In the German Democratic Republic, which was under the communist regime, what was more bitter than the "coffee mixture", which was invented by the political leadership at the time and was rejected by the masses of citizens, were the jokes that were made about this mixture.

A joke says, "What is the difference between a coffee mixture and a neutron bomb? There is no difference. The cup will remain full while the person will be torn apart," and some called it "pure rat poison."

This mixture was half of it from coffee and the other half from other products, and it was invented when there was an acute shortage of coffee, which was called black gold, in the late seventies of the 20th century, as a result of the poor conditions of the global crop and the instability of its prices.

Coffee prices rose rapidly, while communist East Germany was running a foreign exchange deficit, which prevented the government from importing coffee.

coffee crisis

By 1977, the coffee crisis had grown so bad that it led to mounting resentment, causing the East German Ministry of Internal Security, which was famous for its security tight grip, to sound the alarm.

Hence, the leadership in East Germany put forward a plan to overcome the crisis, represented in creating what was known as the "coffee mixture", which contains only 51% of roasted coffee.

But feelings of resentment emerged as coffee lovers felt angry, and this new mixture led to disruption of coffee machines and some of them exploded, to erupt a political crisis that has occupied the minds of history students to this day.

It is known that coffee enjoys an important place in German society, and it is very popular, with an average person drinking 169 liters of it per year.

East German coffee mixture, which consists of only 51% coffee, was produced due to a shortage of coffee beans (German press)

It is not just a hot drink, but rather a kind of prosperity, and historian Volker Fondrich says that many Germans remember that they were able to drink regular coffee only after the end of World War II.

Fundrich adds that coffee also helps to revitalize social life, referring to the German tradition of holding coffee meetings and exchanging conversations.

Despite the high coffee prices, East Germans continued to drink coffee as a form of entertainment or pleasure, even if at the cost of deducting money spent on bread, butter, sausages and cheese, which were cheap anyway thanks to subsidies.

Coffee was not just a happy drink, but a symbol, and the East German leadership was aware of its importance.

At that time, this leadership tried to conclude barter deals to buy coffee from the producing countries in exchange for other commodities.

For example, the East German leadership sought this precious commodity from Ethiopia in exchange for an arms deal in 1977.

To demonstrate the coffee crisis in those days with its high prices, and the decline in East Germany's foreign exchange reserves, the newspaper "Die Zeit" reported that East German President Erich Honecker complained about the difficulty of importing coffee, as he said, "I would like to say again that importing green coffee beans Alone, it costs us about 300 million dollars annually, and spending such an amount is not easy for us.

Adding insult to injury was the introduction of Blend Coffee, a blend of half roasted coffee and half complementary alternatives from roasted peas, rye, barley and beet pulp.

Something was forming and fermenting, but it wasn't coffee.

Rejected coffee

The feared secret police known as the Stasi were forced to admit that the new brewed coffee was "rejected by large sections of the population," in a report dated September 1, 1977.

And the "Stasi" indicated in its report that East German citizens refuse to buy the mixture.

Citizens not only stopped complaining about the bad taste of the new mixture, but also felt dissatisfied because only half of the product was coffee, and the price remained the same instead of decreasing due to the poor quality of the product, and the state-owned media did not provide any responses.

In the end, the authorities had to destroy tons of unsold coffee mix and cancel the experiment.

For the sociologist Anne Dietrich, who lives in Leipzig, which was formerly within the borders of the Communist German Democratic Republic, this moment was a turning point.

In an article about this period, she said that it was the moment when the government's lack of credibility and transparency, poor quality of goods and surreptitious price increases created a "crisis of legitimacy" for the communist state.

She added that refraining from buying the coffee mixture was not a kind of political protest, but rather a consumer revolution, stressing that "the whole thing was an economic disaster."

However, the East German communist leadership eventually got lucky, as coffee prices began to fall on world markets.

East Germany also succeeded in striking a deal with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to increase its coffee production, in an effort to obtain cheap supplies of this beloved commodity in the country.