Berlin's mayor defended his decision to welcome a leather and fetish enthusiasts to the German capital and accused his conservative critics Tuesday of being "small-minded."  Mayor Klaus Wowereit sent a written greeting to participants in the Folsom Europe festival in Berlin this weekend, saying: "We are proud that people of varied origins and predilections feel at home in our city and celebrate together."
| ... in their own peculiar ways. |
| What, San Francisco was booked up? |
A top regional official with the Christian Democrats described the message from Wowereit — an openly gay member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats — as "unspeakable."
| That's prob'ly why he wrote it... |
"Glorifying violence and sadomasochistic excesses is to begin opting out of society," said Nikolas Zimmer, the conservative party's leader in the Berlin state legislature. The mayor brushed aside the criticism. "A greeting message is always an advertisement as well, above all for international guests — we want to see them in Berlin," he was quoted as saying in an interview with the tabloid Bild. "Mr. Zimmer is small-minded," he said. "Berlin is open — Mr. Zimmer has to learn that. ... And so long as nothing forbidden is happening, I expect tolerance." |