A computer game that was barred from showing swastikas and other Nazi iconography in Germany should be allowed to do so, an industry body has ruled.

The German Entertainment Software Self Regulation Body (USK) decided that games should be examined on a case-by-case basis, rather than being subject to a blanket ban.

The USK, which is tasked with regulating age ratings and game content, had previously deemed that the game broke German law by depicting "anti-constitutional" symbols such as the swastika.

Although German law allows the depiction of Nazi-themed films and other "art or science, research or teaching," the rules around computer games are a gray area.

Read more: Giant swastika unearthed under Hamburg sports field

Hitler's missing mustache

Wolfenstein is a series of computer games that originated in the early 1980s in which players battle against Nazi German forces in an alternative universe.

In the German version of the newest edition of the game, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, images of Adolf Hitler were changed to remove his mustache and the swastika was replaced with an alternative symbol in the Nazi flag.

The USK, which was given responsibility for policing content by Germany's youth protection services, also said that games themed on the Nazi era would be subject to an age limit.

Read more: The silence of the swastikas at the Theater Konstanz

"Through the change in the interpretation of the law, games that critically look at current affairs can, for the first time, be given an age rating by the USK," said USK managing director Elisabeth Secker.

Gamer uproar

"This has long been the case for films and with regards to the freedom of the arts, this is now rightly also the case with computer and video games," she said.

From now on, USK judges will decide if content has "an artistic or scientific purpose, or helps to depict current or historical events."

The alterations to the game had sparked uproar in the gaming community, which said games should be treated like films.

rc/amp (AFP, dpa)

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</s>Aug. 10 (UPI) -- A German regulating agency has lifted a ban on Nazi symbolism in video games sold and downloaded in the country.

The Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body, an industry rating group known as USK, announced on Thursday that games including banned symbols could now be sold with an appropriate rating -- if the symbolism serves an artistic or scientific purpose or is used in an historical context.

The change comes after the video game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus was released last year to debate. It depicts an alternate universe in which Nazi Germany won World War II. For the version sold in Germany, the mustache of an aging Adolf Hitler was digitally removed, and swastikas on banners were replaced with a similar but triangular symbol.

Other German versions of games have been edited to keep out depictions of Nazi regalia and iconography.

The law in Germany banning public displays of Nazi symbols has not been changed, but the video industry's interpretation of them has, CNN reported on Friday.

"Through the change in the interpretation of the law, games that critically look at current affairs can for the first time be given a USK age rating," USK managing director Elisabeth Secker said in a statement. "This has long been the case for films and with regards to the freedom of the arts, this is now rightly also the case with computer and video games."

It is an indication that video games, as a cultural medium, will be treated equally to other art and media forms, the German Games Industry Association said in a statement Thursday.</s>Germany’s longstanding ban on Nazi symbols in video games has been lifted, a German industry group announced on Thursday, amid public debate over the Wolfenstein video game franchise.

The Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK), tasked with issuing age ratings for video games, said they will act responsibly to ensure the policy shift doesn’t promote Nazism.

READ MORE: Germany Withdraws Toy UFO From Sale for Teaching Kids Wrong Things About Nazis

"Through the change in the interpretation of the law, games that critically look at current affairs can for the first time be given a USK age rating,” USK Managing Director Elisabeth Secker said on August 9.

"This has long been the case for films and with regards to the freedom of the arts, this is now rightly also the case with computer and video games.”

Set during World War II, games of the popular Wolfenstein franchise pit players against Nazi forces, and feature swastikas and depictions of Adolf Hitler.

Some Germans insisted such edits worsened gamer experience and urged the federal government to exempt video games from the ban, like films, and other creative and historic works.

The USK will now individually review future video games to see if they qualify for an exemption, or if they still need to censor Nazi material.

READ MORE: German Store Under Fire for Selling 'Nazi Toys'</s>Video games in Germany have always had to censor Nazi imagery, because to display that content would violate the country’s constitution. Now, after pressure from the German Games Industry Association, the government has relaxed its interpretation of some laws and will allow it in certain circumstances.



