It seems NXT gave WALTER a new name, deciding to change it to Gunther. As per Louis Dangoor, WWE recently filed a trademark for the name 'Gunther Stark' who was a military commander for the Nazis in World War 2. As of right now WALTER, or Gunther, is not using the last name.
But could it all be a big coincidence?
Christian Bruns, a German pro-wrestling journalist, found some new information, and I decided to translate the new parts and give some additional context for how the implications of the new gimmick will be received by German viewers. You can find the German version of the article here.
A couple of tweets from the last days seem strange in this new context. The Twitter-Account of WALTER Hahn talks about "EINMARSCH".
First off, "Einmarsch" means invasion. Because of the afflicted nature of the word in German, one would be well advised to handle a German invading anything with more care. But, the situation gets worse, as WALTER is Austrian and not German. Guess who else was Austrian. The implication is very unfortunate.
Additionally, last week Marcel Barthel published a tweet with the words "IMPERIUM over everything", which is very obviously a reference to the first verse of the Deutschlandlied. The tweet has been deleted since then.
The third verse of the "Deutschlandlied" is the national hymn of Germany to this day. The first verse however was abused by the Nazis as a propaganda tool. It reads "Germany, Germany over everything, over everything in the world" [Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt]. As of today, the first two verses of the Deutschlandlied are not illegal per se, but they are very frowned upon. There are some groups in Germany that still use it, of course. Here is the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), proudly singing the first verse. The AfD is not only a kind-of right wing party, but it positions itself on the radical right, gladly seeking out votes from fascists, PEGIDA, and neo-Nazis.
I'm not sure if an international brand like WWE would want to associate themselves with that. I would hope the implications are only that, nothing more. But if not, WWE may accidentally stir up some trouble in the current political climate of Germany and Austria. Christian Bruns summarized the situation very well: Are they playing with fire, or is it all a coincidence? We know one thing for sure: This stunt catapults WWE as a brand in Germany back into the darkest time of the country.
TLDR: I don't mean to imply that a German/Austrian person being proud of their country is inherently wrong. But in situations like this, with the vocabulary that is used, it's hard to ignore the historical and the political insinuations that are made directly on American television and are more than merely a new name.