HANOVER

A children’s Advent calendar, featuring a serial killer clutching a meat cleaver, has been removed from sale in tourism offices in Hanover after officials admitted that it was “perhaps a little off-colour”.

Independent bookshops in the northern German city will be free to stock the calendar, which depicts a traditional festive street scene in which children sing carols, lights deck snow-covered trees and Father Christmas hands out presents. The Star of Bethlehem twinkles over the rooftops.

Over the first door of the calendar, however, a shadowy figure peers out from behind a tree, a trilby covering his eyes and a meat cleaver in his hand. An inscription identifies him as Fritz Harmaan, who killed 24 young people during a murderous spree in Hanover after the First World War. He chopped up their bodies and dumped the remains in the River Leine. The victims were between the ages of 13 and 20.

Harmaan was sentenced to death and beheaded in 1925.

Hans-Christian Nolte, the head of the Hanover tourist board, initially defended the inclusion of the mass murderer in the calendar, saying: “He is part of our history. Even on guided tours the serial killer’s story is told.”

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