The Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger is reported to be taking legal action to force a Hong Kong doll manufacturer to pull from its product range a Nazi doll that bears a striking resemblance to him.
The German tabloid Bild said that the star footballer’s lawyers had begun proceedings in order to prevent sales of the 30cm figure that is due to retail for around £78 (HK$958).
Bild quoted the manufacturing company, Dragon in Dream (DiD) as saying that it was “pure coincidence” that the figure resembled the 31-year-old who joined Manchester United from Bayern Munich in July on a three-year contract worth a reported £14.4m.
It said the name was also a coincidence, as “many people in Germany are called Bastian”.
The figure comes with a steel helmet, a woollen cap bearing a swastika, and a dagger. Experts were quick to point out that its attire is historically inaccurate. It weighs around 2kg.
It also comes equipped with outfit changes, including a white winter jacket and gloves, and other accessories such as two loaves of bread and a set of mess tins.
“Bastian” will reportedly soon be available to buy in Europe via a Dutch partner of DiD. The company describes the doll as “a member of a Wehrmacht supply unit, a so-called cookhouse wallah”.
The Chinese companies register lists Japanese businessman Takuya Umezawa as the director of the DiD Corporation, whose capital shares are worth around £173,000. As well as a range of Nazi soldiers, the company also sells figures of first world war soldiers, as well as a Stalin and a James Bond doll.
Patrick Chan of DiD told Bild that any resemblance to Schweinsteiger was a coincidence. He added: “The figure is based on a typical German. We believe that all Germans look like that.”
Media lawyer Ulrich Amelung told the paper that he believed Schweinsteiger would have strong legal grounds on which to stop the doll from being sold.
“This is a clear violation of Schweinsteiger’s personal rights. Every person has the right to their own image. Furthermore the depiction of a swastika-wearing Wehrmacht soldier constitutes gross defamation and offence,” he said.
Bild called the doll a “dirty Chinese slur” against the captain of the German football team who is a hero to many of his countrymen and women, not least Chancellor Angela Merkel.
By Thursday evening the company’s website had been taken down. A few hours earlier the site had depicted the smiling doll, a supposed “collector’s item”, in 63 different pictures, showing the figure in various guises, including dishing out soup and carrying bread.
The newspaper Die Welt, said it was outrageous enough that the company had turned one of Germany’s most popular figureheads into a Nazi, but the company’s claim that the Nazi doll resembled all Germans only added insult to injury.
Many Germans were devastated when Schweinsteiger made the move to Manchester this summer. But his attempts to integrate into the UK way of life, not least tuning into British humour, have been followed closely by the German media and the Germans’ love affair with him is far from over.
Much publicity was given to some of his earlier, off-the-pitch mishaps – including a jacuzzi tryst at Bayern’s training grounds – but not as much as has been written about the mutual admiration between him and Merkel. One of their more famous encounters, came at the European Championships in 2008 when Schweinsteiger was suspended from a match and sat with the chancellor in the stands to watch it. “She told me I shouldn’t do the same stupid things again,” he said, following a red card. “When Frau Chancellor says you have to do something you have to do it.”