IMPORTANT! Import of Melvins Trilogy ILLEGAL in Germany?

[Fehlbrandschwele]

the most disturbing thing happened to a friend of mine just today

we're austrians living in berlin, germany. my friend ordered the melvins trilogy on ebay. now he got a letter from the german police that it was illegal to import stuff with nazi symbols on it. i mean what the fuck?
he already wrote a letter to ipecac recordings and they answered really quickly (thank you ipecac!) stating that they had never come across any legal matters regarding the trilogy release. also the trilogy was legal for sale in germany and still is available through amzon-germany.

so does anybody know anything that could help us figure out what the hell is going on?

if you have anything that could help us please respond, thanks

:f:

[Like Stee]

Well only the vinyl version has a giant Hackenkreuz/Swastika on one of the discs, and as I understand it anything with that symbol on it is illegal to sell in Germany...  That sucks.  Guess it makes no difference to them that the flipside of the record is a huge star of david.

[bUTTHOLEmAN]

the most disturbing thing happened to a friend of mine just today

we're austrians living in berlin, germany. my friend ordered the melvins trilogy on ebay. now he got a letter from the german police that it was illegal to import stuff with nazi symbols on it. i mean what the fuck?
he already wrote a letter to ipecac recordings and they answered really quickly (thank you ipecac!) stating that they had never come across any legal matters regarding the trilogy release. also the trilogy was legal for sale in germany and still is available through amzon-germany.

so does anybody know anything that could help us figure out what the hell is going on?

if you have anything that could help us please respond, thanks

:f:

Well, considering the role Germany had in WWII, and their anti-nazi related laws..  I'm sure you can understand why customs stopped the import.  People have gotten jail time in Germany for giving the 'sieg heil' salute.   I'm just surprised customs took the time to not only open the package, but examine each of the records.

[jules]

Does anyone here have the version with all 3 discs as swastikas? 35 were pressed for members of the band and their friends but one showed up on ebay a while back (666 bucks 'buy it now'). Apparently one went astray and turned up in a record shop.

[Like Stee]

I remember seeing that on ebay, and there was some debate at the time about whether it was real or not.  Anyone know if it had three stars on the flipside, or were both sides swastikas?  It does always feel a bit strange spinning side 1 of The Maggot on the old turntable, like "am I a bad person for listening to this."  All is forgiven then when the record is flipped.  I like how provocative the pic discs are.  It's always interesting to see friends' reactions when I throw that disc on.  Very Melvins.

[Ministry Fiend]

the most disturbing thing happened to a friend of mine just today

we're austrians living in berlin, germany. my friend ordered the melvins trilogy on ebay. now he got a letter from the german police that it was illegal to import stuff with nazi symbols on it. i mean what the fuck?
he already wrote a letter to ipecac recordings and they answered really quickly (thank you ipecac!) stating that they had never come across any legal matters regarding the trilogy release. also the trilogy was legal for sale in germany and still is available through amzon-germany.

so does anybody know anything that could help us figure out what the hell is going on?

if you have anything that could help us please respond, thanks

:f:

It sounds like you just got really unlucky with customs checking it.

I'm coming to Berlin on July 5th for 4 days and will attempt to smuggle one in for you if you want?

[Like Stee]

The thing that seems really weird about this is that they would have had to pull the sleeve out of the gatefold, and the vinyl out of the sleeve to discover this.  Unless this vinyl is on some kind of list of banned items...