[Music] Millions of people around the world have enjoyed the fruit flavored drink Fanta which is made and distributed by the Coca-Cola Company in almost 200 countries around the world. Bbut few people realize the interesting and controversial history behind the brand. Coca-Cola was Adolf Hitler's favorite beverage as he did not drink alcohol and in fact was the preferred beverage at all high-profile Nazi Party events served alongside beers and wines.
People in Germany and Austria almost became addicted to the drink which sold millions of cases every year and it was a favorite of the German military succeeded only by beer. But when necessity saw the invention of Fanta Hitler gave his personal endorsement and it became the most successful non-alcoholic beverage in Europe. So let's look at the story of Fanta.
What is Fanta? Why was it created? Why was it so popular?
What were the controversies surrounding its production? Hello I'm Colin Heaton former history Professor Army and Marine Corps veteran and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History Fanta was the brainchild of German born Coca-Cola executive Max Keith who was the head of Coca-Cola GmBH the major bottler of Coca-Cola in Nazi Germany. Coca Cola had been made and sold in Europe including Germany under license.
Keith had lived in the US for several years working in the company headquarters in Atlanta Georgia. He was selected to head the company's interest in Germany as he spoke German of course he knew the product well and had influential contacts. When the Nazis took over a 1933 Keith began working at the German subsidiary of Coca-Cola in that year at the age of 30 working with American Coca-Cola representative Ray Remington Powers.
Keith then advertised Coke as the "official drink of Nazi Germany". Coca-Cola surged in popularity there and Coca-Cola was one of the largest sponsors of the 1936 Berlin Olympics as stated by film director Lenny Riefenstahl: "Hitler and others were concerned about having sponsors paying to advertise which brought in money and they liked money. Coca-Cola was already in Germany and it made sense that they would become a sponsor to promote their product.
" After Powers died in 1938 Keith took over the national subsidiary to manufacture Coke under license. After Germany invaded Poland on September 1st 1939 Coca-Cola would not ship their product to Germany but they did ship the ingredients to make it there and Coca-Cola was still shipped to the Western European nations where Coca-Cola was still the most popular drink. By 1939 the sales of Coca-Cola in Germany had risen from just 100,000 cases in 1933 to over 4 million cases per year just before the outbreak of the Second World War.
After the outbreak of the war when getting the ingredients was impossible Keith collaborated with the German bureaucracy his greatest ally was German nobleman politician and diplomat Franz von Papen who helped Adolf Hitler rise to power in 1933. Papen was also the chancellor of Germany in 1932 before Hitler and the vice chancellor in 1933 to 1934 and later he was ambassador to Austria and Turkey. It was through Papen's influence that Keith was appointed to the Office of Enemy Property which avoided the nationalization of that subsidiary as it was a foreign-owned business just like Ford and GM were operating in Germany as well.
See our video on that subject. He also had another great ally in Fritz Todt who was Hitler's chief construction engineer and a senior figure in the Nazi Party. He was the founder of Organization Todt who built the autobahn and he was also the Minister for Road Works Munitions and Armaments.
According to SS Lieutenant General Karl Wolff: "Todt loved the drink as all of us did. Todt often paid his workers in Coca-Cola instead of Reichmarks and they did not care. Later after Todt's death Albert Speer was Armaments Minister and at that time we did not have Coca-Cola.
Hitler made mention that wanting something for the people. " Coca-Cola's ingredients such as the special syrup could not be sold in Nazi Germany but the company did not want to close their European factories which were in the process of shutting down their operations. Coca Cola GmBH knew that their stockpile of regular Coca-Cola ingredients would run out by 1942 with the remaining content having been reserved for wounded soldiers in hospitals.
After consulting with various people in the fields of chemistry and agriculture a meeting was held in Berlin in March 1940. Attending were Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels Richard Walter Darre the Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture Reich Minister Herman Goering Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe organic chemist Richard Kuhn and Todt's successor Reich Armaments Minister Albert Speer. The decision was made to keep the plant in operation so Keith along with Kuhn developed a fruit flavored drink made from apple fiber leftover from cider pressings and whey a byproduct from cheese manufacturing with beet sugar added to use as a sweetener and fruit scraps from apples and oranges were added to give it flavor.
A salesman on Keith's team named Joe Knipp would pitch the idea to name this beverage Fanta since it was created out of a fantasy. The drink soon became immensely popular probably because there was no other commercial non-alcoholic alternative and after it was developed following research and development in late 1940 and then marketed in 1941 it sold 3 million cases the first year. It was believed that Adolf Hitler received the first case of the new product and approved it.
With his support production levels increased but there was a dark side. Many times it was used as a cooking ingredient to add sweetness and flavor to soups and stews as sugar was severely rationed but other countries especially those later under German occupation had enjoyed Coca-Cola and Holland had a production facility that was going to close down. The Dutch Coca-Cola company plant in Amsterdam NV Nederlandse of Coca-Cola Maatschappij also faced the same problems as the Coca-Cola facility in Berlin.
Keith offered the Dutch company the use of the Fanta brand and recipe to save the company there. They quickly accepted Keith's offer and began making their own version of Fanta but the Dutch version of Fanta was somewhat different than Germany's version. In the Dutch version they would use elderberries to sweeten the drink rather than beat juice and it was quite popular.
