German prosecutors said on Tuesday they had launched an investigation into a giant swastika figure trampled into a maize field and visible only from the air.
Police in Assling, Bavaria, said the swastika, like all Nazi insignia illegal under German law, was spotted on Sunday by a pilot flying from a nearby airfield.
"We've never seen anything this big, in most cases, it's simply someone who urinated in the snow in the shape of a swastika," police investigator Gerhard Karl told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
Swastika in German maize field (Photo: Reuters)
The land's owner, Arne Lechner, claimed it was an "alien" attack that has been seriously affecting farmers in the area.
There were no leads to the perpetrators of the offending symbol, which is about 20 meters by 20 meters in size.
The field is due to be harvested in three weeks. It was not clear whether the farmer would be obliged to trample down more of the crop to obscure the swastika - something German media said would be a costly affair.