Though in the past I might occasionally drink a Fanta—though as a Coca-Cola product we’re boycotting it with other American exports—despite generally disliking any sort of soda—with the exception of our local flavour, which famously resisted take-over by Big Cola, we were not aware of its origins until discovering this history at Gastro Obscura, courtesy of TYWKIWDBI (indeed). The fruit flavoured carbonated soft drink was invented by Coca-Cola Deutschland’s director Max Keith, the subsidiary of the quintessentially American brand growing, invented by civil war veteran Dr John Stith Pemberton as a way to manage chronic pain from his battle injuries and ween himself off the highly addictive and dysfunction morphine that he was prescribed, introduced in 1929 in Germany and steadily growing in popularity.
Even with the rise of Nazism, Coke remained widely enjoyed, undeterred and even sponsoring the 1936 and bottling operations expanded to keep up with demand, the market sustained by Keith headquartered in Essen and the parent company. War in Europe was no set back either, Coca-Cola not pulling out of Germany as other businesses had (
see also), with Keith working with the Nazi government and appointed as head of the Office of Enemy Property to continue to manage his private enterprise and avoid confiscation by the state like IBM—until public sentiment turned with the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the US joined the fight against the Axis powers in earnest—placing an embargo on Nazi Germany and stopping shipments of the soda’s syrup. In order to keep the plant in operation, having stock of bottles, gas and the workforce, Keith developed Fanta (admonishing his sales staff and marketers to use their imaginations—
Fantasie—to come up with a sustaining alternative) out of agricultural and dairy by-products, apple fibre left over from cider pressings and whey from cheese manufacture—but with fizz, it was a substitute embraced by the Germans in the waning days of WWII as a small luxury when everything was rationed and hard to come by—also often used as an ingredient for cooking for a hint of sweetness as sugar was scarce. Having never surrendered the subsidiary to the government for appropriation, the Coca Cola company could reclaim the plant and trademark after fighting subsided and re-launched a reformulated version of Fanta in 1955, test-marketed in Italy.
The title track—“(I want to be) Elected”—was produced by Bruce Dickinson (not a single-issue voter and well before Rowan Atkinson became one) for the Red Nose comic relief charity and was included in the closing coverage before purdah by BBC Parliament in 1992. Going through more of the playlist, we do find that there are VH-1 pop-up video style commentary and factoids and also features Lieutenant Pigeon, so maybe some measure of kindredness. Tag your favourites.
