Town Hosting G-8 Summit Revokes Hitler's Honorary Citizenship
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The German town where U.S. President George W. Bush and other G-8 leaders will gather this summer has formally revoked Adolf Hitler's honorary citizenship, putting an end to questions over whether the decades-old honor was still valid.
The Bad Doberan town council voted unanimously on Monday night to revoke the citizenship conferred on Hitler in 1932, the year before he was elected to lead Germany, Mayor Hartmut Polzin said.
The town had argued that any such honor would have ended with Hitler's death in 1945, but Polzin said Tuesday that the council had wanted to put an end to the issue once and for all.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Independent of whether this honorary citizenship was still valid after Hitler's death, the town council voted unanimously to revoke it," Polzin said.
Leaders of the G-8 group of industrial nations, of which Germany currently holds the presidency, are to hold their annual summit in June in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, which is part of the greater Bad Doberan area.
The anti-globalization activists that have become a fixture at any G-8 event had dug up the issue of Hitler's citizenship and made it part of their pre-summit mailings.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}With the vote, Polzin said he hoped that this "ugly and unnecessary discussion" would be put to rest.