--- title: Charlottesville Protests: Germany Sees Echoes of History description: The Germans banned swastikas and other Nazi emblems after WWII, and the German people do not react well when they are back on display canonical: https://time.com/4900385/charlottesville-nazi-kkk-swastika-germany-reaction/ author: Simon Shuster article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-14T20:59:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:59:07.448Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Charlottesville Protests: Germany Sees Echoes of History og:description: The echoes of history could be heard in Virginia og:url: https://time.com/4900385/charlottesville-nazi-kkk-swastika-germany-reaction/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb879ed7637811cc5/6988d9bae76ad2082362eb96/gettyimages-632787840.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5551 og:image:height: 3122 og:image:alt: Berlin holocaust memorial germany og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Charlottesville Protests: Germany Sees Echoes of History twitter:description: The echoes of history could be heard in Virginia twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb879ed7637811cc5/6988d9bae76ad2082362eb96/gettyimages-632787840.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How the Nazi Flags in Charlottesville Look to a German > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=3b37969c-215f-4a50-bc59-77677c3b3093&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Sam Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Globally minded knowledge seekers. Readers who turn to journalism to understand the world, with meaningful concentrations among educators, students, media professionals, civic institutions and knowledge workers. ### TIME Inside TIME: key statements * Inside TIME is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * Inside TIME is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=3b37969c-215f-4a50-bc59-77677c3b3093&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/subscribe?i=3b37969c-215f-4a50-bc59-77677c3b3093&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is Inside TIME? Inside TIME is a twice-weekly newsletter written by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs. It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent.  by [Simon Shuster / Berlin](https://time.com/author/simon-shuster/)  ## Simon Shuster / Berlin Senior Correspondent Aug 14, 2017 8:59 PM UTC  A visitor is seen among the concrete blocks in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, on January 26, 2017 A visitor is seen among the concrete blocks in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, on January 26, 2017 NurPhoto via Getty Images  by [Simon Shuster / Berlin](https://time.com/author/simon-shuster/)  ## Simon Shuster / Berlin Senior Correspondent Aug 14, 2017 8:59 PM UTC As we watched the news [stream in from Charlottesville](http://time.com/charlottesville-white-nationalist-rally-clashes/?xid=homepage) over the weekend, it wasn’t the violence that shocked my fiancée the most. She was born and raised in Germany, a nation whose citizens are all too familiar with Nazism and terrorism. Nor did her face go slack with disbelief at the footage of right-wing militiamen marching through the streets of Charlottesville with automatic weapons. What got to her was the Nazi flag, which at least one of the demonstrators [carried openly](https://twitter.com/AndyBCampbell/status/896385942495285248) in the streets. “How is that even legal?” she asked me. It wouldn’t be in Germany. Soon after the end of World War II, the Germans banned swastikas and other Nazi emblems, and the German people, not to mention the police, do not tend to react well when the symbols of that era are put on display. Hours before the clashing demonstrations started in Charlottesville on Saturday, an American tourist in the German city of Dresden [got punched in the face](http://time.com/4899007/american-tourist-nazi-salute-dresden/) by a local for drunkenly throwing the Hitler salute. Less than two weeks earlier, two Chinese tourists in Berlin made the same gesture while taking a photo in front of the Reichstag; they were [promptly arrested](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40842853) and could face a fine or up to three years in prison. That’s not to say Germany has fully rid itself of homegrown fascism; [according to research](http://forward.com/opinion/361384/the-us-suffers-from-collective-amnesia-about-its-original-sin/) by the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S.-based advocacy group for civil rights, some 16% of Germans are still “infected with extensive anti-Semitism,” and slightly more than half of them believe that Jews talk about the Holocaust too much. But as a nation, Germany has reckoned with the evils (and the symbols) of its past much more honestly and thoroughly than the U.S. has done with the history of slavery, for instance, or the atrocities committed against Native Americans. Even the leadership of the far-right party in Germany, Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, [tends to denounce](https://www.thelocal.de/20170126/afd-politician-banned-from-holocaust-memorial-after-speech-criticizing-germanys-postwar-shame) racist violence and expressions of fascism a lot faster and more compellingly than [President Donald Trump did](http://time.com/4899810/donald-trump-charlottesville/?xid=homepage) after the bloodshed and the hate seen in Charlottesville. They do so not because they are tolerant – the AfD is not tolerant at all, especially when it comes to immigration from the Muslim world – but because they know that remaining silent in the face of Nazism is not a path to success in German politics. Like President Trump, they are populists. They cater to the baser instincts of their respective voters. And the difference between them lies not in their political styles but in the limits set for them by their supporters and their national laws. While large groups of U.S. voters support Trump despite his Administration downplaying or even pandering to the extreme right, the vast majority of German voters tend to reject such appeasement of bigotry as a sign of history repeating. And if U.S. law allows people to display the iconography of hate, German law does not. Though it felt somehow inadequate, this was the best answer I could give to my fiancé’s question: The First Amendment protects the right of an American to carry a Nazi flag. “And what about the Ku Klux Klan?” she asked. “People can’t swim naked on a public beach in California. But the KKK is allowed to march around in their uniforms?” She had not yet seen any images of the KKK in Charlottesville [doing exactly that](http://www.nbcnews.com/video/kkk-holds-rally-in-charlottesville-virginia-987497027504). And when I showed them to her, she shook her head and asked another question, this one rhetorical: “Is that what Trump meant by making America great?” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4900385/charlottesville-nazi-kkk-swastika-germany-reaction/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4900385/charlottesville-nazi-kkk-swastika-germany-reaction/"},"headline":"How the Nazi Flags in Charlottesville Look to a German","datePublished":"2017-08-14T20:59:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:59:07.448Z","description":"The echoes of history could be heard in Virginia","url":"https://time.com/4900385/charlottesville-nazi-kkk-swastika-germany-reaction/","keywords":["Charlottesville"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb879ed7637811cc5/6988d9bae76ad2082362eb96/gettyimages-632787840.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Simon Shuster / Berlin"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb879ed7637811cc5/6988d9bae76ad2082362eb96/gettyimages-632787840.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Berlin holocaust memorial germany","caption":"Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe","creditText":"NurPhoto via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/charlottesville/","name":"Charlottesville"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4900385/charlottesville-nazi-kkk-swastika-germany-reaction/","name":"How the Nazi Flags in Charlottesville Look to a German"}}]}] ```