Beer crate

In Saxony alone, over 49 neo-Nazi concerts took place in the year 2018. In June 2019 neo-Nazis met anew for the fourth neo-Nazi festival Shield and Sword (‘Schild und Schwert’) in the east-Saxon town of Ostritz. But they had not reckoned with the 2.300 citizens of Ostritz. The administrative court of Dresden had imposed an alcohol-ban on the festival; the police had confiscated the beer reserves of the NPD-organizer Thorsten Heise. But that was not all. What they did not know: The people of Ostritz, together with the Internationales Begegnungszentrum St. Marienthal(‘International meeting centre St. Marienthal’) bought up the entire beer stock of the local supermarket. The neo-Nazis were left literally ‘high and dry’.

The campaign No beer for Nazis was a spontaneous counter-protest that formed part of the Ostritz Peace Festival with demonstrations, counter-events, concerts and artistic activities and approximately 1000 participants. Since 2018, the people of Ostritz have been involved in the local Peace Festival, in order to take a stand for democracy and against right-wing extremism.

In December 2019, the Ostritzer Friedensfest was awarded the special prize of the German Engagement Award.Their campaign No beer for Nazis was nominated for the Pop Culture Prize in the category “most interesting idea/campaign”.

The beer crate to be auctioned was symbolically provided by the people of Ostritz.