The government has moved from a blanket ban on swastikas and Hitler moustaches to a case-by-case basis, which will be administered by the USK, Germany’s ratings board.

The official release with the news gives the specifics:

When games that depict symbols of unconstitutional organisations are submitted to the USK for an age rating, the USK committees can now assess them on a case-by-case basis to decide whether the ‘social adequacy clause’ (Sozialadäquanzklausel, as laid out in section 86, subsection (3) of the German Criminal Code) applies. In this context, ‘social adequacy’ means that symbols of unconstitutional organisations can be used in games in individual cases, as long as those symbols serve an artistic or scientific purpose, or depict current or historical events.

“Sozialadäquanzklausel” has long been used by movies and TV, which have always been able to show historical representations of Nazis, but games had been held to a different standard. No longer.

Of course, this doesn’t mean developers are free to go sticking swastikas wherever they want. It just means the USK is able to allow it in permitted circumstances.

Felix Falk, Managing Director of the German Games Industry Association, says:

This new decision is an important step for games in Germany. We have long campaigned for games to finally be permitted to play an equal role in social discourse, without exception. Computer and video games have been recognised as a cultural medium for many years now, and this latest decision consistently cements that recognition in terms of the use of unconstitutional symbols as well. We in the games industry are concerned about the tendencies we see towards racism, anti-semitism and discrimination. We are strongly committed to an open, inclusive society, to the values laid out in the German constitution, and to Germany’s historical responsibility. Many games produced by creative, dedicated developers address sensitive topics such as the Nazi era in Germany, and they do so in a responsible way that encourages reflection and critical thinking. The interactive nature of games makes them uniquely qualified to spark contemplation and debate, and they reach younger generations like no other medium can.

While this of course will apply to future game releases, it’ll be interesting to see if existing titles—most famously Wolfenstein—can be bothered to issue re-releases or updates to convert censored local versions to the international, Swastika-filled editions of games.

UPDATE: Some further context, courtesy of GameStar’s Sandro Odak, who tells us that Germany’s long-standing refusal to grant video games the same cultural exception movies and TV shows were allowed dates back to the court’s interpretation of a 1998 court case:

The verdict said in 1998 that Wolfenstein 3D is banned nazi propaganda (in a case against a real nazi) and they never considered it being a piece of art or culture (which for example has applied to movies). In the following years this interpretation has stayed intact - until now.</s>Computer and video games can include swastikas and other Nazi symbols, a German industry body said Thursday, after a heated debate over the Wolfenstein franchise in which gamers battle Third Reich forces.

The game was previously deemed to have fallen foul of the German criminal code, which bars any depiction of so-called "anti-constitutional" symbols, including Nazi swastikas.

Accordingly in Wolfenstein II, images of Adolf Hitler were doctored to remove his moustache and the swastika in the Nazi flag was replaced with a triangular symbol.

This sparked an uproar in the gaming community, prompting calls for games to be treated like films.

Because movies are deemed works of art, they are exempt from the ban, similar to material used in research, historical or scientific purposes.

Films set in the World War II-era, for instance, are allowed to be screened in Germany with Nazi symbols.

The Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) said video games will in future be examined as to whether they constitute such exceptions.

The industry body, which is responsible for providing age ratings on video games, made the decision after it was tasked to determine what is socially permissible in video games by Germany's youth protection services.

"Through the change in the interpretation of the law, games that critically look at current affairs can for the first time be given a USK age rating," said Elisabeth Secker, USK managing director.

"This has long been the case for films and with regards to the freedom of the arts, this is now rightly also the case with computer and video games," she said.</s>The national ban on all Nazi symbology came into force shortly after WWII ended in 1945. The offensive material was barred from computer games in 1990. The ban resulted in obvious signs of the Nazi regime, including Adolf Hitler’s moustache, being removed from the Wolfenstein series, in which players fight their way through members of the Third Reich. The game was thought to have been in breach of German law, which bars any depiction of anti-constitutional symbols – including the swastika, which was replaced by triangular symbol in the game. But the gaming community vehemently argued computer games should be considered “works of art”, in the same way that films are treated as art forms.

