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earths-roots-grow-up · 5 years ago

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Fact: In the 1980s West Germany was buying large amounts of wine from Austria, it was very popular due to its sweet taste. Austria was pumping out amazing amounts of sweet wine every year, suspicious amounts of wine even. The Austrian government tried to control the manufacturers, but it was a farce, considering 18 inspectors were sent to check 60,000 companies. In 1984 an anonymous man (with a German accent) came into the Vienna Federal Institute of Agricultural Chemistry with a mysterious bottle and proclaimed that it held all the chemicals that were being added to the Austrian wine to make it so tasty. His identity was never discovered. It turned out the bottle contained chemicals that were dangerous to humans. The size of the scandal was then discovered - vast amounts of Austrian wine were contaminated with diethylene glycol (a primary ingredient in some brands of antifreeze). This deadly substance was being added to both cheap and fancy wine in order to make it sweeter. In 1985 the Austrian government announced this to the public, as the issue was too big to hide any longer. This scandal really blew up, becoming a loud, internationally known, cultural event. The Austrian wine industry was almost destroyed in the process. 2 millions liters of wine were sent for testing and it was discovered that this has been happening for over 10 years.

Diethylene glycol was also discovered in Austrian wines sold to West Germany- Austrian companies tried to frame Germans, saying they must have added it after buying the wine, despite evidence to the contrary. But during the whole process it was discovered that German winers mixed their wine with Austrian wine to improve the taste, so even German wines now had some diethylene glyco in it! This wine was called Antifeez Wine by the contemporaries and was so dangerous to drink that Austria had to sell millions of liters of wine to powerplants where it was burned to produce electricity, and also to a cement factory, where it served as a cooling liquid.

There were also many other scandals connected to this, like Austrian government trying to low-key hide it from the Germans, even if it meant poisoning people. Still, it was also argued that many wine makers were unaware off how deadly this substance is and thought it was safe to use. Headcanon: This mysterious man who gave the Chemical Institute a bottle of wine chemicals - whose identity was never discovered - was in fact Prussia. It seems like a perfectly Prussia-like sneaky way to kick Austria where it hurts.

Prussia had a field day with this and made 'throwing up' motions when he saw Austrian wine for YEARS after. At some point, after the Berlin Wall fell, he brought actual bottle of Antifreeze to Austria’s dinner party. “Oh, but I thought you like drinking it!” he said. Austria got red in the face and told him to get out. In Prussia's opinion, it was tots worth it! He also loves to make remarks about Austrian wine being good only as a coolant in cement factories, its one of his faves. He will never let this go, ever.

Ludwig did let it go, forgave Austria and today would drink his wine no problem, tho for many years this did damage their relationship big time. Ludwig was very upset and angry. Their relationship could be mended only because Austria apologized honestly, something he does not do often.

From Austria’s perspective, this was a tragedy. He lost tons of cash, his wine industry almost died, he became the butt of the joke, the whole Europe laughed at him for months, maybe even longer. He lost a lot of sleep and nerves.

Luckily for him, Austrian wine today is well know for being of good quality and he no longer has issues with selling it.

#aph austria #aph germany #aph prussia #hws austria #hetalia #Axis Powers Hetalia #historical hetalia #hetalia headcanons

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