‘Disrespectful to All Victims of the Nazi Regime’: Hitler-Themed Wine Range to Be Discontinued Amid Outrage

Bottles of “Lunardelli Wine” with labels depicting Nazi leader Adolf Hitler are displayed on a shelf in a wine shop Sept. 12, 2003, in Bibbione near Venice, Italy. After many years, the Hitler wine will be discontinued. (Photo by Giuseppe Cacace/Getty Images)

An Italian winemaker has announced plans to discontinue a range of Hitler-themed wine that features images of Adolf Hitler after outrage and backlash from consumers.

Vini Lunardelli has been selling its range of “historical” wines for some time now, featuring images of dictators including Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Francisco Franco. The Hitler wine bottles in question were the subject of backlash last week, when Austrian doctor Dagmar Millesi told local media she had witnessed people traveling to a resort near Venice to buy the bottles from a local supermarket.

“The store employee said Germans very much like to buy these wines, and they are clearly the big hit there,” Millesi said, according to the Drinks Business. “The saleswoman was even amused at my outrage . . . nobody is angry about it, no one forbids it . . . I couldn’t believe it.”

This is not the first time the wine has fueled controversy, as the German government has been fielding complaints about it since it first hit the market in 1997, and in 2007, the Italian government actually seized the bottles from the store, citing that the bottles were propaganda.

While both Italy and Germany agree that it is wrong to glorify Nazi fascism, they can’t seem to agree on whether the “kitschy” wines are harmless or fascist propaganda.

The wine line, which offers labels with phrases such as “Mein Führer,” “Sieg Heil” and “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer” alongside pictures of Adolf Hitler, is available in more than 50 shops throughout Italy, where the sale of goods featuring fascist imagery is legal, per The Drinks Business.

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