Why eating egg dumplings in Austria on April 20th can be a sensitive issue
Egg dumplings (Eiernockerl) are a very traditional and common dish in Austria, but on April 20th, they carry a darker meaning - and advertising the dish or posting pictures eating them could be considered a crime.
Egg dumplings, or Eiernockerl, are a very traditional and typically innocent Austrian dish. It's similar to Italian gnocchi and requires only flour, eggs, milk, butter, salt and water.
Normally, you can find it and eat it in any Austrian inn or restaurant, but if you see it being advertised, on sale, or an Austrian acquaintance posting a picture of it on April 20th, there is an entirely different meaning to it.
On April 20th, 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in the small Austrian town of Braunau am Inn.
Nazi sympathisers still look for ways to "celebrate" the date despite the fact that glorifying Nazism is a crime in Austria. One of the "discreet" ways they have found to mark the date is by eating and advertising Eiernockerl, which is said to have been Hitler's favourite dish.
READ ALSO: Outcry over Austrian soldier wearing self-made Nazi uniform
What does the law say?
But is it a crime to eat or advertise the dish? This is complicated. Austria's Prohibition Act (Verbotsgesetz) was published in 1947 to ban the Nazi party and all of its military associations, branches, associations, and goals.
It is also forbidden for anyone to incite or promote National Socialism and its associated institutions, and this is where it gets tricky. Certain acts, symbols and chantings are clearly connected to the Nazis, and anyone hailing a swastika flag, for example, might be criminally charged in Austria - even if the law itself doesn't cite which symbols or chants could be illegal.
A traditional egg dumpling dish with salad - it can be a controversial dish in Austria (Commons Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0)
However, egg dumplings are not immediately associated with Hitler and the Nazis. On April 20th, though, as neo-Nazis started this "celebration", the police and civil society became more aware of the association.
In 2021, for example, a police officer and former far-right politician of the FPÖ had to answer for the crime of infringing the Prohibition Act after he posted a photo of the dish on social media on April 20th, the year before.
READ ALSO: REVEALED: Just how widespread is anti-Semitism in Austria?
He was later sentenced to ten months of conditional imprisonment and had to pay a fine of € 6,300. However, the verdict was close in the Eisenstadt Regional Court, which voted 5 to 3 to sentence the man. While the defence argued that it was all a "silly coincidence", the prosecutor said it was a "chain of incidents that had nothing to do with coincidence".
"On no other day did the defendant post photos of food," the prosecutor said, according to a Kurier report. It was "clearly a national socialist code used in relevant circles to recall national socialism."
Inns and restaurants
Over the past few years, several inns and restaurants have also raised controversy when advertising the dumplings as "dish of the day".
Wo es heute extra Eiernockerln mit Salat gibt?
• Nekam's Stüberl um 8.8 €
• Gasthaus Orlik
• Alt Wien (1120)
• Marienhof
Speziell auf der Wochenkarte:
im Weltcafe, Studio15, Magazin pic.twitter.com/uJv5XU6GL5
— Michael Horak (@fatmike182) April 20, 2022
Every year, lists of restaurants offering the dish come up online. In 2022, one Viennese establishment, Nekam's Stüberl, went even further: advertising the plate for € 8.80.
The number "88" is known as a code for the eighth letter in the alphabet, H, and is used to reference a Nazi salute.
Most of the restaurants called out, including Nekam's Stüberl, ended up changing their menus, alleging they did not know the connection between the dish and the National Socialists.
READ ALSO: Austria improves nationality law for descendants of Nazi victims
Are there other things you should be careful about?
Austria's relationship with its dark past is a complex one, and any talk of the Nazi regime needs to be done in a tactful way.
This means that, for example, even though reading and possessing Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" is not forbidden, having it around on April 20th could be controversial, to say the least.
Additionally, the uncommented original edition of the book may not be distributed, another thing you should keep in mind when living in Austria.
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Egg dumplings, or Eiernockerl, are a very traditional and typically innocent Austrian dish. It's similar to Italian gnocchi and requires only flour, eggs, milk, butter, salt and water.
Normally, you can find it and eat it in any Austrian inn or restaurant, but if you see it being advertised, on sale, or an Austrian acquaintance posting a picture of it on April 20th, there is an entirely different meaning to it.
On April 20th, 1889, Adolf Hitler was born in the small Austrian town of Braunau am Inn.
Nazi sympathisers still look for ways to "celebrate" the date despite the fact that glorifying Nazism is a crime in Austria. One of the "discreet" ways they have found to mark the date is by eating and advertising Eiernockerl, which is said to have been Hitler's favourite dish.
READ ALSO: Outcry over Austrian soldier wearing self-made Nazi uniform
What does the law say?
But is it a crime to eat or advertise the dish? This is complicated. Austria's Prohibition Act (Verbotsgesetz) was published in 1947 to ban the Nazi party and all of its military associations, branches, associations, and goals.
It is also forbidden for anyone to incite or promote National Socialism and its associated institutions, and this is where it gets tricky. Certain acts, symbols and chantings are clearly connected to the Nazis, and anyone hailing a swastika flag, for example, might be criminally charged in Austria - even if the law itself doesn't cite which symbols or chants could be illegal.
However, egg dumplings are not immediately associated with Hitler and the Nazis. On April 20th, though, as neo-Nazis started this "celebration", the police and civil society became more aware of the association.
In 2021, for example, a police officer and former far-right politician of the FPÖ had to answer for the crime of infringing the Prohibition Act after he posted a photo of the dish on social media on April 20th, the year before.
READ ALSO: REVEALED: Just how widespread is anti-Semitism in Austria?
He was later sentenced to ten months of conditional imprisonment and had to pay a fine of € 6,300. However, the verdict was close in the Eisenstadt Regional Court, which voted 5 to 3 to sentence the man. While the defence argued that it was all a "silly coincidence", the prosecutor said it was a "chain of incidents that had nothing to do with coincidence".
"On no other day did the defendant post photos of food," the prosecutor said, according to a Kurier report. It was "clearly a national socialist code used in relevant circles to recall national socialism."
Inns and restaurants
Over the past few years, several inns and restaurants have also raised controversy when advertising the dumplings as "dish of the day".
Wo es heute extra Eiernockerln mit Salat gibt?
— Michael Horak (@fatmike182) April 20, 2022
• Nekam's Stüberl um 8.8 €
• Gasthaus Orlik
• Alt Wien (1120)
• Marienhof
Speziell auf der Wochenkarte:
im Weltcafe, Studio15, Magazin pic.twitter.com/uJv5XU6GL5
Every year, lists of restaurants offering the dish come up online. In 2022, one Viennese establishment, Nekam's Stüberl, went even further: advertising the plate for € 8.80.
The number "88" is known as a code for the eighth letter in the alphabet, H, and is used to reference a Nazi salute.
Most of the restaurants called out, including Nekam's Stüberl, ended up changing their menus, alleging they did not know the connection between the dish and the National Socialists.
READ ALSO: Austria improves nationality law for descendants of Nazi victims
Are there other things you should be careful about?
Austria's relationship with its dark past is a complex one, and any talk of the Nazi regime needs to be done in a tactful way.
This means that, for example, even though reading and possessing Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" is not forbidden, having it around on April 20th could be controversial, to say the least.
Additionally, the uncommented original edition of the book may not be distributed, another thing you should keep in mind when living in Austria.
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