Today 87 years ago, the NSDAP "invented" this fee of 50 Pfennige per family The expected savings were collected as a donation in every house or flat in The Reich Stefan.
Eintopfsonntag required the traditional Sunday roast to be replaced by a one pot dish made with a cheaper cut of meat or just vegetables and the money saved donated to the Winterhilfswerk which was originally an ex servicemens' charity but morphed into a NSDAP controlled general charity fund. This was initially allegedly voluntary but in Autumn 1935 Hitler gave a speech in which he denounced anyone not contributing as "a parasite on the German nation" so that any discretion in not coughing up was merely a case of volunteering to be beaten up by party thugs at the very least. Not having at least one casserole or eintopf a week was characterised as stealing food from der Volk. Restaurants and canteens were legally obliged to serve up the eintopf on Sundays. During the war they were required to offer a meatless eintopf as one menu option every day - this was off ration and MI9 was soon briefing that it was one way for escaped POWs to get food on the run without the need for forged ration tickets! An eintopf made with indigenous 'German' ingredients (particularly beans and grains) was touted as somehow racially purer and the phrase one race one diet was coined. There is significant evidence that the senior Nazi hierarchy failed to adhere to this regimen themselves.
The Eintopf meal has its origin from when the NSDAP was formed.It was a One Pot Meal which was taken by Hitler's small circle during their early weekly political meetings at their favourite beerkellars they frequented in such places as Munich and Berlin...drink and bond as it might be described. During the war, Eintopf became a propaganda tool and was used to promote to the public to eat a weekly one pot meal.The purpose was to conserve food particularly meat.Propaganda was effected through advertisements as "the meat of sacrifice for the Reich".It was part of the policy of autarky which Hitler sought to establish prewar in order to eliminate or minimise dependence on imports which would threaten his road to war. However and typically as the NSDAP gained power from 1933,Hitler and his cohorts still retained this weekly bonding exercise but as their power and authority put them at a different social level than their followers,the practice continued but they would take a Eintopf meal,then go on to their favourite restaurants for a tip top meal.Seeing dining on an Eintopf by the general public demonstrated to NSDAP followers that they were still the same social class and held the same principles that formed the party all those years ago.
Interesting, Hitler was vegetarian, so easy for him. Not sure about Feldmaeschall Goering though. After the war and certainly in my family we still had Eintopf without meat. Only on Sundays mum gave us a treat and added meat. Stefan.
According to Hitler's cook he was not strictly vegetarian and had a few meat dishes that he enjoyed - but only in private - in public he like to give off an aura of restraint and austerity as an example. Goring was certainly no vegetarian nor did he pretend to be one
Completely superfluous background knowledge: Hitler's diet in 1944 source: NARA 175-155, Martin Bormann to Heinrich Himmler: The food of "the one whose name must not be mentioned" therefore included : Fruit, vegetables and potatoes as well as crispbread, wheat and oat flakes, dietary supplements and as drinks rose hip and chamomile tea.
Hitler's non-vegetarianism(s) gets mentioned... BBC Radio 4 - The Unbelievable Truth, Series 25, Episode 2 Episode 2 The Unbelievable TruthSeries 25 Episode 2 of 6 David Mitchell hosts the panel game in which four comedians are encouraged to tell lies and compete against one another to see how many items of truth they're able to smuggle past their opponents. Sindhu Vee, Lloyd Langford, Zoe Lyons, and Henning Wehn are the panellists obliged to talk with deliberate inaccuracy on subjects as varied as vegetarians, bananas, squid, and Eurovision. Produced by Jon Naismith A Random Enter
