German Fired For ‘Hitler’ Signature

A German musician who signed his bar bill at an Israeli hotel “Adolf Hitler” was sent home Sunday and will be fired from his Berlin orchestra job, the German ambassador to Israel said.

Ambassador Theodor Wallau said the musician also might face prosecution. “We do not take these matters lightly,” he told The Associated Press. “Expressions of anti-Semitism are against the law in Germany.”

Holocaust survivors held an angry demonstration Saturday night outside the German Opera Berlin performance in Tel Aviv, Israel, and some demonstrators said the entire troupe should have been sent home.

Gerd Reinke, a double bass player, left Israel on Sunday morning, Wallau said. Reinke could not be reached for comment.

The manager of the Sharon Hotel in Herzliya, where the orchestra is staying, said Reinke had two beers at the hotel Friday night and signed his bill “Adolf Hitler.”

“There was outrage in the hotel,” Zwika Spies said. “The cashier asked him what was the meaning of this, and he said it was a joke.”

At the beginning of Saturday night’s performance, the opera’s assistant director read a letter of apology from director Gotz Friedrich, saying Reinke’s conduct was unacceptable.

A representative of the orchestra also took the stage and said the players no longer regard Reinke as their friend and colleague and agreed he should be dismissed.

“There are some things in that country which have to be uprooted once and for all,” said Ariel Sharon, Israel’s infrastructure minister who attended the performance.