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Pizzeria owner charged with discrimination for banning Germans, French

April 22, 2003

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark --The owner of a Danish pizzeria who won't serve German and French tourists was charged with discrimination on April 22.

According to the Associated Press, Aage Bjerre, who owns a pizzeria on Denmark's Fanoe Island, has refused to serve tourists from Germany and France since February, after both countries denied support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq. He called them "anti-American." (See Dane shows U.S. loyalty by refusing pizza service to Germans, French.)

According to the report, no trial date has been set. If found guilty, Bjerre could be fined $735.

Bjerre displayed two pictograms on his shop door, much like the ones that show the outline of a cigarette, with a bar across it.

One featured the silhouette of a man colored red, yellow and black (the colors of the German flag), and the second was painted blue, white and red (the French flag's colors). Both silhouettes bore a bar across each man.

The island, which is 200 miles southwest of Copenhagen, is home to 3,300 people and draws 100,000 visitors a year, 60 percent of which are German. The other 40 percent are mostly Scandinavian and Dutch. According to the report, there are few French visitors.