Residents of the German town of Ostritz bought more than 200 crates of beer from their local supermarkets before a neo-Nazi rock festival over the weekend.
Their aim? To ensure festival attendees couldn’t obtain alcohol.
Dresden court placed a ban on alcohol at the “Shield and Sword” (SS) festival festival and locals wanted to prevent neo-Nazis from getting around it.
The court said “the event has an obviously martial and aggressive character”, and there was a risk that alcohol could make violence more likely.
Police also lent a hand in drying out the crowd, seizing 4200 litres of beer in Ostritz on Friday, then 200 litres more on Saturday. The Polizei Sachsen also tweeted photos of their alcohol seizures.
About 1400 policemen were deployed to the festival from all over Germany and reported the operation went smoothly, with just a few minor incidents.
An Ostritz activist, Georg Salditt, told Germany’s Bild Daily: “The plan was devised a week in advance. We wanted to dry the Nazis out. We thought, if an alcohol ban is coming, we’ll empty the shelves at the Penny [supermarket].”
Meanwhile, a local woman explained to television station ZDF: “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’.”
Saxony Premier Michael Kretschmer praised the locals’ actions and also those who took part in protests countering white-supremacist views over the weekend.
“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,” Kretschmer told the DPA news agency.
