It's not every day that Frankfurt judges upset the whole of Italy with a decision.

In December 2020, a civil chamber ruled that a pizzeria from Sachsenhausen could continue to be named after the Italian investigating judge Giovanni Falcone, who fought the Cosa Nostra together with his colleague Paolo Borsellino in the 1980s and 1990s.

The men who dedicated their lives to fighting organized crime in Sicily and who were the first to lead a major trial involving 475 people were murdered in two attacks by the mafia in 1992. Tuesday marks the 30th anniversary of Borsellino's death.

Anna Sophia Lang

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Many years later, an Italian lawyer in Frankfurt accidentally noticed that a pizzeria had been decorated with the names and pictures of Falcone and Borsellino.

Photos of Vito Corleone from "The Godfather" also hung inside, the menu was painted with bullet holes and offered menus such as "Patrone&Me" or "Falcone&Borsellino".

Falcone's sister Maria, chairwoman of the anti-mafia foundation of the same name, appealed to the Frankfurt Regional Court – and lost.

horror in Italy

The judges rejected the motions for injunctive relief.

On the one hand, the sister could not invoke her brother's naming rights.

On the other hand, the postmortem protection of personality decreases with the passage of time and fading memory.

"Nearly 30 years ago, the issue of 'fighting the mafia' was in the public eye," the judges wrote.

Today, this is no longer the case with "all people who visit restaurants".

Falcone is only known "among criminal prosecutors and criminologists".

It should also be taken into account "that Falcone's lifetime achievements are primarily located in Italy."

In Italy, the verdict caused horror.

Maria Falcone called it "very painful".

The justice minister announced that he would write to his German counterpart, and the foreign minister said the mafia was not a game.

The Italian Embassy wrote a note of protest, and the Judges' Association issued a statement.

The owners of the pizzeria then wrote to the Italian ambassador that they would give up the name of the restaurant.

"At no time was it our intention to trivialize organized crime, glorify the mafia or offend the sensibilities of the relatives of the two anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino and all innocent victims of the mafia by naming our restaurant. "

With a judgment of the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court, the case has now probably found its legal end.

Because the owners of the pizzeria, which is not currently in operation, did not comment on the proceedings, the court used what Maria Falcone said: It issued a default judgment in which it obliged the pizzeria to refrain from future use of the Falcone name in a mafia-related context .