Fanta's surprising origins in Nazi Germany
The story behind the creation of the soft drink Fanta is fascinating and surprisingly linked to Nazi Germany.
Image: Cineberg / Shutterstock.com
When it comes to discussing the history surrounding Nazi Germany, the creation of a popular fizzy drink probably isn’t the first thing that springs to mind.
However, this did indeed happen during the turbulent reign of Nazi Germany in World War II, and the story surrounding this invention is fascinating.
Created by the global soft drink company Coca-Cola, the orange drink that we all know and enjoy is Fanta has surprising connections to the Nazis. It is likely that the drink wouldn’t exist today if it wasn’t for Nazi Germany, but how did this even come to be?
Join us here at Sky HISTORY as we dive deeper into the origins of Fanta and examine how it was created in Germany during the reign of one of the most infamous far-right fascist groups in history.
The origins of Fanta
Fanta came to be in Germany in 1941, during the turbulent times of World War II. Despite the difficult time, life continued, and people still wanted to consume their beloved soft drinks.
Coca-Cola was introduced in Germany in 1929 and became highly popular during the years running up to the war. Between 1933 and 1939, the amount of Coke crates sold to Germany went from 100,000 to 4.5 million every year.
Coca-Cola Deutschland was faced with a troubling predicament during wartime. Germany was under a United States trade embargo, and the import of Coca-Cola syrup was prohibited. This combined with the British naval blockade meant that it became increasingly difficult to source the necessary syrup to create Coca-Cola in Germany.
Max Keith – head of Coca-Cola Deutschland at the time – was under pressure, with supplies running low. Another issue came from the name Coca-Cola not being allowed to be used in Germany due to the war. This is where the name Fanta originated.
Created by the local subsidiary that worked under Keith, the brand’s name was derived from the German word for fantastic, which is fantastisch. A salesman by the name of Joe Knipp is the one who suggested the name Fanta.
Ingredients in the original Fanta
When creating the drink itself, Keith assembled a team of chemists to invent a recipe with whatever they had to hand. Because of this, the original recipe is a bit odd and, to put it bluntly, kind of disgusting. It was made up of fruit shavings, pulp from cider pressing, apple fibres, apple pomace, whey (which is a byproduct of cheese), and beet sugar.
The release of the original Fanta
The original Fanta was surprisingly popular, despite the fact that it must not have tasted great with those ingredients. Three million cases of the drink were sold in Germany in 1943.
Germans had multiple uses for Fanta as well. To mitigate the wartime sugar tax, it was used as a sweetener in meals, such as soups and stews. When Coke completely ran out in 1942, Fanta managed to keep the Coca-Cola Deutschland franchise going right through until 1945.
The drink was discontinued completely in 1949, but it was given new life in Naples, Italy, in 1955. At that time, production began with a new formula that primarily used oranges. And so, the Fanta that we know and love today was born!
The legacy of Fanta
Despite the dark history of Fanta’s creation, the soft drink has managed to distance itself from its Nazi origins.
Things haven’t always been smooth sailing in this regard though. In 2015, a 75th-anniversary advertisement was pulled by Coca-Cola after backlash.
The ad–called 'Good Old Times' - promoted a new Fanta with an altered recipe in a glass bottle to hark back to the days of its wartime origins. The embargo against Nazi Germany that led to its creation from this was conveniently left out. This left many viewers furious that the atrocities of Nazism had been skimmed over by Coca-Cola entirely in an attempt to appeal to nostalgia.
Coca-Cola managed to get past this tactless ad campaign though, and Fanta has continued to flourish as one of the leading choices in the competitive global soft drink market.
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