History
Why Coca-Cola Invented Fanta in Nazi Germany During WWII
Coca-Cola — your favorite drink remained the Nazis’ fav too
In 1925, the Coca-Cola Company licensed a brass watch fob in the shape of a Swastika with the company logo and a message for the people — the drink “Coca-cola” in bottles for 5 cents.
It may look weird to many but the swastika symbol was considered a representative of good luck — which is derived from Indian origin.
In Asia, Swastika symbols are associated with religious practices. They are most commonly found in religious buildings and temples.
The swastika is a Sanskrit word. Even there are many different forms available in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.
But these all forms are the sign of positivity and spirituality.
The swastika symbol also represents gods such as —
Zeus in ancient Greece,
Jupiter in the Roman empire,
and Thor in the ancient Germanic religion.
It was also commonly used in North America as a symbol of good luck among the native American tribes before Adolph Hitler.
Even the 45th infantry of the United States Army had a Swastika on a shoulder patch.
None of them had any relation to National Socialism or Nazi.
Adolph Hitler used the same swastika as a Nazi symbol — which was his masterstroke. Early in Nazi history Hitler was seeking a symbol to compete with the Communists’ Hammer and Sickle. He chose the Swastikas and put it on a red fag similar to the Communist banner.
Perhaps, it was Hitler who made this symbol the most successful logo in History.
Here is an article that describes the origin of Coca-Cola very well:
Coca-Cola during Wartime
Before World war II, Coca-Cola had many active production units in Germany.
When America entered into the War in 1941, the company’s chief executive Robert Woodruff offered all servicemen a subsidy only pay 5 cents for a bottle of coke.
It was an attempt by Coca-Cola to drive patriotism behind the brand.
The company also made sure by using these tactics that their sugar rationing must be exempted, so their production unit continue running as normal as they were before the war.
The Coca-Cola employees were drafted as American soldiers, they installed the 64 military bottling plants and distributed 10 billion drinks to stock the various American bases and fleets throughout WWII.
As per recruits, Coca-Cola Colonels is known to grant Technical Observer status, equal to that of qualified military technicians, who never went to the front line of the war.
Even Coca-Cola was the password among American soldiers to identify American troops while crossing the Rhine during Operation Plunder in the final stages of the war.
Americans were not the only ones who were drinking this Coca-Cola drink during the war.
German troops were also fond of Coca-Cola drinks.
In 1939, Coca-Cola advertised a slogan —
“Whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you may be, when you think of refreshment, think of ice-cold Coca-Cola”.
Not only the for the drinks but Coca-Cola was also established as a weapon manufacturing and operating propellant ammunition loading plant to support Allied for the war effort.
Coca-Cola produced 30 railroad cars of ammunition, through its subsidiary the Brecon Loading Company.
This manufacturing unit closed in August 1945.
Coca-Cola supported Americans in many ways during the war.
The Coca-Cola Company units in Germany were questionable during the war. But prior to the war Coca-Cola sponsored various Nazi-sporting events and supplied drinks throughout Nazi Germany.
When the war began, Coca-Cola manufacturing units halted, and so as the sale in Germany. German manufacturing units could no longer fetch the syrup from which Coke was made.
But Coca-Cola did not cease business in Germany.
How Fanta Was Introduced?
With no Coca-Cola syrup, the Coca-Cola’s head in Germany Max Keith had an new idea.
The idea of the new drink was technically based on making it fruit-flavored.
Coca-Cola started to produce some beverages drink with the ingredients available outside of war rationing or the leftovers of leftovers!
They created a brand new product made from a combination of fruit, pomace, and whey — which was named as the spirit of team imagination — Fanta, which came from the word Fantasy.
Max Keith and his team continued to produce Fanta throughout the war. Because of the tightening rationing, many started using it as a flavored soup or sweetened stew in place of luxury items.
The author of the book Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World, Tristan Donovan writes:
“It was Fanta or nothing,”
“It had pretty much market dominance during wartime.”
By 1943, sales had reached nearly three million.
Despite being cut off from their American owners during the war, Max Keith did not succumb to joining the Nazi Party.
Despite the shortage of many ingredients, Coca-Cola was able to attain profit from the sale of Fanta throughout the year.
After the success of Fanta in Germany, Coca-Cola relaunched Fanta as their new flavor as an orange drink, and the rest is history.
Coca-Cola also supplied their drinks to the Russians during the cold war, just after WWII.
General Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov( a WWII Russian hero) was a staunch opponent of Josef Stalin and a friend of US General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
They became friends during their mutual occupation of Berlin. When Eisenhower offered Coca-Cola to Zhukov. Zhukov did not like Coca-Cola’s taste as it was widely accepted in Western nations.
Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Coca-Cola to produce a colorless drink with the same flavor.
It was sealed in a round bottle with a white cap and labeled with a red star to represent it as a Russian drink.
Coca-Cola advertised another slogan “Where there’s Coke there’s hospitality”.
