Coca-Cola GmbH and World War Two Historical Context
Coca-Cola first began operations in Germany in 1929 led by an American Ray Powers. By 1933 Max Keith had joined what became Coca-Cola GmbH as sales had begun to rise. Keith was a superior manager and motivator and through hard work, good sales techniques and advertising steadily increased sales throughout the 1930s. During the war years, Keith continued to bottle Coca-Cola until his supply of syrup ran out. He then oversaw the invention of Fanta and continued to bottle it the remainder of the war. Keith never joined the Nazi party and was often at odds with the leaders as he attempted to keep Coca-Cola alive in Germany.
Sources of information available
There are three prime non-company sources detailing the history of Coca-Cola GmbH before and during the Second World War and one German language source we have not been able to review. Mark Pendergrast – “For God, Country and Coca-Cola,” paints an unflattering portrait of The Coca-Cola Company activities during the war. His account implies that Coca-Cola GmbH collaborated with the Nazi regime and infers that the Company utilized slave labor. Pendergrast also acknowledges that Max Keith was not a Nazi. Eleanor Jones and Florian Ritzman wrote “Coca-Cola Goes to War” for a Senior Seminar in American Studies for the University of Virginia in 1995. This web based article (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CLASS/AM484_95/485proj5.html) is linked to hundreds of Coca-Cola based sites around the world. The prime sources of material for the paper are Pendergrast’s and German author Hans Dieter Schaefer’s book from 1981. The Web-based version of the paper, still hosted at the University of Virginia Web site, has a bibliography but is not footnoted to allow us to verify the accuracy of the statements. Fredrick Allen – “Secret Formula,” gives a positive account of the Company activities during the war. He states that The Coca-Cola Company initially distrusted Keith after the war until they sent an investigator who determined that Keith was not only not a Nazi but had actually suffered for not joining the party. Of the three, the college paper is the most damaging and has the widest distribution. A quick search on Google returned thousands of “hits.” It is also the most dangerous because of the difficulty in proving or disproving the allegations.
The German language source is a book (roughly translated) titled, “Split Consciousness: Reality of German Life and Culture 1933 to 1945.” This book, published in 1983 features two cover photographs, one columns of marching Nazi troops, the second of a public sampling of product under a large Coca-Cola billboard. It appears that a chapter of the book is devoted to Coca-Cola GmbH and is cited as a source for some of the more inflammatory statements in the Virginia term paper.
Historical Revisionism
The overwhelming majority of the statements or allegations made against Coca-Cola GmbH would not have raised any concern during the time they took place. Two of the verifiable fact on Mark Thomas’s site, that Keith at a bottler convention displayed swastikas and ended with a salute to Hitler would not have been out of place in the US if it were reversed and the podium had an American Flag and the proceedings began or ended with the pledge of Allegiance. However any hint of Nazi symbols immediately generates interest. List of “facts” on Mark Thomas’ web site with Archives response. 1. Coca-Cola (GmbH) were the German bottlers for Coke under the leadership of the CEO Max Keith (pronounced Kite). Partially true. Keith was not the CEO. He was the managing director after 1937. 2. Coke sponsored the 1936 Nazi Olympics where Hitler showcased his Aryan vision to the world, while hiding the "Don't shop at Jewish shops" posters. The characterization of the 1936 Olympics as the Nazi Olympics denigrates the IOC. The 1936 Olympics were attended by athletes from 49 nations, including the Untied States. The IOC website covering the 1936 games begins with the statement, “The 1936 Olympics, held in Berlin, are best remembered for Adolf Hitler’s failed attempt to use them to prove his theories of Aryan racial superiority.” Coca-Cola GmbH created some advertising, primarily leaflets, billboards and sales stands during the 1936 Olympics, not to honor Hitler, but to advertise to the many attendees from around the world. Furthermore, the nature of a sponsorship in 1936 was tremendously different than it is today. The Coca-Cola Company had begun advertising with the Olympics in 1928 and has continued ever since. A few years after the 1936 Olympics, The Coca-Cola Company produced a poster featuring Jesse Owens, the star of the 1936 games.
3. Coca-Cola GmbH sought to be associated with the Nazis, it became a bit of a joke that if Hitler or a high ranking Nazi was on the front cover of a magazine Coke would advertise on the back. This is a contrived quote derived from the web based term paper of the two University of Virginian students who in turn had quoted Hans Dieter Schaefer as writing, “When the cover of a magazine sported a picture of the Fuehrer, chances were good that a Coke advertisement would grace the back of that cover.” We do not have any material to document this statement. Prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, it would have been natural to advertise in popular media outlets of the day. Additionally, placing ads in popular magazines does not endorse the subject of the cover art. 4. Coke advertised on billboards, that were by the Berlin stadiums, so people attending Goebbel's rallies had to walk past them. While we can not confirm or deny the placement of billboards near stadiums in Berlin, billboard advertising was a prime form of advertising for The Coca-Cola Company in all the countries where we had operations. Furthermore, the placement of a billboard does not endorse the activities that take place nearby. Stadiums are where people gather and are a natural place to reach your consumers. 5. Coke financially supported the Nazis by advertising within Nazi newspapers, in one instance Coke published responses to accusations from rival bottlers that they were a Jewish company. These denunciations were placed in Nazi rags. Once again, prior to the outbreak of the war, it would have been natural to place ads in the popular media outlets of the day. We have not been able to find copies of these ads to prove or disprove the statement. 6. Coke advertised in the Nazi Army paper shortly after the invasion of Sudetenland, the ad was a picture of a hand holding a bottle of Coke over a map of the world; the slogan was "Yes we have got an international reputation." This anecdote once again is from “Coca-Cola Goes to War.” In the paper, the authors once again quote Hans Dieter Schaefer but note that the ad is unavailable. We can not find any documentation to support this statement. 7. Coke opened up a bottling plant in Sudetenland shortly after the invasion. After the invasion, Coca-Cola GmbH did open a plant in that region.
