{"id":124452,"date":"2020-01-16T03:06:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T11:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=124452"},"modified":"2020-01-16T09:58:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T17:58:16","slug":"ai-weiwei-sued-by-german-casino-worker-over-nazi-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ai-weiwei-sued-by-german-casino-worker-over-nazi-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei Sued by German Casino Worker Over \u201cNazi\u201d Comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ai Weiwei \u2013 the renowned artist and perhaps the West\u2019s most celebrated Chinese dissident \u2013 is being sued by a worker at Spielbank Berlin (Casino Berlin), whom he accused of \u201cNazi thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ai
Ai Weiwei made a name for himself playing blackjack when he lived in New York in the 1980s. (Image: AI Weiwei Studio)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The news comes directly from the horse\u2019s mouth \u2013 via an op-ed on cultural differences and ethnic prejudice, authored by Ai, in the New York Times<\/em> this week.<\/p>\n

Ai explained that he had recently received notice of a slander lawsuit filed against him by a \u201ccasino clerk\u201d in Germany. The complaint claimed the pro-democracy activist had called the clerk \u201ca Nazi and a racist without any factual basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ai said he received the notice as he was about to depart for England, and so he passed the matter to his lawyer. But the complaint led him to \u201cprod\u201d his memory.<\/p>\n

He recalled that about a year ago, he had played cards at the casino in Berlin\u2019s Potsdamer Platz and when he went to cash out had placed his chips on the counter without saying a word.<\/p>\n

\n

Poet, Author, Exile, Blackjack King<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a little-known fact that in addition to being an artist, author and activist intellectual, Ai is also a killer blackjack player.<\/p>\n

While baccarat is the casino game of choice<\/a> for most of his fellow countrymen, Ai became a legendary blackjack player when he lived in New York City between 1981 and 1993. He made frequent trips to Atlantic City — where he was fully comped — along with a man named \u201cSnake Eyes,\u201d according to the website blackjackchamp.com.<\/p>\n

When Ai was detained by Chinese authorities in 2011 after annoying the Politburo in Beijing<\/a> with too many subversive opinions on social media, the \u201cblackjack community\u201d was up in arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are currently talks between multiple casino insiders to hold a series of fund-raising blackjack and poker tournaments to lobby the US government to impose trade restrictions against China unless Mr. Ai Wei Wei is released,\u201d claimed blackjackchamp.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018Learn Some Manners\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to Ai, the cashier informed him that he should say \u201cplease,\u201d which irked the Chinese dissident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens if I don\u2019t?\u201d Ai asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re in Europe, you know,\u201d the clerk replied, clearly unaware who he was addressing. \u201cYou should learn some manners.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Ai questioned the cashier\u2019s own manners, he was told, resentfully: \u201cDon\u2019t forget that I\u2019m feeding you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a Nazi attitude and a racist comment,\u201d Ai said, according to the NYT<\/em> article.<\/p>\n

Ai said he complained to the casino manager, who eventually offered an apology, and the artist thought that was the end of it.<\/p>\n

Worst Insult<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Apparently not, but does the outraged casino worker have a case?<\/p>\n

Germany has outlawed the glorification of Nazism — which means that proffering a Nazi salute will put you behind bars — but there is no law that explicitly forbids calling someone a Nazi.<\/p>\n

However, under paragraph 185 of the German penal code, slander is a criminal offense, and the definition is broader than in the US.<\/p>\n

In Germany, simply “hurting someone’s honor” could be illegal, and that can include insults that would generally be protected by freedom of speech laws in America.<\/p>\n

Law professor Manfred Heinrich of Kiel University\u00a0told DW.com<\/em> recently that calling someone a Nazi in Germany is perhaps the worst insult of all, because it implies \u201cunscrupulous acts of barbarism.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ai Weiwei \u2013 the renowned artist and perhaps the West\u2019s most celebrated Chinese dissident \u2013 is being sued by a worker at Spielbank Berlin (Casino Berlin), whom he accused of \u201cNazi thinking.\u201d The news comes directly from the horse\u2019s mouth \u2013 via an op-ed on cultural differences and ethnic prejudice, authored by Ai, in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":124453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAi Weiwei Sued by German Casino Worker Over \u201cNazi\u201d Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ai Weiwei, the artist and Chinese dissident, is being sued by a clerk at the Spielbank Berlin for slander after he accused him of \u201cNazi behavior.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ai Weiwei Sued by German Casino Worker Over \u201cNazi\u201d Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ai Weiwei, the artist and Chinese dissident, is being sued by a clerk at the Spielbank Berlin for slander after he accused him of \u201cNazi behavior.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ai-weiwei-sued-by-german-casino-worker-over-nazi-comment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-16T11:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-16T17:58:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/ai.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ai-weiwei-sued-by-german-casino-worker-over-nazi-comment\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ai-weiwei-sued-by-german-casino-worker-over-nazi-comment\/\",\"name\":\"Ai Weiwei Sued by German Casino Worker Over \u201cNazi\u201d Comment\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ai-weiwei-sued-by-german-casino-worker-over-nazi-comment\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ai-weiwei-sued-by-german-casino-worker-over-nazi-comment\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/ai.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-16T11:06:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-16T17:58:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Ai Weiwei, the artist and Chinese dissident, is being sued by a clerk at the Spielbank Berlin for slander after he accused him of \u201cNazi behavior.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ai-weiwei-sued-by-german-casino-worker-over-nazi-comment\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ai-weiwei-sued-by-german-casino-worker-over-nazi-comment\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ai-weiwei-sued-by-german-casino-worker-over-nazi-comment\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/ai.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/ai.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Ai Weiwei made a name for himself playing blackjack when he lived in New York in the 1980s. 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