BERLIN — Like millions of visitors to Germany each year, two Chinese tourists made their way this weekend to the Reichstag, seat of the lower house of Parliament, where they snapped photos of themselves outside the historic building.

But the two tourists were hauled off to a Berlin police station after running afoul of decades-old laws forbidding the use of some symbols and gestures — like those used by Hitler and his followers.

According to the police, the two snapped cellphone photos of each other making a Nazi salute outside the Reichstag — an illegal act witnessed by police officers assigned to guard the numerous historic sites in the area.

The unidentified tourists, 36 and 49, were charged early Saturday under post-1945 laws.

While citizens of Germany, Austria and other European countries are schooled in the laws that forbid resurrecting Nazi symbols and gestures, it is not clear whether the increasing numbers of Chinese visitors to Europe are conscious of the measures, most commonly used to prosecute members of the far right on the Continent.