This story is so completely silly and sad, you may be reading this in your newspaper too soon. If it was not for the sad aspect of it, I would have made this a song contest.

What you must know before the story is that in Germany, as a reaction to our ugly past, several things are 'unconstitutional' and have to be punished when shown/done in public: Some Nazi songs are forbidden to sing (or even only to play the tune), the Nazi salute is forbidden, to say 'Heil (what was his name?)' is forbidden, you may not show the Nazi flag and so on. (BTW, there are of course exceptions for historical studies, historical films etc.)

In general, I agree with that policy, for I think at least as long as holocaust survivors are alive, they should not be forced in our country to listen or watch to things making them relive very bad memories.

As with all things forbidden, some people try to test how far they can go. Just one instance: Neonazis may greet each other with '88'. 88? Yes, H is the eighth letter of the alphabet and this way they circumscribe the verbal Nazi salute 'Heil (what was his name?)'.

Now you know enough to understand the story:
A man (already known for his very right political leanings) has a dog. He calls his dog 'Adolf'. A bit unusual for a dog name, but not forbidden. The dog is an Alsatian in SS-black. That too is not forbidden but within the range of possible Alsatian colours. He has trained his dog when sitting to rise the right paw stretched well above shoulder height. That too is not forbidden, though there are more impressing dog tricks than that. As a cue for the dog to show the trick he uses the words 'show the salute'. That by itself is a bit longish for a cue but is not forbidden too.

Now you put all the ingredients together: When the man was controlled by the police last year (for what reasons I don't know) he said to his dog: "Adolf, sit, show the salute" and Adolf did as it had been taught. The policemen didn't see the funny side of this. Now the dog's owner faces a court for 'showing unconstitutional symbols in public'. This is not his only offence (there are several more along similar lines), but that is the offence that made the headlines.

Wolfgang