The inhabitants of a small town in eastern Germany made their own stand against neo-Nazis by buying up all the beer in the local supermarket.

The people of Ostritz, on the border with Poland, were unhappy their town was chosen as the venue for a neo-Nazi rock festival.

Hundreds of far-Right supporters flocked to the town from across Germany at the weekend to attend the Schild und Schwert, or Shield and Sword Festival — named to get round an official ban on using the initials SS.

But they were forced to go without beer after the townspeople bought up more than 200 crates in a coordinated action.

“It was planned a week in advance. We wanted to dry the Nazis out,” Georg Salditt, one of those behind the plan, told Bild newspaper.

The festival goers had already been banned from bringing their own beer after a local court ordered the venue be made a dry zone for safety reasons, after ruling the festival had an “aggressive nature”.