Berlin-Friedrichshain.

Similar incidents, including violent clashes, also occurred in other cities in connection with the opening of additional stores by Protex GmbH. Some of the shops or their operators have been or have been eviction lawsuits from the landlords, who often see themselves as being disinformed by the operator with regard to the reception of the brand, suspecting fraudulent misrepresentation and presenting this as a reason for termination. The Federal Court of Justice declared the contestation of the rental contracts due to fraudulent deception to be permissible in August 2010 and upheld the eviction action against a Thor Steinar store. In the opinion of the Federal Court of Justice, the tenant has an obligation to inform the landlord before signing the rental agreement that the clothing he is selling is associated with the right-wing extremist scene. If the tenant violates this obligation, the landlord can contest the lease.

However, there is no uniform jurisprudence on the tenant's duty to inform with regard to the Thor Steinar brand. In August 2011, the landlord's action for eviction against the Oseberg store , which has been located in Halle (Saale) since 2009, failed before the Halle regional court . The lawsuit for fraudulent misrepresentation failed, as the Thor Steinar brand was specified by the tenant in the sales profile and the landlord, according to the judge, should have found out about the background in advance. The five-year lease only expired in spring 2014. The action shop closing wants to close the shop through peaceful actions and protests.

Protests were also articulated against the Thor Steinar shop in Braunau am Inn (Adolf Hitler's birthplace) in Upper Austria . An eviction action brought in 2009 was dismissed.

After protests, Amazon removed Thor Steinar products from its trading platform and added the exclusionary reference to "items that glorify or downplay National Socialism" in its sales guidelines. Trading in branded products is prohibited on the eBay internet auction platform .

The Nordic Company store, which sells the Thor Steinar brand, opened in the Hamburg district of Barmbek-Nord in March 2017. There were also regular vigils there. The regional committee protested against the store in a resolution that the SPD, CDU, GRÜNE, LINKE, FDP and Piraten, but not the AfD, had formulated. The shop had to close at the end of January 2018 after a legal dispute between the owner's association of the house and the owner of the shop.

Stork Heinar

The end station right campaign of Jusos Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania sells textile articles that parody Thor Steinar with the Storch Heinar brand . Heinar is a stork on a " frog meat - intolerance " suffers and a taste for eggnog has. He appears with a steel helmet , parting and Hitler mustache . Thor Steinar filed a lawsuit against the Jusos, who then sold “rescuer” T-shirts with the inscription World War Loser Winner since 1945 to finance legal costs . The Landgericht Nürnberg-Fürth dismissed on 11 August 2010, the suit a large extent. There is no risk of confusion between “Storch Heinar” and “THOR STEINAR”; moreover, “a possible trademark or competition violation as a satirical argument with the plaintiff's trademarks is about the fundamental rights of freedom of expression (Art. 5 (1) GG) and freedom of art ( Art. 5 para. 3 GG) ".