Because cinema is classed as an art form, movies are often exempt from the German ban - similar to material used in research, historical or scientific purposes. Now, following the lifting of the ban on Thursday, a German industry body ruled that computer and video games can include swastikas and other Nazi symbols. The Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) deemed video games would be examined as to whether they constitute such exceptions, as is the case with many World War II films depicting Nazi Germany. The USK, also responsible for giving age classifications on video games, after the country’s youth protection services tasked the organisation to determine what is “socially permissible”, and stated they would implement the new rules responsibly. Elisabeth Secker, USK Managing Director, said: "Through the change in the interpretation of the law, games that critically look at current affairs can for the first time be given a USK age rating.

"This has long been the case for films and with regards to the freedom of the arts, this is now rightly also the case with computer and video games.” In March of this year, Germany announced it would ban Second World War Nazi memorabilia and symbols from its newly-named military barracks in an attempt to distance its armed forces from their links to the past. It followed uproar in 2017 when it was revealed military units were openly displaying memorabilia from the Nazi era, including images of fighter aircraft displaying swastikas. The German government announced plans to rename its old military barracks in Hannover, from Emmich-Cambrai to being named after Tobias Lagenstein, one of 57 German soldiers killed while serving in Afghanistan. Other depictions included a mural of soldiers in Third Reich regalia, and a picture of former chancellor Helmut Schmidt in Nazi uniform.</s>The next Wolfenstein game might not even need to remove Adolf Hitler’s mustache: Germany’s Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (or USK), an independent, industry-funded board that oversees age and content ratings for videos games available in the country, announced on Thursday that it will now permit the sale of games featuring Nazi imagery within the country, something that had previously been banned. The industry body’s decision reportedly came after a heated debate involving the Nazi-killing Wolfenstein series, particularly a pair of anti–Third Reich games in 2014 and 2017 that were visibly, and somewhat humorously, self-censored in Germany in order to avoid violating a provision of the country’s constitution.

Previously, video games with Nazi symbolism were heavily censored or outright banned based on the German criminal code’s Section 86a, which forbids the use of symbols, flags, insignia, uniforms, slogans, propaganda, and greetings relating to “unconstitutional organizations” (read: Nazis) in German products. Section 86a violations could be met with up to three years of imprisonment or a hefty fine.

While the list of games with German-censored versions is quite long, some of the bigger or more recent affected titles include Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. These two games imagined an alternative history in which the Nazis won World War II, but the German version swapped out every swastika used in the design; renamed the antagonists from the German Armed Forces to the Regime; and in one of the games, shaved off Adolf Hitler’s mustache. It has also affected the World War II strategy game Hearts of Iron IV, which changed art and dialogue to comply, and 2010’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is partially set in World War II and had to remove all “anti-constitutional symbols” on top of several gore- and torture-related aspects.*

If German gamers wanted to play the versions of a game available to most of the rest of the world, they were often out of luck. Region-locking of hardware and software has prevented workarounds such as buying non-German digital or hard copies of censored games. Thursday’s announcement did not address how the rule change will affect existing games, if it will, going forward.

The domestic gaming industry applauded the decision, framing it as a win for speech and artistic latitude. “This new decision is an important step for games in Germany. We have long campaigned for games to finally be permitted to play an equal role in social discourse, without exception,” said Felix Falk, head of the industry group of German game-makers, in a press release. “Computer and video games have been recognised as a cultural medium for many years now, and this latest decision consistently cements that recognition in terms of the use of unconstitutional symbols as well.”

USK will now assess games on a case-by-case basis to determine if they meet a reinterpreted standard of the country’s “social adequacy clause” that allows for Nazi imagery if it serves one of the following purposes: artistic, scientific, or if it depicts current or historical events. This metric is currently used for films screened in Germany because they are considered works of art. In his statement, Falk stressed that the German games industry is “strongly committed to an open, inclusive society, to the values laid out in the German constitution, and to Germany’s historical responsibility”—and that games addressing sensitive topics like Nazi-era Germany should be made in a way “that encourages reflection and critical thinking.”

