German store changes name after protests

CHEMNITZ, Germany, March 8 (UPI) -- A German store selling clothing brands favored by neo-Nazis has changed its name from "Brevik" due to it being close to the name of an extremist.

A spokesman for Mediatex, the owner of the week-old store in Chemnitz, said the shop was named for the Brevik village south of Oslo, Norway, but they decided to change the name to Tonsberg after protesters pointed out the word "Brevik" is only one letter off from the name of Anders Behring Breivik, a far-right extremist responsible for the deaths of 77 people in Norway last year, The Local reported Thursday.

Mediatex owns the Thor Steinar clothing label, which is sold at the store and often worn by neo-Nazis.

The Mediatex spokesman said the company names its stores after places in Norway and previously operated a Brevik store in Hamburg, Germany, but the location closed in 2008.

Hanka Kliese, a politician with the Social Democrat party, said she does not accept that the store's name was accidental.

"The name was consciously chosen to make the connection to Breivik," she said. "It is repellent, shocking and unmasks the firm."

"Behind the company there is a violent and inhuman ideology," Kliese said. "We don't want a shop like that here, whatever they call it."