Fortunately, Gartenzwerge (garden gnomes) have their own Underground Railroad now, the Gartenzwerg Befreiungsfront. From Garden Angels: The Secret History of the Garden Gnome Der Spiegel Online 03/29/06:
But the common garden gnome has fallen on hard times in recent years, his reputation tarnished by campaigns led by mean-spirited elitist intellectuals and even perverts. To intellectuals and other touchy types, he's despised as the embodiment of kitsch and petit-bourgeois parochialism. Some outsiders have even sought to savage the image of the gnome by plunging him into a world of decadence, violence, and sex. There are pornographic gnomes, one-eared Van Gogh gnomes and "Scream" versions à la Edvard Munch.
The press routinely reports shocking attacks even on harmless outdoor gnomes. Vandalism is rampant. At the same time, law enforcers are continually called upon to take action against bare-bottomed or genitally exposed "gross-out gnomes". Gnome theft, too, is spreading in leaps and bounds. Berlin's "Dwarf Mother" recently lamented the theft of 50 of her gnomes. It's possible they were taken to France, where the Garden Gnome Liberation Front abducts supposedly enslaved gnomes and releases them back into their natural habitat.
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