On December 5th, Belgium’s official anti-racism centre launched a campaign to take legal action against wine company Alessandro Lunardelli, an Italian firm that produces wine labelled with an image of Hitler. Other Lunardelli bottles in the suit bear labels picturing Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Rommel, Heinrich Himmler, and even Eva Braun.
The images were not enough to provoke legal action, but the labels also include Nazi slogans: “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” (One People, One Empire, One Leader) and “Sieg Heil” (Hail Victory). The presence of the slogans was enough to tip the balance. Ingrid Aendenboom, spokeswoman for a Belgium anti-racism organization, told Reuters, “That falls within the framework of the anti-racism law…. A picture of Adolf Hitler is in itself too little, but he’s also doing the Hitler salute and there is this message ‘One People, One Empire, One Leader.’”
Most Belgians are understandably “sensitive to this kind of thing,” but Aendenboom claims the wine is “a huge success in Italy.” Though respectable businesses in Belgium do not carry the controversial brands, they are available via the internet.
Andrea Lunardelli told German television in September that the brands were made chiefly for the German market, though bottles of the wine primarily make their way into the country via orders placed online. The German government, which strictly prohibits the use of Nazi symbols, asked Italy to investigate the company in light of European Union anti-racism rules.
Other Lunardelli products feature images of Mussolini, Marx, Stalin, Lenin, and Che Guevara, in addition to some featuring less controversial figures such as Winston Churchill, Napoleon, Pablo Picasso, Dracula, Van Gogh, and assorted Hollywood stars. Alessandro Lunardelli’s website (http://www.vinilunardelli.it) claims the bottles are to “remind us of the lives of celebrated personages of Italian and world political history.”
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