A symbol of hatred reared its ugly head in the form of a gigantic concrete swastika that was buried underneath a construction site on an athletic field in an eastern district of Hamburg, Germany.
According to a report by The German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) on Tuesday, workers were excavating the grounds in preparation for the construction of spots club dressing rooms when they hit a solid chunk of concrete. Workers unearthed the 13-by-13-foot artifact buried 16 inches underground that had been hidden for decades in the Hanseatic city.
The massive relic, having rooted itself into the historical DNA of the region, was not able to be removed in one piece. After a report of its discovery, the mayor of Hamburg's central neighborhood, Falko Droßmann, went to the site to decide the monument's fate. The Social Democrat (SPD) politician made the decision, after contacting the office for the protection of historical monuments, to remove the swastika immediately by destroying it with a jackhammer.
The DPA was informed by Hein-Kling stadium sports club members that the symbol of National Socialism served as the foundation for a large monument that formerly occupied the grounds. It had been demolished in the 1970s.
Die Welt reported that the previous monument on the grounds was eventually filled with sand after war.
But the controversy over mayor Droßmann's decision was opposed on Twitter, with some users maintaining that Nazis are a part of history and any reference to it shouldn't go by way of toppling Confederate statues.
Some saw no exceptions in keeping the symbol of hate, alive.
And while a few wanted to preserve the legacy of Germany's dark history in museums, people were perfectly content with the destruction of the recently discovered swastika.
This user went on a completely different tangent.
The chairman of the Billstedt-Horn sports club, Joachim Schirmer, said that despite the surprisingly ominous discovery, "sports activities will continue as normal."
Just another day in Hamburg.
The ancient symbol has its origins in spirituality related to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. But in the 1930s, the Nazi Party and Nazi Germany adopted the swastika to represent Arayan blood and German Nationalism. The Jewish community and those opposed to the Nazis saw the swastika representing antisemitism and terror.
Western countries associate swastikas with racial supremacy and remain active as a symbol of hate.
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