Austrian hotel drops suit against guest who protested ‘Nazi grandpa’ photo

The owners of an Austrian guesthouse have dropped their case against a guest who complained online about the “Nazi grandpa” displayed on the hotel’s walls, according to The Guardian.

The complaint was dropped after the tourist apparently unearthed information linking the owners’ relatives to the Nazi Party.

The guest had posted comments on Booking.com and Tripadvisor, saying there had been “a photo of a Nazi grandpa hanging in the hall,” prompting the lawsuit.

The picture was of a soldier in Wehrmacht uniform wearing insignia with a swastika.

One of the owners, in her filing, had argued that it was customary for people in the Tyrol region to hang pictures of dead family members in the entrance halls of their homes.

The portrait was of a family member who had been “forced to enlist” and killed in the war, she said.

But the tourist discovered this information to be false and that the displayed relative had voluntarily joined the Nazi Party in 1941 and 1943, according to The Guardian.

The guesthouse owners are expected to cover the legal fees of the tourist.

— with AFP