Police seize 'Führer wine' from Bavarian pub

One of the bottles also bore the Nazi slogan "Sieg Heil," police in the south German city of Augsburg said on Monday.

The police raided the Bavarian pub last week after a citizen reported the offensive labels, the local Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper reported. The paper also said its readers had complained about the bottles, which were displayed at the bar.

Germany forbids using Nazi symbols and images, although exceptions are allowed for educational purposes and satire. The 49-year-old pub owner faces a fine or a jail sentence of up to three years.

"An investigation against the innkeeper has been launched, based on [the] Paragraph 86a which bans displaying symbols of unconstitutional organizations," police spokesman Michael Jakob said.

Hitler as a brand

The suspect claims he did not know that the labels were illegal. He has also said he was given the bottles as a present and found them "funny."

Despite the Nazi symbol ban in Germany, many other countries deal in Nazi memorabilia and use symbols remiscent of the era. Italy, Germany's wartime ally, allows sale of Hitler-branded wine and beer.

The popularity of the Nazi imagery has recently grown in Asian countries, where the stigma associated with them is less pronounced.

dj/rc (dpa)