Sportswear giant Adidas abruptly halted the sale of German soccer jerseys created with the player number ’44’ this week because the figure, when depicted on the official kit design lettering, was too similar to a well-known Nazi symbol.
The stylized square font used by Adidas for the jerseys, which the German team will wear when they host the European soccer championship this summer, makes the “44” resemble the “SS” insignia used by the Schutzstaffel, the dreaded Nazi paramilitary group that was instrumental in the murder of six million Jews. The emblem is one of dozens of Nazi symbols, phrases and gestures banned in Germany.
The country’s soccer federation, which is responsible for the design, said on Monday that any resemblance to the logo created by the design’s numbering was unintentional.
“None of the parties involved saw any proximity to Nazi symbolism in the process of creating the shirt design,” said the DFB, the German Football Association. statement for X on Monday. However, he said, “an alternate plan for No. 4” was created in time for use in the team’s next few games.
The German national team players are assigned numbers – and shirts – from 1 to 23, as required by soccer’s governing bodies for almost all major tournaments. The German federation said it had not revised plans with higher numbers.
But because Adidas had allowed automatic customization of its clothing, a No. 44 shirt could – until the company ended it on Monday – be ordered by fans using official websites. The ability to add certain names, such as “Hitler” or “Führer”, to the customizable shirt was already blocked by Adidas when the collection went online.
But as of Monday, the company had stopped allowing customization of its shirts with any shirt number until the issue with No. 4 is resolved. “As a company we actively oppose xenophobia, anti-Semitism, violence and hatred in any form Adidas said in a statement.
The brief outcry over the jersey lettering – and the quick response from the football establishment – is part of a wider debate in Germany over Nazi symbols that has flared up as a far-right party, the AfD, surges in the polls. The party is doing well in East Germany, where three states will hold elections later this year.
Later this month, Björn Höcke, one of the party’s most extreme leaders, will stand trial in the eastern city of Halle for using a well-known Nazi slogan during a 2021 campaign.
The authentic SS symbol is among dozens of Nazi references banned in Germany and even punishable by jail time if displayed in large numbers. Along with the skull and bones, worn by some of the squads’ officers on their top hats, the SS logo, resembling two lightning bolts, became the Nazi state’s symbol of terror.
The number 88, which is a code used by neo-Nazis to signify the “Heil Hitler” salute – H being the eighth letter of the alphabet – is already banned from being used as a player number in official football matches in Germany.
The debate over the lettering on Germany’s kits is not the first clash over the national team’s shirt in recent weeks. When the team’s official kits were revealed two weeks ago, some politically conservative football fans criticized Adidas’ pink away kit.
But it was the announcement of a major deal with Nike, also last month, which will see the US firm replace Adidas as Germany’s shirt supplier from 2027 that led to an outcry that included the country’s top politicians.
It will be the first time in Germany’s post-war history that Adidas, a German company, will not manufacture the team’s kits.
“I can hardly imagine the German jersey without the three stripes,” Robert Habeck, Germany’s vice chancellor and finance minister, told DPA, a German news agency. He said he would like to see more “patriotism” from those who made the deal.
The swift reaction by Adidas and the German FA to the design issue at Easter came after social media users began to discuss the No.44’s similarity to the Nazi emblem, and after several newspapers, including powerful tabloid Bild, reported on the subject. .
