Coffee culture story The origin of German coffee

In 1721, the earliest coffee shop in Germany was born in Berlin. As soon as cafes became popular in Germany, they were restricted by the local authorities. Therefore, compared with other countries, the development of German coffee is relatively simple.

It was not until the early 19th century that coffee became one of the best money-making tools at the disposal of Germans. In the mid-19th century, the vigorous development of coffee farming in Latin America and Central America was affected by the abolitionist movement, so coffee plantation owners changed imported slaves to recruit coffee farmers from Europe, and many German immigrants set foot on the land of Brazil and Guatemala. In order to attract immigrants, Guatemala passed a land law assisting German immigration areas in 1877 and granted ten-year income tax relief and six-year tariff relief for production equipment. As a result of this one-sided policy, by the end of the 19th century, the Germans owned 19% of the coffee fields in Guatemala, accounting for 40% of the country's total production. Germans who made their fortune by farming also attracted their fellow villagers to invest in coffee producing areas and lay railways to transport coffee beans. During the same period, German coffee merchants also took advantage of the opportunity to monopolize the distribution of top coffee beans in Latin America. At least 80% of Guatemalan coffee beans are shipped to all parts of Europe by German businessmen.

It was only the two world wars that made them experience the same coffee nightmare as the Europeans-because they were far away from the country of origin, so once the war broke out and maritime transport was blocked, the Europeans had a coffee famine.

During World War I, the United States officially declared war against Germany in 1917. Brazil also declared war on Germany and arrested a group of Germans who settled in Brazil because the United States agreed to buy 1 million bags of coffee beans as military food. At the same time, the United States passed a bill to confiscate German property in the United States. In 1918, Guatemala passed a similar bill. German coffee in Latin America was also hit hard, and Americans took the opportunity to step in. The defeat of the Germans in coffee in World War I was all made up at the beginning of World War II. When Hitler struck Poland with lightning in 1939, the business of 10 million bags of coffee came to a halt in Europe each year. In 1940 Hitler's army swept across Europe, the Nazis closed all ports, and the whole of Europe (except Germany) was in a coffee famine. But at the end of World War II, Brazil and Guatemala declared war on Germany one after another, while Americans continued to take measures to confiscate the property of Germans in Latin America. After the war, the German economy recovered rapidly, and at the same time, it also quickly restored its position in the coffee trade.

Today, Germany is the world's second largest consumer of coffee, second only to the United States. In terms of per capita consumption, it is much higher than that of the United States.