Wehrmacht coffee substitute

[Dabi26]

Kaffee-Ersatz
WEHRMACHT COFFEE SUBSTITUTE

Hello
Here is my little collection of cereal coffee packs "Kaffee-Ersatz" used by German soldiers during WW2. There are mainly packages of coffee produced in Germany in 1939-1945, as well as packages of coffee produced in the occupied countries of Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Kaffee-Ersatz was very popular with German soldiers. On the one hand, they drank it at home since they were a child, on the other, real coffee was practically unavailable during the war.






KATHREINER
Kathreiner Malzkaffee










FRANCK









APFELD'S

Coffee produced in the city of Neisse (now Nysa in Poland)










LINDE'S









TORGAMA





Coffee produced in the city of Torgau, a city on the Elbe known for the meeting of the American Army with the Red Army in 1945










KEM









L.O.B.









SONNEN - KORN
Coffee produced in the city of Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland)








Coffee produced in the years 1938-1939 in Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Used at the beginning of the war by Wehrmacht soldiers during the attack on these countries.





FRANCK (Czechoslovakia 1938)











KATHREINER, FRANCK ENRILO, HANKA (Poland 1939)










AROMATISCHE MISCHUNG

Coffee produced in the years 1940-44 in occupied Poland (Generalgouvernemen) in Warsaw in the company Franciszek Kotulecki.
Inscriptions on the packaging in Polish and German.










Finally, the coffee additives: a small can of condensed milk, an aromatic chicory addition to cereal coffee in a metal box and a small can of real EDUSCHO coffee.

[JohnB1945]

Fantastic collection! During the war, Germany did much out of necessity to develop natural and synthetic substitutes for coffee, sugar, oil, rubber, etc.

[TabsTabs1964]

Excellent!!!
Thanks for share.

Regards
Santi

[Larry C]

In this hobby and History...there is ALWAYS something new to see ....and even how the necessities of life also played a great role during this time period

Thankyou for sharing Dabi

Regards Larry

[Dabi26]

Hi JohnB1945, Larry C and TABSTABS1964

These Kaffee-Ersatz can hardly be called a product of war. In fact, this coffee was called Grain Coffee. In Germany, but also in other countries of central Europe, cereal coffee was popular since the 19th century. It was cheaper and more accessible, and it was even claimed to be healthier than natural coffee. Currently, it is still popular and is also available in an instant, soluble version.
During the war, Kaffee-Ersatz was widely used in German field kitchens. It was delivered in a pressed form and it had to be crushed with the help of a special grinder with which every field kitchen was equipped.
Once I was very amused by the statement of the author of a beautiful photo album about German field kitchens, a man from the USA and probably not understanding the specificity of Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, that the grinders in the field kitchens were for grinding natural coffee. He even tried to grind coffee beans in this specific grinder. The effect was pathetic, but he insisted on doing it. However, he did not explain where the Wehrmacht, the Germans cut off practically for colonial goods, were to take this coffee in quantities that would satisfy the needs of millions of soldiers.