If we trust that other art forms can encourage those things, then there’s no reason to exclude video games. The previous hard-and-fast rule—no Nazis in video games, not even once, but movies are fine—was an unusual double standard that didn’t fit in 2018. Germany’s ongoing sensitivity to the use of Nazi imagery clearly still makes sense, but games are worthy of a nuanced approach. Imagining that Hearts of Iron IV, a top-down strategy game focused on World War II, should be subject to the same amount of red tape as South Park: The Stick of Truth—an RPG set in the adult-animated universe that had its Nazi zombies censored in Germany and Austria—takes a bit of mental gymnastics to make sense. USK’s reinterpretation of the standard allows for creative flexibility in an ever-changing media landscape that is still tackling racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, political extremism, and other unsavory -isms. Many German video game–makers are trying to thoughtfully explore this exact space through their interactive medium. Now they’ll have more room to do it.</s>A new ruling means video games in Germany will get the same treatment as films when it comes to using Nazi imagery.

A German regulatory body has overturned a rule that required video games to censor Nazi symbols such as the swastika before they were allowed to be sold in the country.

Computer and video games featuring symbols of the Nazi Party regime can now be sold in the country without being doctored. The Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) said on 9 August that games including these symbols can now be given a rating in Germany.

Nazi symbols can be used under certain conditions

This is subject to whether the use of the symbol is “socially adequate”. The social adequacy of the symbol hinges on whether it serves an artistic or scientific purpose, or if it is used to represent historical events.

Late last year, the release of video game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus sparked a debate around the issue. The game involves a parallel universe, which explores what would happen if the Nazis had emerged victorious after the Second World War.

It featured Adolf Hitler with his moustache removed as well as numerous triangular symbols in place of swastikas.

The law in Germany around using symbols affiliated with “unconstitutional organisations” (Section 86a) came into force during the Cold War. It outlaws Nazi and Communist symbols, among others.

The law remains the same, but video games now have the same legal status as film in Germany: “Symbols of anti-constitutional organisations can be used in a title as long as it serves the arts or science, the representation of events of the day, or history.”

Director of the German Games Industry Association, Felix Falk, welcomed the decision: “Computer and video games have been recognised as a cultural medium for many years now, and this latest decision consistently cements that recognition in terms of the use of unconstitutional symbols as well.”

He added: “We in the games industry are concerned about the tendencies we see towards racism, anti-semitism and discrimination.”

Falk noted that professionals in the industry are “strongly committed to an open, inclusive society, to the values laid out in the German constitution, and to Germany’s historical responsibility”.

Games with a Nazi element will be subject to an an age limit, according to the USK.</s>BERLIN: Computer and video games can include swastikas and other Nazi symbols, a German industry body said on Thursday, after a heated debate over the "Wolfenstein" franchise in which gamers battle Third Reich forces.

The game was previously deemed to have fallen foul of the German criminal code, which bars any depiction of so-called "anti-constitutional" symbols, including Nazi swastikas. Accordingly in "Wolfenstein II," images of Adolf Hitler were doctored to remove his moustache and the swastika in the Nazi flag was replaced with a triangular symbol.

This sparked an uproar in the gaming community, prompting calls for games to be treated like films. Because movies are deemed works of art, they are exempt from the ban, similar to material used in research, historical or scientific purposes.

Films set in the World War II-era, for instance, are allowed to be screened in Germany with Nazi symbols. The Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) said video games will in future be examined as to whether they constitute such exceptions.</s>On Thursday, Germany loosened its ban on the use of Nazi symbology in computer and video games — a change that comes as part of a decades-long evolution in how the country has grappled with its own past.

The Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body, which decides on national ratings for computer and video games in Germany, will now allow games with Nazi symbols such as swastikas to be deemed “socially adequate” as long as the the symbols are used for historical accuracy. The move now puts games on an equal footing with films and other works of art, which have likewise been allowed to use the symbols if they were used for accurate historical depictions. (The rule also applies to symbols of other “anti-constitutional” ideas.)

