As war raged in the early 1940s, machines whirred and bottles clinked across small factories and old farmhouses in Nazi Germany, as a concoction of apples seeds, stems and skin were poured into massive vats and mixed with a watery liquid left behind from curdled milk.
It’s hard to imagine, but this strange creation was the beginnings of Fanta: one of the UK’s best loved drinks today.
According to YouGov, the neon-orange can of fizz is the 7th most famous drink in the country. Robinsons, Ribena and PG Tips claim the top three spots with Coca-Cola the 13th most popular.
Special editions of Fanta like Blood Orange, ‘Haunted’ Apple and even a Peri-Peri sauce variety have graced our supermarket shelves over the years.
But while everyone can pick a Fanta out of a line-up of soft drinks; not all of us know the controversial story behind its creation back in 1940.
It was German businessman Max Keith who came up with the idea for Fanta while in charge of Coca-Cola Deutschland. The brown stuff, first released in Germany in 1929, became hugely popular in the lead-up to war and between 1933 and 1939, the country saw the number of Coke crates sold rise from 100,000 to 4.5 million per year.
However, a ‘self-sufficiency regime’ introduced by Adolf Hitler discouraged Germans from working with foreign companies. As a result, Keith sought to convince the Nazi Party leader how Coca-Cola Deutschland deserved to keep operating – despite the US origins of the drink company.
‘Max Keith was utterly devoted to Coca-Cola,’ author Mark Pendergrast tells Metro from his home in Vermont. His book For God, Country, and Coca-Cola delves into the drink’s history.
Mark explains: ‘Keith was forced to collaborate with the Nazis in order to stay in business, although he never joined the Nazi party. He did, however, provide extra rationed Coca-Cola to the military and displayed huge swastikas alongside the Coke logo at his conventions. He also had a “Hitleresque” mustache.’
Meanwhile, branded trucks trundled along behind Hitler Youth marches and the drink was often poured at government meetings. Adolf Hitler reportedly sipped Coca-Cola while he watched Gone With the Wind in his private cinema.
In 1939, Keith threw a 10th birthday party for Coca-Cola Deutschland which doubled as a Sieg-Heil [Nazi Salute] for Hitler. The businessman said he wanted to ‘commemorate our deepest admiration for our Fuhrer.’
The former head of Coke in Europe, Klaus Putter, told Mark in an interview for his book: ‘Max Keith tried not to offend those in power. He was a very skilled negotiator, a cautious man. You know, when you live in a country governed by a dictatorship, you have to watch your tongue and be very careful. If your neighbour heard you say anything against Hitler, they came at night and fetched you and off you went. One false step, one false remark would have been fatal.’
Mark himself states Keith’s ‘allegiance was to Coca-Cola, not to Hitler.’
However, in 1941, everything changed for Coca-Cola Deutschland. On December 7, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. America was brought into the Second World War as a result. No longer a neutral observer to the conflict, ‘The Trading with the Enemy Act’ meant US supplies of Coca Cola syrup were no longer sent to Germany.
So, ‘with leftovers of leftovers’, Keith created a new drink which would go on to become Fanta.
‘It probably didn’t taste too great, but at least it was nutritious,’ Mark explains. ‘It was sweetened with beet sugar, so many people used it as the basis of soups. There was a naming contest for the drink, and one worker blurted out “It should be fantastisch, so how about Fanta?”
Keith put ex-convicts and prisoners of war to work in ramshackle farmhouses and old dairies – on the outskirts of cities to avoid bombings – to create the product. It didn’t taste like Coke, but nevertheless became popular. Fanta wasn’t always drunk alone, some Germans used it as a sweetener in their meals, such as stews, to mitigate the wartime sugar tax. When supplies to make Coke ultimately ran out in 1942, Fanta kept the Coca Cola Deutschland franchise afloat until 1945.
According to The Americanization of Germany, a book by the late Ralph Willett, Keith swiftly sent a telegram to Coca-Cola HQ in Atlanta after the conflict ended. He wrote: ‘Coca-Cola still functioning. Send auditors.’
Fanta production ceased at this point as Coke returned to Germany, the drink was seen as a temporary replacement for it’s predecessor…or so Keith thought.
Coca Cola bosses had been looking for a new drink to bring to the market in response to the growth of the Pepsi corporation in the 1950s. With Fanta a slightly recognisable name, they figured bringing back the soft drink would give them a head start against their rival.
‘When the war was over, Keith was treated as a hero by the Coca-Cola Company,’ Mark explains. ‘He eventually took over most of the business in Europe. It was only in 1955 that the company decided to use Fanta for its new orange and grape flavor drinks because it had an old trademark. No one knew or cared that it had actually originated inside Nazi Germany.’
The new version of Fanta was bottled in Italy and focused more on a citrus flavour; there were no ‘leftovers of leftovers’ in this iteration of the drink.
For decades, Fanta enjoyed a new lease of life. People forgot about the drink’s origins in Nazi Germany or, as Mark suggests, they simply didn’t care.
However, in 2015, a 75th-anniversary version of Fanta hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The drink was packaged in glass bottles and the recipe altered to incorporate some ‘wartime flavours’ of whey and pomace. An advert launched to mark the anniversary spoke of a desire to bring back ‘the feeling of the Good Old Times.’ Furious customers pointed to the atrocities which took place 75 years ago under Hitler and how it was only because of Nazism that Fanta came to exist.
The advert was pulled and a spokesman said the slogan was meant to ‘evoke positive childhood memories’ and insisted the company ‘had no association with Hitler or the Nazi Party.’
Today, there are more than 200 Fanta flavours worldwide. The drink Lilt [manufactured by The Coca-Cola Company] was recently axed and replaced by Fanta Pineapple & Grapefruit in a bid to cut costs. The new flavour is said to have ‘the same totally tropical taste’ as Lilt.
In his book Mark – who gained access to company archives and spoke with several former Coca-Cola employees – delves into the history of iconic drinks like Fanta, but also revisits his personal connection to the brand.
Growing up in Atlanta Georgia, the birthplace of Coca-Cola, his father made wire display racks for the cold drink while his grandmother was close with Robert Woodruff, a businessman who served as the president of The Coca-Cola Company between 1923 and 1955.
‘My mother wouldn’t let me drink it [Coke],’ Mark, 76, recalls. ‘She thought it was bad for me. So I had to sneak it at friends’ houses.’ Due to his family links, Mark felt it ‘natural’ to explore the wider impact the brand had in the pages of For God, Country, and Coca-Cola.
But, when Mark sits down on a warm summer’s day to write – it’s not a Coca-Cola or a Fanta at his side. ‘It’s iced tea, most often,’ he admits.
Coca-Cola Company has been contacted by Metro.co.uk for comment.
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