Whats the real story with Fanta, Coca Cola and Nazi Germany?
Home –> Cokelore –> The Reich Stuff? The Reich Stuff? Claim: Fanta was invented by the Nazis. Status: False. Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1998] I’ve heard a number of times that Fanta (which I think is owned by Coke) was created by Coca Cola in order to enable the company to sell soft drinks to the Nazis during World War II without having to worry about anyone seeing Hitler or Goebbels “having a coke and a smile.” Origins: The Fanta histories of a number of popular consumer items have been rumored to have at least tenuous connections with certain unsavory elements. Contemporary lore is rife with product rumors that assert ties to the Ku Klux Klan (e.g., Marlboro cigarettes, Snapple fruit drinks, KFC, Troop clothing, Tropical Fantasy fruit drink) and the Nazis (e.g., Coors beer), groups mainstream American society views as evil. Such rumors are wholly without substance. Of all the product rumors of this class, only those associating the soft drink Fanta with Nazi Germany have
Fanta was the creation of a German man who was not a Nazi and who in fact refused to become one at great personal expense (because he could have betrayed Coke and bottled the beverage under his own name, but to do that he’d have had to cozy up to the German government and become a Nazi, which he wasn’t willing to do). In WWII, there were obviously problems with the German Coke bottler getting syrup from the US parent company, so this man who had recently taken the reigns of the German bottler after his predecessor’s untimely death, decided to continue bottling a carbonated soda with whatever ingredients he could muster. A contest was held to name the product and it became Fanta, which is still a Coke product. That managed to keep Coke afloat in Germany during the war. Fanta became a huge success in Germany in part because it was the only choice. Coke didn’t know (because of difficulties in communication given the war) if this guy was on their side or on the Nazi’s side. He was firmly o
Fanta was the creation of a German man who was not a Nazi and who in fact refused to become one at great personal expense (because he could have betrayed Coke and bottled the beverage under his own name, but to do that he’d have had to cozy up to the German government and become a Nazi, which he wasn’t willing to do). In WWII, there were obviously problems with the German Coke bottler getting syrup from the US parent company, so this man who had recently taken the reigns of the German bottler after his predecessor’s untimely death, decided to continue bottling a carbonated soda with whatever ingredients he could muster. A contest was held to name the product and it became Fanta, which is still a Coke product. That managed to keep Coke afloat in Germany during the war. Fanta became a huge success in Germany in part because it was the only choice. Coke didn’t know (because of difficulties in communication given the war) if this guy was on their side or on the Nazi’s side. He was firmly o
