‘Coffee’ that caused a crisis
In the days when east Germany was no longer able to procure enough of the black gold in the 1970s due to rising prices and a lack of foreign currency, the communist leadership came up with a bitter solution that would spark ‘a crisis of legitimacy’ for the state.
IN THE German Democratic Republic, the only thing more bitter than the “coffee mix” created by the leadership and rejected by the populace were the jokes about it.
“What’s the difference between coffee mix and the neutron bomb? Nothing: The cup stays whole, but the person goes to pieces.” Others slammed it as “pure rat poison”.
The mix – half coffee, half other products – was created when East Germany ran short of the black gold in the late 1970s after a poor harvest and unstable commodity prices.
Prices were rising fast and East Germany was short of foreign currency, preventing the government from buying coffee.
By 1977, the shortages that sparked the coffee crisis were causing such soaring resentment that even the repressive Ministry of State Security sounded the alarm.
So the East German leadership came up with a plan, introducing what was known as a “coffee mix”, a blend containing just 51% roasted coffee.
Outrage ensued. Coffee drinkers were incensed, while the mix gummed up coffee machines, causing some to explode – and triggering a political crisis that occupies historians to this day.
Coffee enjoys an important place in German society. It’s highly popular, with people drinking an average of 169 litres a year.
It’s also more than just a hot drink. Many Germans recall only having access to ersatz coffee after World War II, meaning regular coffee came to stand for prosperity, according to historian Volker Wünderich.
Coffee also spelled a social life, he says of the German tradition of meeting for coffee and a chat. “You can’t just invite people, then serve them malt coffee.”
Luxury good
Across the border in West Germany, coffee was also expensive in the late 1970s. And even before the crisis, it was a luxury good in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
While a kilo of grain coffee cost 1 GDR mark, a kilo of roasted coffee cost up to 80 marks.
People still drank it, seeing it as a treat, even if it meant they had to save money on bread, butter, sausage or cheese, which were cheap anyway, thanks to subsidies.
Real coffee was not just a pleasure but a symbol and the GDR’S leadership knew of its importance.
They had already tried barter deals, working more closely with coffee-producing nations in exchange for supplies. Under one deal, the GDR leaders tried to obtain the coveted commodity through delivering weapons to Ethiopia in 1977.
In return, up to 10,000 tonnes of coffee were to be sent to the GDR which had an estimated annual demand of about 50,000 tonnes.
Obviously, that wasn’t enough. And while the GDR’S leadership came up with ingenious ways to procure hard currency, East Germany suffered from a chronic lack of foreign currency.
Its own currency did not count on the world market and Deutschmarks and dollars were hard to come by for the communist state.
So the GDR tried everything, from overpriced rents for West German correspondents to charging fees for fireboats that accompanied West German barges in transit, according to reports. Mainly, though, West German Deutschmarks entered East German coffers through the mandatory minimum exchange and the Intershop shops, a chain of government-owned and operated retail stores.
But as the coffee price rose, the GDR’S foreign currency reserves dwindled. Leader Erich Honecker complained: “I would just like to mention again that the import of green coffee alone costs us around Us$300mil a year. Spending it is not easy for us,” Die Zeit newspaper reported.
All that culminated in the hated coffee mix, a blend that was half roasted coffee, and half substitutes ranging from roasted peas to rye, barley or beet pulp.
While expensive roasted coffee varieties remained on the market, the new, unwelcome blend was also to be served in canteens and cafes despite the problem that the machines were not ready for it.
The taste left customers outraged, while the coffee machines that blew up left waiters fearful.
Something was brewing and it was not coffee.
Consumer revolt
The feared Stasi secret police was forced to acknowledge that the new coffee was “rejected by broad sections of the population,” in a report dated Sept 1, 1977.
East Germans refused to buy the mix, the Stasi noted, leaving excessive stocks left over. Some 14,000 complaints from outraged citizens are still held in archives today.
People complained not only that the coffee mix didn’t taste good. They also felt outraged as only half of the product consisted of coffee but the price remained virtually the same. State media offered no answers.
In the end, tons of the unsold coffee mix had to be destroyed and the experiment was called to a halt.
That moment was a caesura, according to social scientist Anne Dietrich, who is based in Leipzig, which was in the former GDR.
It was the moment when the government’s lack of credibility, the lack of information available, the poor quality of goods and hidden price increases all came together to create “a crisis of legitimacy” for the communist state, she writes in an essay on the period.
This was not a political protest, but a consumer revolt, says Wunderich. “The whole thing was an economic disaster.”
The GDR’S leadership eventually got lucky as coffee prices began to fall worldwide.
Meanwhile East Germany made a deal with socialist Vietnam to expand coffee production there, in a bid for cheap supplies.
And East Germans who were lucky enough to have relatives in the West received parcels of coffee from across the border. Those care packages covered 18% of coffee consumption in the socialist German state.