A self-styled ‘CrossFit evangelist’ has come under fire for doing a handstand on top of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial.

Dave Driskell has been taking handstand photos around the world to help promote fitness and posted a (now deleted) image on of him doing a handstand on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin on Instagram.

The post had the caption: "Hello Berlin, Germany. 15 hour layover. Checking the sites. Drinking the beers. Eating the bratwurst".

Driskell quickly received lots of comments describing his photo as "inappropriate" and urging him to take it down.

One commenter said: "You know that this is a Holocaust Memorial?! #inappropriate". While another Instagram user warned: "You are gonna want to backtrack real quick on this one dude. I love all that you do, but this one isn't too cool".

Driskell apologised for the post saying he was unaware of the significance of the cement blocks and had just found it "visually stunning".

He said: “I apologise for this horrible misunderstanding and any offense this might have caused. Anyone who knows me, knows this is the complete opposite of what I would want. I respectfully ask your forgiveness."

The memorial consists of 2,711 concrete slabs of different heights designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It was inaugurated on May 10, 2005, sixty years after the end of World War II.