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.companyhouse.de/Mediatex-GmbH-Mittenwalde
  2. ^ A b Florian Osuch, Moritz Eluek: "Thor Steinar" with sales in the millions. In: Antifascist information sheet . January 25, 2016, accessed on March 4, 2018 (from AIB 109 , issue 4/2015).
  3. ↑ Stefan Krempl: 26C3: Flirting exchange of the right scene hacked . In: Heise online , December 29, 2009. Accessed December 31, 2009.
    Hackers are outing Thor Steinar fans . In: Die Tageszeitung , January 2, 2010.
  4. ↑ a b "Thor Steinar" fails with a new distribution channel . Protection of the Constitution Brandenburg , 2008.
  5. ^ Constitutional Protection Report Brandenburg 2007 . ( Memento of July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Protection of the Constitution Brandenburg, 2008, p. 162 (PDF; 9.3 MB).
  6. ↑ Brown Shopping Gambling about Nazi Shop , by Andreas Speit , Taz September 30, 2008
  7. ↑ Constitutional framework for specific clothing brand bans in house rules of parliament and administrative buildings. Scientific Services of the Bundestag, September 17, 2013, accessed on February 12, 2018 .
  8. ^ Johannes Radke: House ban in the Bundestag . In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 16, 2008, accessed on March 4, 2018.
  9. ^ Arab investor buys Thor Steinar . In: Berliner Morgenpost , March 24, 2009, accessed on March 4, 2018.
  10. ↑ Andreas Speit : Rights boycott Thor Steinar . In: Die Tageszeitung , May 27, 2009, accessed on March 4, 2018.
  11. ^ Johann Osel: Right scene brand Thor Steinar: The disposition and money . In: Süddeutsche.de , May 7, 2010, accessed on March 4, 2018.
  12. ↑ Topics of the day Report on Thor Steinar in Mittenwalde , by Esther Neumeier and Oliver Jarasch
    December 12th, 2011 (2.49 min) from at 13.00
  13. ↑ Peter M. Selliner: Against the right-wing extremist 'Thor Steinar Chic'. In: hagalil.com. December 19, 2013, accessed March 4, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Thor Steinar The neo-Nazis' clothes . stern.de, December 22, 2008.
  15. ↑ Attorney of the controversial company trying to relax: Thor Steinar with a new logo . In: Berliner Zeitung , January 4, 2005.
  16. ↑ a b Norway is suing Thor Steinar . In: Der Tagesspiegel , February 14, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  17. ↑ Axel Lier: “Thor Steinar” boss in court: violation of trademark law . In: Die Welt , March 28, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  18. ^ Der brown Pop , Die Zeit , September 23, 2004, accessed October 11, 2008
  19. ↑ a b c The right dress code in the city center . In: Die Tageszeitung , November 30, 2005.
  20. ↑ Another fool . ( Memento from January 11, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) In: Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung , October 5, 2004.
  21. ↑ "Thor Steinar" and the neo-Nazi scene ( Memento from April 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), Antifascist information sheet , press release, March 12, 2006.
  22. ↑ Translation "Ultima Thule" ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eduhi.at
  23. ↑ Old Shit. New Style ( Memento from December 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), brochure of the NO thor steinar offensive 2004 , August 2007 (PDF, p. 2; 274 kB)
  24. ↑ Comparison of the logos ( memento from June 23, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the NO thor steinar offensive 2004
  25. ↑ a b Decision of the 2nd major criminal chamber of the Neuruppin Regional Court, 12 Qs 34/04, November 17, 2004. ( Memento from September 17, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  26. ↑ Court forbids symbols of the right-wing cult brand "Thor Steinar" , Die Welt , November 13, 2004
  27. ↑ Thor Steinar: Close ties to the neo-Nazi scene ( Memento from October 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), NPD blog , April 24, 2006
  28. ↑ Documentation from Antifascist Info Sheet No. 73 (4/2006) and 74 (1/2007) on the website of the Polit-Café Azzoncao
  29. ^ Judgment of the 1st Criminal Senate of the Brandenburg Higher Regional Court , 1 Ss 58/05, September 12, 2005 (PDF; 52 kB).
  30. ^ Judgment of the 1st Criminal Senate of the Berlin Court of Appeal , 1 Ss 53/06, December 15, 2006; not freely available.
  31. ↑ Judgment of the 3rd criminal senate of the OLG Dresden  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 3 Ss 375/06, February 12, 2008 (PDF; 56 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.justiz.sachsen.de  
  32. ↑ Michael Weiss: From the north to the desert ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 420 kB), Monitor - Circular letter from Apabiz , No. 36, August 2008, pp. 1-3
  33. ^ Andreas Ellinger: Heckler rifle on Nazi sweaters , Neckar Chronik, November 12, 2008; Spiegel ( Memento from July 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on ladenschluss-jetzt.org
  34. ↑ NPD causes a scandal in the Saxon state parliament with Thor Steinar clothing ( memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), dnn-online.de
  35. ^ Protests: Landlord announces "Thor Steinar" store in Mitte , Die Welt , February 6, 2008
  36. ^ No space for Thor Steinar , taz, December 3, 2010.
  37. ^ Protests against "Thor Steinar" continue , Junge Welt , February 20, 2008.
  38. ^ Judgment: Termination of the Thor Steinar store in Leipzig is legal, die-topnew.de, November 13, 2008.
  39. ↑ The tenant's duty to provide information - the Thor-Steinar-Laden . In: Rechtslupe , October 6, 2010. Retrieved June 17, 2016.
  40. ↑ halleforum.de ( Memento from August 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  41. ^ "Neo-Nazi" fashion store in Braunau is threatened with closure due to legal action (auslandsdienst.at) ( Memento from January 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  42. ↑ Simone Rafael: Success: Amazon takes “Thor Steinar” from the shop . In: Netz gegen Nazis , October 5, 2009.
  43. ↑ Sales Guidelines , Amazon , October 2, 2009.
  44. ↑ Johannes Radke: Neo-Nazis like uniform clothing . In: Die Tageszeitung , March 26, 2008.
  45. ↑ Mats Mumme: Thor Steinar in Barmbek - The shop that nobody here wants . In: FINK.HAMBURG . May 9, 2017 ( online [accessed July 6, 2017]).
  46. ↑ Printed matter. Retrieved September 11, 2018 .
  47. ^ Zoff in Barmbek: Committee wants to ban “Thor Steinar” shops! In: MOPO.de . ( mopo.de [accessed on September 11, 2018]).
  48. ↑ Andreas Speit: Thor Steinar store in Hamburg: It has sold out . In: The daily newspaper: taz . December 3, 2017, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on September 11, 2018]).
  49. ↑ Neo-Nazi satire - Storch Heinar is looking for the sacred egg (Spiegel online)
  50. ^ "Thor Steinar" sued "Storch Heinar" . In: Ostsee-Zeitung . December 14, 2009 ( online ).
  51. ^ Judgment of the LG Nürnberg-Fürth , August 11, 2010.