Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl has recalled the diplomat. Photo: AFP

Austria's foreign ministry has summoned an attaché from its embassy in Israel after he posted a picture of himself on social media wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of a Nazi tank division.

A screenshot of the post on Jürgen-Michael Kleppich's Facebook page shows him in the green shirt with the words "Stand your ground" and "Frundsberg", the Falter weekly reported.

The last name of Georg von Frundsberg, who was a mercenary in the 15th century, was used by the Nazis during World War II for its 10th SS Panzer division.

The garment is sold by Phalanx Europa, an online shop that sells "patriotic" clothing for followers of the nativist Identitarian movement.

The episode is the latest embarrassment for a member of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) since it came to power in December in a coalition with the centre-right People's Party.

Kleppich, who is also an FPÖ local councillor in a district of Vienna, had previously posted a photo of his grandfather in a Nazi uniform, complete with swastika, according to Falter.

READ ALSO: Austria's far-right interior minister provokes outrage with call to 'concentrate' migrants

Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl has ordered Kleppich "be summoned to Vienna immediately to submit to a legal probe into the accusations in the media," her ministry said late on Tuesday.

The FPÖ, founded by ex-Nazis in the 1950s, has sought to clean up its image and its leader Heinz-Christian Strache says the party rejects all racism and extremism.

But in January an FPÖ candidate in a state election quit after it emerged that his student fraternity had published a song book with lyrics praising the Holocaust.

They included the words "Step on the gas, old Germanics, we can make it to seven million". Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.

Interior Minister Herbert Kickl of the FPÖ is also under pressure over police raids on the domestic intelligence agency, which investigates extremist groups, including on the far-right.

Strache has visited Israel several times and supports moving the Austrian embassy to Jerusalem, as US President Donald Trump plans to do with the US mission.

But Israel's government has said it will not have direct contact with FPÖ ministers, a stance mirrored by Austria's Jewish community organisation the IKG.

READ ALSO: Austrian far-right party says criticism of Nazi ties is partly justified and pledges to clean up its act</s>Austria’s Foreign Ministry has recalled an employee from its embassy in Israel after he posted a photo of himself on Facebook wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the name of a Nazi tank division.

Weekly news magazine Falter published screengrabs of Jürgen-Michael Kleppich wearing a green shirt bearing the words “Stand your ground” and “Frundsberg”. Frundsberg is a reference to the 10th SS Panzer Division during World War II. The division was named after the 16th century German commander Georg von Frundsberg. Kleppich’s Facebook account has since been deleted.

The controversial shirt is sold by Phalanx Europa, a clothing brand that specializes in “patriotic” apparel and markets itself as an online store for the identitarian, white nationalist, movement. Falter also reported that Kleppich previously posted a photo of his grandfather in a Nazi uniform.

Kleppich has been summoned to Vienna to “clarify all circumstances” surrounding his wearing of the shirt, Austria’s foreign minister, Karin Kneissl, told the ORF radio station. "If there is a disciplinary cause, a disciplinary procedure will be initiated,” she said.

The attaché is also reportedly a member of the right wing Freedom Party which is a junior partner in Austria’s coalition government. The party has been at the center of several Nazi-related allegations in recent years. Earlier this year a party official was forced to resign after it emerged that his fraternity published a songbook praising the Holocaust.

The state of Israel has said it will not have any direct contact with politicians from the party, which controls Austria’s foreign, interior and defense ministries as part of its government formation pact with the larger People’s Party.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!</s>Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl has summoned Juergen-Michael Kleppich, an attaché from the country's embassy in Israel, "to clarify the circumstances and to submit to a legal probe into the accusations in the media," the ministry's spokesman Thomas Schnoll said.

READ MORE: New Austrian Foreign Minister Denies Comparing Zionism With Nazism

The Falker newspaper reported that Kleppich posted a photo on his Facebook page showing him in a green shirt with the words "Stand your ground" and "Frundsberg," the last name of a 15th century mercenary who was used as a symbol by the Nazis for the 10th SS Panzer division.

The T-shirt can be bought at Phalanx Europa, an online shop that sells "patriotic" garment for supporters of the nativist Identitarian movement.

"We know about the case only from the media. We do not have any additional information," the Austrian Embassy in Tel Aviv told the APA news agency, responding to a question on Kleppich's social media activities.

Kleppich, who is also an FPO local councilor in a district of Vienna, had already been involved in a similar scandal after he posted a photo of his grandfather in a Nazi uniform with a swastika.

The FPO, founded by in the 1950s by former SS officer Anton Reinthaller, has long been seeking to clean up its image and describes itself as the representative of national liberal values, rejecting racism and extremism. Nevertheless, the party still gets embroiled in scandals from time to time, with the latest debacle erupting after an FPO candidate had to quit from state elections as his student fraternity turned out to have published a songbook with lyrics praising the Holocaust.

Strache has visited Israel several times and supports the idea to move the Austrian embassy to Jerusalem, after US President Donald Trump ordered the US diplomatic mission to do so.

