A driver in the eastern German city of Dresden, who sparked outrage by displaying an apparently anti-foreigner sign on the door of his bus, has lost his job. 

“Anti-foreigner” sign sparks Twitter outrage

Dresden’s transport association, DVB, was forced to apologise this week after it emerged that one of its drivers had displayed a sign reading “This bus is driven by a German driver” at the front of his vehicle. 

The sign was spotted by commuter Peter Dörffel, who promptly took a photo of it and uploaded it to Twitter. “I was amazed when I saw it,” he told local media site Tag24. “What shocked me the most was that I’m not even surprised anymore. Things like this are slowly becoming normal.”

Driver in question has been sacked

The photo quickly unleashed a Twitter storm. Facing a barrage of outraged Tweets, DVB quickly responded: “Hello, the message has reached us. We’re also wondering what’s wrong with this colleague. He is no longer on the road and this behaviour will have consequences.”

A DVB spokesperson said that the driver was employed by a private subcontractor. The head of the company in question, Matthias Peschke, was reportedly horrified when he saw the photo. “This is a shocking situation,” he told Tag24. “This is a long-term employee of ours. His service has now been discontinued. He won’t be in the schedule tomorrow.” 

German companies looking abroad to fill vacancies

An unnamed colleague told Bild that the bus driver wanted to make it clear with the sign that he was able to speak German, as, according to him, the bus company has recently hired lots of “Eastern European recruits” who struggle with the language. 

DVB has recently been embarking on a recruitment drive abroad, after struggling to find enough domestic recruits to fill job vacancies in its rapidly-expanding network. The company needs around 570 drivers each day to cover shifts. Back in October, DVB boss Jan Silbermann complained that the domestic job market had been “swept clear”, prompting the need to turn to other countries for reinforcements. 

According to the local Sächsische Zeitung newspaper, 19 new drivers were recently recruited from Serbia, although they had to attend German language courses before being allowed to work in Germany.