German tourist sued for hotel review about ‘Nazi grandpa’ portrait

An Austrian hotel is suing a German tourist for slamming its photograph of a “Nazi grandpa” in online reviews. The hotel owners denied their relatives were Nazis, but the tourist has since proven otherwise.

The German visitor complained about the photographs of two men wearing uniforms with eagle and swastika badges that were on prominent display in the Gerlos hotel in online reviews on Booking.com and Tripadvisor after he visited last August. 

“This made us wonder what the hotel owners are trying to tell us with this image,” the man, named as Thomas K in court documents, wrote in the since-deleted review. “This incident speaks volumes about the current state of affairs in this region of Austria.” 

The hotel owners asked Booking.com and Tripadvisor to remove the posts, and both complied, although Tripadvisor initially declined. 

The owners of the four-star hotel denied that their grandfather and uncle were members of the Nazi party, saying that they were part of the Wehrmacht uniformed armed forces of Nazi Germany during the time of the Nazi occupation of Austria. However, the tourist was able to prove that both men did join the Nazi party, in 1941 and 1943, by combing through the German National Archives. 

The owners’ lawyer said that they have decided to remove the portraits from display. Despite the removal of both the reviews and the portraits, one potential user has since written on Tripadvisor, “Is this the hotel where the ‘Nazi grandpa’ was displayed?”

The defamation trial is expected to continue until later this year in a regional court in Innsbruck.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!