Germany sees Hitler’s ‘SS’ in Adidas football jerseys, halts sales after social media outrage

The German Football Association (DFB) and Adidas have stopped the sale of German jerseys with the number ‘4’, after it created an outrage online. People pointed out that the jersey number ’44’, when two ‘4’ were put together, was specifically problematic due to its resemblance with the Nazi ‘SS’ symbol.

The social media outrage was fuelled after people started to personalise the German soccer jersey online, with the number ‘4’, which resembled the Nazi Party’s notorious Schutzstaffel or the SS, a paramilitary unit under Hitler’s Third Reich.

“Another neo-Nazi fashion trend: wearing the number “44” on a German national football jersey because it resembles the Nazi “SS” insignia,” France-based journalist Mather Fraser wrote on X.

Adidas, the jersey manufacturer, stopped offering jersey personalisation with names and numbers on Monday, and the DFB stopped the delivery of jerseys with the number 44 from its online store.

The federation said it is looking for an alternative design of the number ‘4’ in collaboration with its partner, 11teamsports.

“None of the parties involved saw any proximity to Nazi symbolism in the development process of the jersey design,” the federation said on X.

Commonly known as the Schutzstaffel, SS members were used as police units, combat forces and in the operations of concentration camps carrying out mass killings during World War II.

The Waffen SS, led by the infamous Heinrich Himmler, was responsible for the killings of millions of Jews, Negroes and Gypsies across Europe, which came to be known as the Holocaust.

Therefore, the Nazi-stylized ‘SS’ is banned in Germany, as a symbol.

The German Football Association and 11teamsports were responsible for the design of the names and numbers on the tee-shirts, according to Adidas spokesman Oliver Bruggen.

“People from around 100 countries work at Adidas. Our company stands for the promotion of diversity and inclusion, and as a company we actively campaign against xenophobia, antisemitism, violence and hatred in all forms,” Bruggen said.

“Any attempts to promote divisive or exclusionary views are not part of our values as a brand,” Bruggen added.