8. Mark Prendergrast's book For God, Country and Coca-Cola: "Later in the war, Keith used Chinese labor and 'people who would come from anywhere in Europe-the war brought them from everywhere.’ For Keith to say blandly that ’the war brought them’ implies that they were willing refugees, which is somewhat misleading. In fact, the wartime railroads not only carried Jews, Gypsies and others to concentration camps, but some 9 million Fremdarbeiter, or forced foreign labor, who accounted for a fifth of the German labor force by 1944." Coke nearly certainly used forced labor. We have reviewed the source material for this anecdote, an interview with Max Keith from the 1960s, and while he makes the statement that he used Chinese labor, he does not give any other indication weather the labor was forced or free. The statement that “Coke Certainly used forced labor,” was added by Mark Thomas and is inferred from the rest of the quote. It would be well to note that Coca-Cola GmbH, without any claims or lawsuits against it paid into the fund to compensate forced laborers. 9. Coca-Cola in the US have paid into a fund for the compensation of people who were forced to work for the Nazis. This is slightly inaccurate. Coca-Cola GmbH donated money to the fund. 10. As Max Keith supplies of Coke dwindled in 1941 he gave his last batches to Nazi soldiers. Once again, this is slightly inaccurate; the actual quote from Pendergrast book noted that, “Coca-Cola was reserved for hospitals with wounded German Soldiers.” Pendergrast source was an oral history conducted almost forty-five years after the war. 11. After the US entered the war in 1941 Max Keith couldn't get Coca-Cola syrup from America to make Coke, Keith invented a new drink out of the ingredients he had available to him and made it specifically for the Nazi market and the Third Reich. The drink was called Fanta. In 1943 alone he sold 3 million cases of Fanta in the Nazi empire. It is true that Max Keith invented a new drink due to the limited availability of ingredients from America. However, Keith marketed to the general German market, not to Nazi party members.
12. Mark Prendergrast "In March of 1938, as Hitler's troops stormed across the Austrian border in the Anschluss, Max Keith convened the ninth annual concessionaire convention, with 1,500 people in attendance. Behind the main table, a huge banner proclaimed in German,"Coca-Cola is the world-famous trademark for the unique product of Coca-Cola GmbH" Directly below, three gigantic swastikas stood out, black on red. At the main table, Max Keith sat surrounded by his deputies, another swastika draped in front of him...The meeting closed with a "ceremonial pledge to Coca-Cola and a ringing three-fold "Seig-Heil" to Hitler." There is no correlation between these two events. The Anschluss would have taken place with or without a bottler meeting on the behalf of Coca-Cola GmbH. As part of our photographic documentation, we do have photographs that depict swastikas used as décor. This would have been consistent with meetings held nearly anywhere at this time in Germany. We do not have any documentation that confirms or denies the text of the message. Nationalistic feeling in Germany was rampant at this time. 13. At another convention Mark Prendergrast notes "Then Keith ordered a mass Sieg-Heil for Hitler's recent fiftieth birthday, to commemorate our deepest admiration and gratitude for our Fuhrer who has led our nation into a brilliant higher sphere." This appears to be confirmed in a document from 1939. It is important to remember the context. Once again, nationalistic feeling in Germany was rampant. 14. At the Reich "Schaffendes Volk" ("Working People") Exhibition celebrating the German worker under Hitler, Prendergrast describes "A functioning bottling plant, with a miniature train carting Kinder beneath, bottled Coca-Cola at the very centre of the fair, adjacent to the Propaganda Office. Touring the Dusseldorf fair, Hermann Goering paused for a Coke, and an alert Company photographer snapped a picture. Though no such picture documented the Fuhrer's tastes, Hitler reputedly enjoyed Coca-Cola too, sipping the Atlanta drink as he watched Gone With The Wind in his private theatre." The exhibition did take place and is documented in our files. We do not have a photograph of Goering with a bottle of Coca-Cola. The story about Hitler is an anecdotal account relayed in the research notes of journalist E.J. Kahn for a story in New Yorker magazine. There is no way to verify or deny the account. 15. Coke sales in Nazi Germany 1934 - 243,000 cases. 1936 - 1 million cases. 1939 - almost 4 and a half million cases.
These statistics show that Germany was a growing market for Coca-Cola, as were France, England, Belgium, etc. before the war. The other important fact that this indicates is that The Coca-Cola Company cut off all sales of syrup to Germany in 1940. Coca-Cola sales in: 1943 - 0 1944 – 0 1945 – 0