Controversial “Hitler salute” statue will stay inside Amsterdam’s Olympic Stadium

A statue with a raised right hand that bears similarities to the Hitler salute will remain in the stairwell of the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, and will not be returned to its original location outside the stadium entrance. A thirty year old nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Dutch heritage, Het Cuypersgenootschap, filed a lawsuit over the matter, but the Amsterdam district court ruled in favor of the stadium management last week.

The stadium management decided in March to remove the controversial statue, known also as the Van Tuyll monument, from the stadium's main entrance and placed it in the stairwell. The statue depicts Dutch athlete and first Dutch Olympic Committee chair Frits van Tuyll van Serooskerken. The stadium’s decision to move the statue was based on a study that showed that the statue reflects a fascist tradition even though it was built before the Nazis rose to power, reports the NOS.

The Cuypersgenootschap, which works to preserve the architectural heritage primarily from the 19th and 20th centuries, challenged the move in court. In their opinion, history may sometimes rub people the wrong way, “but if we brush all that away nothing remains," a representative said in an interview with Amsterdam broadcaster AT5.

They also argued “that there is no need to move the monument, since no social turmoil is known. The monument has not been attacked or damaged,” the court noted in its ruling.

In fact, the statue was tagged with graffiti earlier this year, the court also said. “The statue of the athlete was vandalized with red paint and the text ‘fck nzs’ is written on the base,” the court said referring to a photo shown at the hearing which was taken in January. Before the statue was moved, the stadium management sought out advice from others, including the city council committee for spatial planning.

Although the statue is supposed to represent the Dutch athlete, the committee found that “the association of the monument with the Hitler salute is so strong that hardly any other associations can be made,” the court said. “It follows that the way in which the salute is depicted was already used by fascists in 1928, but was also seen at the Olympic Games until the Second World War.”

The court ruled that the stadium was allowed to follow the advice they received “in order to prevent the monument from causing misunderstanding among visitors because of its association with the Hitler salute.” Additionally, those people who still wish to view the monument at the stadium may do so, as it is still accessible to the public during events and guided tours. Further, moving the statue did not damage it, and can be moved again at a later date if desired.

The controversial statue has been discussed for some time and has provoked angry reactions from residents and visitors due to the raised right hand associated with the Hitler salute. The outrage over this also resulted in other incidents where the statue was defaced, according to NOS.

The statue, which dates from 1928 and was thus created in the period before the Nazis came to power in Germany, is said to represent the Olympic salute and is supposedly derived from the Roman salute.