Bus driver dubbed Herman the German loses racism claim
By Caroline Davies

A GERMAN-BORN bus driver, who said he was tormented by colleagues who did "Basil Fawlty-style" goose steps and called him "Herman the German" lost a claim for race discrimination yesterday when a tribunal dismissed the gestures as "good-natured banter".

 Klaus Burger, 49, a driver with First Group Buses, based in Orpington, Kent, resigned from his job claiming that two years of daily abuse had made him ill. He told the hearing that as soon as he started work, several colleagues began to make jokes and insult him because he was German.

 He said: "Unfortunately these jokes included Nazi remarks, which, like many Germans, I find offensive. They would include phrases such as Sieg Heil, Heil Mein Führer and German bastard. I was also referred to as 'Herman the German' and 'Gerhard'. 

"I experienced regular gestures including goose-stepping, clicking heels and Nazi salutes from other drivers which was particularly humiliating when my bus was full of passengers." He said when once he drove to Biggin Hill during an air show, he was told the planes on display were Spitfires looking for German tanks.

 He said: "Another incident I found particularly insulting took place in the common room, while I and colleagues were discussing the privatisation of energy suppliers. I explained I was not familiar with the new gas tariffs, to which a colleague remarked he was surprised to meet a German without a gas supply, clearly implying a connection with the Nazi wartime gas chambers."

 Mr Burger, a bachelor, was born in Potsdam in former East Germany. He fled to Berlin in the West as a refugee, and came to Britain in 1993 because he had "fallen in love with the country". He took a job with the London firm, First Centre West Buses, which owns First Group. 

The taunts started immediately, involving around 20 colleagues. Eventually he developed migraines and a stomach ulcer because of the stress. Jack Hatrick, his solicitor, said: "The applicant appreciated that bus drivers from the same depot often wave to each other, but instead the applicant would commonly receive a Nazi salute, combined with a hand positioned to resemble a moustache."

 The tribunal, held in March, was shown photographs of a swastika daubed on the toilet wall of the depot, and of notes put in his bus saying "This is not a German tank".

 Yesterday, dismissing his claim for race discrimination and constructive dismissal, the tribunal unanimously ruled: "There were occasions when the applicant was the subject of good-natured banter from other drivers on account of his being German and during the course of conversations involving football, but such occasions were not racially motivated.

 "There was no evidence before us which could have led us to conclude the applicant has been subjected to any detriment on the grounds of unlawful discrimination." After the hearing, Mr Burger, of Penge, Kent, said the decision was unbelievable.

 He said: "I fought against communism and fascism, so to be mocked and accused of being something you have spent your life fighting against was heartbreaking."