Austrian Nazi Cake Maker Receives Death Threats

[Syt]

Bitter outcry over sweet Nazi delicacies

A Lower Austrian confectioner faces legal consequences for offering cakes depicting Nazi era logos.

Maria Enzersdorf-based businessman Manfred Klaschka was reported to the police by the Austrian Mauthausen Committee (MKÖ), an organisation focusing on keeping up the memory of the Nazis' victims.

Prosecutors in Wiener Neustadt are expected to press charges under the Austrian anti-Nazi propaganda law against the confectioner. Pictures released by the MKÖ today (Weds) reveal that Klaschka offered cakes and pies showing swastikas, Third Reich era slogans and other objects and statements banned under Austrian law.

Confronted by Viennese newspapers whether the MKÖ's initiative will make him stop offering products depicting prohibited slogans and logos, Klaschka said, referring to bloodthirsty Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi: "If someone orders it, I'll create a Gaddafi cake."

The Austrian justice ministry recently said 741 people were reported for engaging in crimes with a far-right political background or spreading neo-Nazi propaganda last year, up by almost 40 per cent compared to 2009.

'Nazi' pie maker gets death threats

A confectioner has received murder threats for offering cakes showing banned Nazi propaganda symbols and slogans.

The Austrian Mauthausen Committee (MKÖ) – a Holocaust awareness group – informed police and prosecutors about Manfred Klaschka's controversial business activities earlier this week. The MKÖ was tipped off by horrified customers of the confectioner. A catalogue of previously created products on display at his shop in Maria Enzersdorf, Lower Austria, includes a cake with swastika icing and a pie on which an uniformed arm bursts through to give the Hitler salute.

Klaschka has been threatened with murder in several anonymous postings on various internet discussion platforms since the story broke.

"People are calling me a Nazi swine on the phone. I'm not a fan of (late Third Reich dictator Adolf) Hitler," he said today (Fri).

The confectioner added: "I made these cakes eight years ago. I don't know what's so special about fulfilling extraordinary requests of customers."

Klaschka infuriated anti-Nazi mindset activists, politicians, non-government organisations (NGO) and readers all over the world earlier this week by arguing:  "It's impossible for me to trace back who ordered the cakes in question as they were requested by walk-in customers around eight or nine years ago. Furthermore, and this applies to all trades: the customer is always right!"

He was also quoted as saying: "If someone orders it, I'll create a pie showing (Libyan leader Muammar al-) Gaddafi."

Spreading Nazi propaganda is a breach of law in Austria. The country's juridical framework also prohibits the possession and trade of any kind of objects depicting symbols associated with Nazi Germany. The number of violations of this section of the federal law rose by 39.5 per cent from 2009 to 2010 to 741.

[Caliga]

 

[Neil]

I guess it's a little too soon for Germanoids to have a sense of humour about their past.

[Zanza2]

The grammar Nazi in me wants to kick him for writing "heißt" wrong. The swastika and the SS runes don't look correct either. Does he actually sell those or is it just a media gag?

[Cecil]

The grammar Nazi in me wants to kick him for writing "heißt" wrong. The swastika and the SS runes don't look correct either. Does he actually sell those or is it just a media gag?

The lower cake aint bad though. 

[Ideologue]

Doesn't the ban on Nazi imagery in innocuous context violate some kind of international treaty Germany and Austria are likely signatories to?  Serious question.

[Zeus]

I guess it's a little too soon for Germanoids to have a sense of humour about their past.

The ban prevents all forms of humor 

[Ideologue]

Fuck, I looked it up, and it's in their constitution.  That is, the Basic Law of the FRG.

I wish there were a German lawyer here to explain to me how censorship laws do not violate the provision which states "There shall be no censorship."

[Zanza2]

Doesn't the ban on Nazi imagery in innocuous context violate some kind of international treaty Germany and Austria are likely signatories to?  Serious question.

The peace treaty between Austria and the Four Powers contains this:

Article 9
DISSOLUTION OF NAZI ORGANIZATIONS
1. Austria shall complete the measures, already begun by the enactment of
appropriate legislation approved by the Allied Commission for Austria, to
destroy the National Socialist Party and its affiliated and supervised organizations,
including political, military and para-military organizations, on Austrian terri
tory. Austria shall also continue the efforts to eliminate from Austrian political,
economic and cultural life all traces of Nazism, to ensure that the above-men
tioned organizations are not revived in any form, and to prevent all Nazi and
militarist activity and propaganda in Austria.
2. Austria undertakes to dissolve all Fascist-type organizations existing
on its territory, political, military and para-military, and likewise any other
organizations carrying on activities hostile to any United Nation or which intend
to deprive the people of their democratic rights.

[ulmont]

Fuck, I looked it up, and it's in their constitution.  That is, the Basic Law of the FRG.

I wish there were a German lawyer here to explain to me how censorship laws do not violate the provision which states "There shall be no censorship."

Special cutout in Article 139: "The legal provisions enacted for the "Liberation of the German People from National Socialism and Militarism" shall not be affected by the provisions of this Basic Law."

[Ideologue]

2. Austria undertakes to dissolve all Fascist-type organizations existing
on its territory, political, military and para-military, and likewise any other
organizations carrying on activities hostile to any United Nation or which intend
to deprive the people of their democratic rights.

By this standard, Austria is bound to dissolve itself.

Special cutout in Article 139: "The legal provisions enacted for the "Liberation of the German People from National Socialism and Militarism" shall not be affected by the provisions of this Basic Law."

I freely admit I did not read the entire thing.  Euroconstitutions are long. : /

[The Brain]

Austria has never been a real country. You can't judge them by normal standards.

[Slargos]

It is important that no one blows our cover until it's time to strike, so this cake baker must be silenced no matter how delicious his cakes look.

[Ideologue]

Also, I wonder if that Stuka is made of gumpaste?  That stuff is delicious, and I want to eat the famous planes of the Luftwaffe.

[Martinus]

Fuck, I looked it up, and it's in their constitution.  That is, the Basic Law of the FRG.

I wish there were a German lawyer here to explain to me how censorship laws do not violate the provision which states "There shall be no censorship."

I thought you were studying law. If two provisions of constitution are saying different things, then one does not violate another as they are of equal power - you interpret them (in this case "lex specialis derogat legi generali").