Yeah, it was quite the wakeup for me.  I saw a truck flying an immense confederate flag driving down the road in rural north east Germany.  In the next town, was chatting with some folks and mentioned it as odd.  They got kind of horrified, explained the fact that Nazi symbols are basically a felony, then went on to explain that the same clowns that want to fly a swastika, instead fly Confederate flags to stay legal.  All in all it was kind of an enlightening though weird conversation.  My take on it is "one group of losers taking on the symbols of another group of losers".