Imagine you are browsing through a flea market and come across an item that catches your eye. You haggle with the vendor, agree on a price, and snag the item. You continue to stroll around, but after a few meters, you are stopped by the police. Why? Because you have just imported an item with content deemed unconstitutional by German customs.
This scenario could actually play out at the flea market happening over the weekend in Konstanz and Kreuzlingen. The flea market is cross-border, taking place simultaneously on the German and Swiss sides. Even though crossing the border on foot is inconspicuous since the market flows across the border, the same rules apply as when crossing from Switzerland to Germany, as confirmed by Sonja Müller from the Singen Customs Office: „Of course, the same regulations apply at a cross-border event like the flea market as they do when entering Germany from a non-EU country after a vacation.“
Sale of Nazi items allowed in Switzerland
This is why a supposed bargain on the Swiss side of the flea market could turn out to be quite expensive. There are items whose possession and sale are allowed in Switzerland but not in Germany. This includes items with Nazi symbolism. The sale of these items on the flea market in Kreuzlingen would theoretically be allowed, something that even Nicole Esslinger from the Thurgau Tourism Association was not aware of. „The issue has never come up for us, but the sale of such items is not explicitly prohibited,“ she said. She is responsible for organizing the flea market on the Swiss side.
Reichsadler letters sold in Konstanz last year
On the German side, the Konstanz Marketing and Tourism GmbH is the organizer of the flea market. They explicitly mention the ban on the sale of „propaganda materials and symbols of unconstitutional organizations“ in the General Terms and Conditions (GTC). Nevertheless, there were two reports last year, according to the Konstanz Police Headquarters in response to an inquiry from SÜDKURIER. In both cases, documents and symbols of National Socialism were offered for sale at the flea market. Specifically, this included envelopes with Reichsadler engravings.
GTC of Konstanz Marketing and Tourism
According to the general terms and conditions, items whose offer, sale, or acquisition is prohibited by legal regulations are not allowed. Furthermore, items that violate third-party rights (e.g., personality rights, copyrights, trademarks, patents, utility or design patents) may not be offered or purchased. This also applies to pornographic material, propaganda materials and symbols of unconstitutional organizations, firearms and ammunition, bladed and thrusting weapons, and other weapons as defined by the Weapons Act, radioactive substances, explosive substances, poisons, and health-endangering chemicals, pressure vessels as defined by the Pressure Vessel Ordinance, human organs, live animals, as well as products and preparations of protected animal species, protected plants and their products and preparations, medicines as defined by the Medicines Act, and medical devices as defined by the Medical Devices Act, drugs as defined by the Narcotics Act, real estate and property rights, securities excluding stamps and historical shares, loans, insurance, and building society contracts.
The sale or import of unconstitutional items during the cross-border flea market is not a major issue, according to inquiries made to the Federal Police and the Singen Customs Office. And on the Kreuzlingen side of the flea market, the theoretically possible sale will likely come to an end after this weekend: Nicole Esslinger from Thurgau Tourism intends to prohibit the sale of such items from next year through a corresponding change in the GTC.