Hitler Mugs Unintentionally Sold In German Store

There are some moments in history Germany wants everyone to forgive them for. Specifically, certain events and people during World War II come in mind. However, one store seems to “unintentionally honor the memory” of one of the most infamous dictators in history, and they’re doing it through selling 5,000 mugs featuring his portrait along with a swastika.

According to NBC News, a furniture store in Germany sold nearly 200 coffee mugs bearing the portrait of Adolf Hitler, when they mistakenly ordered 5,000 of them from China. The company, Zurbrueggen, put the Hitler mugs on display at four of its outlets before they were recognized by one of the store’s owners on Friday. Christian Zurbrueggen, co-owner of the chain store, made a statement about the Hitler mugs:

“Our staff is devastated by this very unfortunate error. We have been in touch with the manufacturer… to prevent further distribution of these nasty cups.”

Zurbrueggen is one of the region’s leading homeware stores. The store must get a lot of traffic if they were able to sell 4% of the Hitler mugs in a country trying their hardest to distance themselves from the dictator. Not to mention, the Hitler mugs were on shelves for only three to four days!

The Hitler mugs show a washed-out black-and-white stamp from Hitler’s Third Reich with a swastika and portrait of the dictator himself. Embedded in roses and cursive English script, the picture went unnoticed by the company’s buying agents when they ordered the Hitler mugs at a Chinese trade fair.

Chris Zurbrueggen is trying to fix their store’s blunder by asking the customers to return the Hitler mugs for a $27 voucher. That is a major deal since the Hitler mugs were sold at approximately $2.70.

“We unintentionally ordered these cups and want to take them out of circulation as quickly as possible. A total of 175 cups have been sold, but luckily six mugs have already been returned.”

The six Hitler mugs, along with the remaining stock, have been destroyed. Zurbrueggen also wants to reclaim all costs from the Chinese supplier. Fortunately for him, the local authorities are looking to see if this was a deliberate act, probably from a disgruntled employee, instead of purposely breaking the law. It is illegal in Germany to display swastikas and other Nazi symbols.

In related news, a copy of Mein Kampf was auctioned off recently, and the novel also soared in e-book sales, as reported here on The Inquisitr. If the illegal book by Hitler is doing well, it is no surprise 200 Hitler mugs were sold in such a short amount of time.

Pertaining to Zurbrueggen purchasing the Hitler mugs, they’ve stated to Daily News that the incident “showed the complications of a globalized world.”

[Images via Bing]