Neo-Nazi Fashion
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Thor Steinar Names New Store after Norwegian Killer
In an apparent deliberate act of provocation, the Thor Steinar clothing brand, popular among German neo-Nazis, has opened a store in the eastern German city of Chemnitz bearing the name of the far-right Norwegian mass murderer responsible for killing dozens of people, including scores of youth, last summer.
The company opened a store named “Brevik” in the city last Thursday, prompting outrage in Germany and Norway over the name. German daily Die Welt reports that the company has defended the name, noting that each of its stores is named after a town in Norway. Brevik is a town located south of Olso with around 2,700 residents. According to the paper, the company opened a store with the same name several years before Anders Behring Breivik went on a killing spree by bombing a government building in Oslo and posing as a police officer and massacring 77 people at a summer political camp for youth on the Utoya island.
The store’s opening has already angered many in Chemnitz, where residents and officials are concerned about the damage the store opening will have on the city’s reputation — both in Germany and abroad.
“It is out of the question for a store to have a name like that,” city spokeswoman Katja Uhlemann told Die Welt’s website. “We have already contacted the landlord and will plan every step necessary to shut down this business as quickly as possible.”
Contacted by several newspapers, the owner of the building said he had been deceived at the time the rental contract was signed and that he was unaware a Thor Steinar outlet would be opened at the site.