Countless accusations

Farmer on trial for Nazi devotional objects

The 59-year-old farmer had to answer to a jury(Bild: Pressefoto Scharinger/Daniel Scharinger)

He is no stranger to the dock: the man from the Innviertel region has ten (!) previous convictions on his record, and on Thursday he will once again have to answer to the regional court in Ried for re-activation. He had hoarded Nazi devotional objects for a "museum", and counterfeit money also turned up during a raid. 

He is no stranger to the dock: the man from the Innviertel region has ten (!) previous convictions on his record, and on Thursday he will once again have to stand trial at Ried Provincial Court for re-activation. The 59-year-old Eggelsberger had paved the forbidden neo-Nazi symbol "Black Sun" in his driveway - with a diameter of four meters.

Exhibits for "museum"
During a house search, countless Nazi devotional objects were found in his home, including "decorated" daggers and pins, busts of Adolf Hitler, "Hitler wine" and "Hitler grappa", Nazi uniform jackets and Reich eagles. In addition, automatic and signal weapons, explosive devices with Reich eagles and swastikas and boxes full of signal cartridges from the Nazi era. He wanted to proudly display all these items in an "NS museum" in Zwettl (Lower Austria).

Justice knows him well
The 59-year-old is no stranger to the law either: he was sentenced to two years in prison for preparing to deal cocaine. In addition, two bills of counterfeit money came to light during the raid, earning the man from Innviertel a further charge. He is also alleged to have run brothels, which he denied in court. He also had to stand trial for allegedly sending a large number of pictures and videos with Nazi content.

Countless weapons and drugs
The indictment is based on evidence from numerous house searches in the rocker scene in June 2023, when the 59-year-old was also arrested because hundreds of weapons and drugs were found in his house and at his parents' property. He had already been sentenced to two years for the narcotics, and now there will probably be more to come. 

The accused remained silent
The defendant himself hardly said anything during the trial, saying only that he was not part of the neo-Nazi scene. His lawyer Lorenz Kirschner largely blamed the deceased father. He insisted on a photo that showed the father paving over the symbol, while the man with a criminal record was "only" standing next to it. The judge and six of the eight lay assessors did not follow this argument.

A total of four years in prison
In the end, the 59-year-old was acquitted of the counterfeit money charge, but the farmer was given a further two years in prison for the sun, the devotional objects and the messages.