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So … you want to try to tell Germany it was just all because of autism?
Billionaire Elon Muskโs only response to outrage, after he gave a Nazi salute behind the presidential seal during a Donald Trump inauguration event on Monday, has been to tweet, โThe ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.” However, a museum in the country that Adolph Hitler terrorized as its leader for 12 yearsโand where that particular salute is illegalโwas not as dismissive and has covered a portrait of Musk in its space technology exhibit.
According to news report, the Deutsches Museum in Munich had featured Musk among โvisionaries from the past and futureโ in its โAstronauticsโ gallery. That gallery also included rocket scientist Hermann Oberth, who coincidentally aided the Nazis in World War II and was awarded Germanyโs Merit Cross, and his one time student Max Valier. Curators covered Muskโs portrait, which has been on display for three years, saying that the information board only had enough space to add a few lines of text about each figure, making it difficult to add context as current events developed. โIt can always be problematic to honor people who are still alive so prominently as part of an exhibition,โ a museum spokesperson said, following the decision.
On Monday, Musk was addressing a crowd who was celebrating the inauguration of Trump and thanked attendees for โmaking it happen.โ He then slapped his right hand against his chest before raising his right arm in an upward diagonal gesture, with his fingers together and palm facing down. He turned around and repeated this salute to the audience members seated behind him.
“My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured,” Musk said after giving the second salute.
In the United States, supporters of Musk and Trump attempted to defend Musk by suggesting a mental disorder and noting and that he merely gave the โRoman Salute,โ which is also known as the “fascist salute.” Most everyone, however, saw the salute for what it clearly was. Some have been expressing regret for buying Tesla cars. Antifascists, including some from the United Kingdom’s Led By Donkeys and Germany’s Center for Political Beauty, projected an image of Musk doing the salute onto Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin alongside the words “Heil Tesla.” They announced their deed on Twitter.
Musk has been supporting the German fascist party, Alternative fรผr Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD), an organization that has used the slogan the Nazi stormtroopers engraved on their daggers. Last week, Musk livestreamed on Twitter a chat with Alice Weidel, the partyโs candidate for chancellor in Germanyโs Feb. 23 election, amplifying its message ahead of the vote and tweeting that โOnly the AfD can save Germany.โ The livestream is being investigated as an illegal party donation, breaching Germanyโs electoral law, and Weidel is seen as a long shot to win on Feb. 23.
While addressing the 55th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 21, current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addressed the salute when asked about it. “We have the freedom of speech in Europe and in Germany. Everyone can say what he wants, even if he is a billionaire. And what we do not accept is if this is supporting extreme-right positions.โ
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