Two women throw mashed potatoes at each other in the Aichach prison. Their dispute continues a long tradition of combat operations that used food instead of weapons. Such a drama does not always end happily.
The world is full of aggression, but sometimes it at least expresses itself in curious variations. In the Aichach prison, two cellmates recently got so angry that one delinquent threw her plate of mashed potatoes in the other’s face. The other threw back immediately, which is why the first mashed potatoes battle in the Aichach prison ended with injuries. The furies were fined for intentional bodily harm, but got off lighter than a young Dingolfinger who, for lack of mashed potatoes, threw a bicycle at some police officers and was sentenced to seven months for it.
A large number of spears, lances and throwing hammers can be seen in the Bavarian Army Museum, showing that people have always liked to incapacitate their enemies with well-aimed throws. In the 13th century, Ottokar von Böhmen’s army was put to flight with a dumpling throw. A woman who brought her food to the guards had spotted a spy on the city wall and brought him down with a dumpling throw. Ottokar’s troops then left resignedly, believing that the people of Deggendorf still had enough provisions that they could even throw them.
Sometimes the abundance of food also brings disadvantages. Which child has never participated in a noodle fight at the dinner table and suffered bitterly for it? Occasionally even one or the other funeral meal got out of hand, as the author Valentin Reitmajer remembers. When he was a boy, he simply smacked his spoon into the liver spaetzl soup at the altar boy’s table to splash on the boy next door. Of course he returned the favor, “so that our table soon resembled a small battleship.” It is logical that the Watschnbaum fell over there immediately.
The kuk wing adjutant Lobkowitz got off less lightly, as can be seen in the diary of Countess Festetics. In July 1872 he dined at the imperial table in Ischl. When he started playing with a toothpick, it got out of hand and ended up on Empress Elisabeth’s plate. This almost burst with laughter, which irritated the emperor. “What happened?” he kept asking. The Empress just said she had thought of something. Which was kind of true. “Lobkowitz was sweating blood,” says the diary.