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German Michael Jackson Fans Are Physically Fighting Each Other Over a Shrine to the King of Pop

The government is threatening to take away the Munich memorial shrine if fans can't handle it.

Read: Meet the Mystery Man Who Rapped on Michael Jackson's 'Black or White'

It goes without saying that in our wild and wacky post-Y2K, macro-anti-probiotic, who-wore-it-better world, people care about celebrities a lot. Some would even argue that we care about celebrities too much, but while there's no consensus on that yet, surely we can all agree that the Michael Jackson superfans of Munich are in another league.

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Since the day after Jackson's death in 2009, an unsanctioned shrine has developed and been maintained outside the Bayerischer Hof hotel, where Jackson frequently stayed when in Munich. It's grown into something of a tourist attraction, with fans from around the world leaving flags and other trinkets when they pass through the city.

However, in a tale as old as time, humanity was not content to worship and exist in peace. The need for power and control, an instinct as human as breathing and calling your ex after drinking too much whisky on a Tuesday, has driven a wedge between two rival factions of MJ fans. That discord has resulted in an ongoing battle for superfan supremacy. The feud between MJ's Legacy and MJ Memorial Munich is so intense that Bavarian authorities are threatening to close and remove the shrine; it has escalated to physical altercations, and one fan claims someone threw a glass votive-holder at her.

"The organization MJ's Legacy thinks that it has exclusive permission from the city to decorate and maintain the memorial," said MJ Memorial Munich member Bettina Alde.

MJ's Legacy organizer Nena Snezana Akhtar had a different story.

"For some time, a group of four people has come together to rally against our work," Akhtar told AFP. "They remove our decorations, take down our posters and crush the flowers we plant."

A spokesperson for Bavaria's cultural ministry told reporters that "this is an absolute final warning. We tolerated this memorial until now, but we've heard from the police about disputes between fans, and there have even been criminal complaints."

In a letter to the fans in question, the ministry wrote, "If peaceful coexistence between the different groups of fans behind the Michael Jackson memorial is not possible, then sadly the memorial will have to be removed."

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