The debate that culminated in the change was sparked by the video game . The game depicts an alternate version of history in which the Nazi regime was not defeated in World War II; players must fight to bring the world out of Hitler’s control. However, the German version of the game replaces swastikas with triangles and strips the game’s reality of other historical symbols, including Hitler’s mustache, from the game’s visuals. The precedent for taking Nazi symbols out of games was set in 1998 when a German court ruled that an earlier version of the game, , could not use any of the symbols. The court ruled that it did not matter that the symbols were located in the areas of the game given to the enemy. “If such a use of prohibited symbols in computer games were permitted,” the court stated, “it would hardly be possible to counteract a development towards their increasing use in public.”

But, in April, the German Attorney General ruled that video games could also fall under the the same art exemption applied to films, stating that the Wolfenstein ruling was outdated now that age ratings were in place for video games.

The ban of Nazi symbols has a long history in German starting right after Hitler’s defeat by the Allies in 1945. Here’s what to know about how Nazi symbols were banned in the first place:

At the end of World War II, Germany was split into East Germany, controlled by the Soviet Union, and West Germany, with sections controlled by the U.S., the U.K. and France. The allies then began the process known as “denazification.” According to Monica Black, a professor of German history at the University of Tennessee, the process of denazification included everything from the very public Nuremberg trials to less headline-grabbing attempts to lock members of the Nazi party out of civil-service positions.

“There was also the very public removal of symbols of Nazism,” she says. “Everything from the names of street signs to postage stamps, blowing up whole buildings or chipping Nazi symbols from the facade of public buildings across the country.”

The Allies’ ban on swastikas and other Nazi symbology was further codified when the new Constitution of Germany was created in 1949 in West Germany. At the same time, the concept of Volksverhetzung — “incitement to hatred” — was codified as well. Anyone who denigrates an individual or group based on their ethnicity or religion or rouses violence against a specific group could, after that, face prison time.

There was also, says Black, an unspoken agreement that further cemented the public confrontation of Nazi symbolism and made sure such signs were not tolerated in public. Because many of those in the Third Reich actually integrated into the government system and the economic market, it was almost impossible to rebuild an entire functioning political system without people who had such experience. The solution, in many cases, was not to talk about it.

“A democracy was created on the ashes of this terrible crime,” Black said. “In West Germany there was a pact that was struck — a lot of the crimes of the past were not going to be prosecuted after the war but the deal with that was that Neo-Nazi elements would not be tolerated.”

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During the Cold War Era in the 1950s, the German Penal Code was updated to include a section that stated that it was illegal to disseminate or produce symbols including particular flags, insignia, uniforms, slogans and forms of greeting from parties that had been deemed unconstitutional, which included the Nazi party. This law is what was used to really scrub any remaining symbols of Nazism form the public sphere.

The notable exemption to that rule is known as the “art exception,” which allows these symbols to be reproduced if it is for the purposes of scientific research, historical purposes or historical accuracy in media including film, books and plays.

During the 1960s, these laws because very important and heavily enforced. According to Frederick Taylor, the author of Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany , the ’60s were when Germans really began evaluating their history and engaging with it to ensure the Nazi ideology would not enter their society again.

“It was illegal before that, but it’s really been properly enforced since the 60s,” Taylor says. “That’s when a whole new generation came up and looked at their parents and their grandparents and said, ‘What the hell have you been doing?'”

One instance that Taylor cites was the passage of additional laws regarding speech surrounding Nazism. After a series of Jewish places of worship were vandalized in 1959, starting in Cologne, Germany, and then in New York, Vienna and London, the German government criminalized Holocaust Denial in 1960. Both before and after German unification, the government made a serious effort to show the world that it was confronting the Holocaust.

From then until today, there has been strict official intolerance of anything related to Nazism. Lifting the ban on Nazi symbols in video games may come as a bit of a shock to others around the world who are used to German censorship of Nazism in the public sphere — but both Taylor and Black agree that the news isn’t necessarily something to be concerned about. Germany is now a mature democracy, they say, with a government that continues to evaluate its past while updating its policies for modern life. That includes new levels of respect for video games.

“It’s a mature democracy that is always going to be confronting new questions about its past in the present,” says Black. “It’s responding to those questions both in light of the past but also to accommodate the changing circumstances of the present.”
Germany lifts a blanket ban on Nazi symbolism in video games, including the swastika.