Albert Speer was in charge of wartime production after the death of Todt starting in March 1942 but his focus was upon aircraft tanks U-boats artillery bombs and ammunition. To this effect he and all other German manufacturers were given slave labor to meet their production goals and Fanta was no different. Fanta was also the favorite of German youth and Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann said "If you wanted to get hundreds of boys to a Hitler Youth rally on a weekend just tell them there was Fanta and they came whether they really wanted to or not.
" Fanta was also very popular with the military because beer was not easy to get in a combat zone. Luftwaffe pilots and crews sailors as well as soldiers as far as Russia and Ukraine were supplied Fanta when the transports allowed. As stated by U-boat Commander Erich Topp "I always had a case of Fanta on board along with a case of beer.
This was to celebrate a successful patrol and reward the men. It was a great morale boost. " Waffen SS artillery Colonel Gustav Mertsch recalled "We were in the field awaiting a resupply of ammunition and replacement troops as both were needed.
The Ju-52 landed and then another and then the trucks arrived. We were excited but then the replacement soldiers walked over carrying these cases that turned out to be Fanta drinks. So much for the extra ammunition but we did get it later.
My soldiers were happy as could be. " Hermann Goering was also a fan of the drink and he wanted his Luftwaffe men to be regularly supplied. As stated by fighter and combat leader Colonel later Lieutenant General Hannes Trautloft when he was kommodore of JG-54 "I had a strict order that if we had alcohol such as beer or wine that no pilot could drink any if they were to fly the next day.
This was not welcome news but the Fanta when it arrived raised their spirits which was better than drinking Spirits if you know what I mean. " Due to its popularity Fanta was one of the very few production luxuries that was exempt from wartime rationing in Germany. Lieutenant General Hans Baur Hitler's personal pilot was also a fan and he said the following "Whenever I flew Hitler around from 1933 until the war I always made a telephone call to wherever we were flying to making sure that they had Coca-Cola ready for him.
Later when that was not available and he approved of Fanta I carried a few bottles on my Ju-52 for him. Eva Brown later also kept a case for her use. " In 1945 at the last stages of the war Keith was ordered by a German general to rename the subsidiary but he refused and that General was killed in an air raid before any action was taken against Keith.
By 1945 Germany had lost the war and all through this time Max Keith was still making Fanta. When the Americans entered Berlin they found Keith in a nearly bombed out Coca-Cola factory still making Fanta. The building had no roof.
Unfortunately the end of World War II meant the end of the production of the original Fanta. It should be noted that Keith while having no choice but to use slave labor did not lose any of his workers due to maltreatment and they were actually fed a good diet and taken care of because they were deemed essential to the war effort. When interrogated by US authorities Keith said that he "could have shut down the Coca-Cola plant and came home" meaning returning to America but persevered and "saved the company's German operations.
" He was held on suspicion of war profiteering and using slave labor but he was cleared by his own slave laborers who gave statements that he had in fact protected them. Even though Max Keith worked with Nazis during World War II he did not have any repercussions for his actions. The heads of Coca-Cola in the US actually applauded Keith's allegiance to Coca-Cola during the this time.
Fanta's connection to the Holocaust like every other business in Nazi Germany continued long after the war prompting Coca-Cola to release a statement in 2015 denying its association with Hitler and the Nazis claiming that the company was not in charge of operations in Germany and therefore had no participation in the utilization of slave labor. After the war the Coca-Cola Company regained control of the plant the formula and the trademarks to the new Fanta product as well as the plant profits made during the war. Fanta production was discontinued in 1949 in Germany but Fanta would live on.
In fact in 1955 the Italians started a factory in Naples and came up with a recipe made with local citrus based on oranges that we might recognize today creating the familiar orange color of Fanta. Then the new Italian Fanta gained great popularity rapidly within postwar Europe so much so that Coca-Cola began expanding the drink's availability to different markets. It became especially popular in tropical markets that enjoyed fruit flavored drinks like South America and Africa.
This would lead to the drink gaining international popularity and numerous types of flavors being created. In 2001 Fanta's popularity in the US had declined due to stiff competition and Coca-Cola executives wanted to give the drink a brand new advertising campaign and they waited 10 years before reintroducing Fanta to the public. This was in response to Pepsi who had begun releasing new products of their own.
High fructose corn syrup is used as a sweetener in the Fanta sold in the United States but many other countries use sugar to sweeten the drink. Internationally you can find it in unique flavors such as dragon fruit kolita in Costa Rica and one in Japan that tastes like salty watermelon. Fanta's legacy is due to wartime conditions and necessity ingenuity and one man's desire to keep his company going against all odds.
In fact today there is a street in Essen Germany the site of Coca-Cola Germany's former headquarters which is named after Max Keith. The largest distributor of Coca-Cola in Europe was former world heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling based in Hamburg. He was instrumental in having the new formula of Fanta brought back to the global market.
As he said "I loved Coca-Cola when we could get it before the war and then when Fanta came out it was a good substitute but the Italian version was much better and I told the people in Atlanta that we should start making it for wider distribution. They agreed. I guess the rest is history.
" Today Fanta is available in 188 countries worldwide and it comes in many flavors. When I your humble narrator was in Kenya street vendors sold both Coca-Cola and Fanta but trust me those drinks are a lot sweeter than what you get here at home. Thank you for watching this episode of Forgotten History.
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