Max Keith

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Max Keith (pronounced "Kite"), was the head of Coca-Cola GmbH, the major bottler of Coca-Cola during the Nazi period of German history.

In part 2 of the documentary trilogy, The Cola Conquest, it is stated that the Nazi HQ were one of Keith's "prime" customers. Arising from this, his competitor Karl Flach, head of Afri-Cola, got Coca-Cola bottle caps from New York which had kosher signs on them, and so had anti-semitic cards printed up which declared that Coca-Cola was a Jewish-American drink owned by a Jew called Harold Hersch and so it was an un-Nazi beverage. Hersch was on the board of the company and Keith urged the chairman Robert Woodruff to remove him, but Woodruff refused.

Coca-Cola GmbH was unable to obtain Coca-Cola syrup during World War II, because of the Allied blockade. To keep the plant in operation, Keith came up with a fruit flavored drink made from apple fiber, left over from cider pressings, and whey, a byproduct from cheese manufacture, creating Fanta.

Keith was investigated after the war, and it was discovered that he had refused to join the NSDAP, despite pressure to do so. Keith turned the Fanta profits over to Coca Cola after the war.

[edit] References

• The Coca-Cola company under the nazis, essay about Keith's affinity to Nazism by E. Jones and F. Ritzmann
• Snopes article on the origins of Fanta
• The Cola Conquest at the Internet Movie Database