The People's Party (OVP), headed by incumbent Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the FPO, chaired by now Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, together form a coalition government in the country.</s>The Falter weekly recently published a picture of Kleppich wearing a green shirt bearing the words "stand your ground" and "Frundsberg." Frundsberg was a German Waffen-SS armored division from World War II. The Waffen-SS were the military wing of the Schutzstaffel, the infamous overseers of the concentration camp system, an elite group formed by only the most hardcore Nazi ideologues. Falter also reported that Kleppich had previously posted a photo of his grandfather in a Nazi uniform on social media.

Kleppich is a member of the far-right Freedom Party, a national-conservative political party in Austria led by Heinz-Christian Strache. In December, Kleppich was sent to Tel Aviv to help out at the Austrian embassy for several months, according to Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl.

According to the Times of Israel, the shirt Kleppich was wearing is sold by Phalanx Europa, an online store that sells "patriotic" clothes for those supporting the identitarian movement, a European and North American white nationalist movement started in France in 2012.

On Tuesday, Kneissl's ministry released an order that Kleppich "be summoned to Vienna immediately to submit to a legal probe into the accusations in the media," the Times of Israel reported.

Austria's far-right Freedom Party was founded by ex-Nazis in the 1950s. Although the party claims to denounce racism and extremism, a candidate of the party in the state election quit in January after his student fraternity published a songbook with lyrics praising the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of six million Jewish people and over five million other victims. The song included the words, "Step on the gas, old Germanics, we can make it to seven million."

Although Strache has visited Israel several times and advocates moving the Austrian embassy to Jerusalem after US President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December, the Israeli government refuses to have direct contact with any Freedom Party members.</s>Austria's foreign ministry has recalled an employee of its embassy in Israel after an Austrian weekly said he posted a picture of himself on social media wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of a Nazi tank division.



The Falter weekly published a screenshot of the attache's Facebook page which shows him in a green shirt with the words "stand your ground" and "Frundsberg." Frundsberg was a German Waffen SS armored division during World War Two.





The attache, Juergen-Michael Kleppich, is a member of the far-right Freedom Party, which is a junior partner in Austria's coalition government. He was sent to Tel Aviv in December to help out at the embassy for a few months, Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl told radio station ORF on Wednesday.Kleppich was summoned to Vienna to "clarify all circumstances" of the case, said Kneissl. It was not immediately clear whether he would be allowed to resume his post in due course.The incident is the latest in a series of embarrasments for the anti-immigrant FPO, which in December joined Austria's national government for the first time in more than a decade, and has been trying for years to shed any Nazi associations.The party was founded by former SS officers in the 1950s but says it has left its past behind and has regularly expelled officials in recent years over alleged Nazi links.A high-ranking local party official, who helped lead a far-right fraternity which distributed a songbook that joked about killing Jews, resigned under pressure in February, and a close staff member of Austria's FPO transport minister got involved in another anti-Semitism scandal shortly afterwards.Kneissl said she would consult her ministry's human resources department on Kleppich."If there is a disciplinary cause, a disciplinary procedure will be initiated," she said.Israel has said it will not do business with FPO ministers, only with the "operational echelons" of government departments headed by an FPO minister.The FPO controls the foreign, interior and defense ministries. The FPO nominated Kneissl for the post of foreign minister, though she is not officially a member of the party.Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, an FPO member, is expected to be questioned in a parliamentary inquiry about police raids targeting Austria's BVT domestic intelligence agency, which investigates far-right activities. Opposition parties have accused Kickl of aiming to gather intelligence on far-right groups and to sideline political opponents.</s>(JTA) — An Austrian diplomat serving in Israel was recalled to answer questions about his wearing a T-shirt bearing the name of a 16th-century Germanic general and the date of a major battle he won.

The foreign ministry in Vienna said in a statement that it had decided on Juergen-Michael Kleppich’s recall Wednesday after media in Austria found pictures of him wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words: “Stand your ground” and “Frundsberg 1525.” The shirt is available for sale online.

Georg von Frundsberg won a battle in 1525 against France in Italy. In 1943, the Nazi army established a tank division named after him.

Austria’s coalition government under Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the Austrian People’s Party comprises also the far-right Freedom Party, which was established by former Nazis in the 1940s. Leaders of Austrian Jewry say that despite its leaders’ condemnation of anti-Semitism and kicking out of members caught making anti-Semitic statements, the Freedom Party has not done enough to distance itself from neo-Nazis who support it.</s>Austria's foreign minister has ordered an attache at the country's embassy in Israel to return home after a newspaper reported that he posted a picture of himself in a T-shirt sold by a far-right group.

The Austria Press Agency reported that Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl ordered Juergen-Michael Kleppich back to Vienna on Tuesday to "clear up the circumstances."

The Austrian weekly Falter reports that shortly after starting work in Tel Aviv, Israel in January, Kleppich posted on Facebook a photo of himself in a T-shirt sold by Phalanx Europa, an online shop run by an Austrian far-right figure.

Falter said Kleppich previously posted a picture of his grandfather in Nazi uniform.

Kleppich is also a district councilor in Vienna for the right-wing Freedom Party, which entered Austria's government in December.
Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl recalls diplomat Jürgen-Michael Kleppich from Israel after he is photographed wearing a t-shirt with slogans linked to Nazism.