East Germany's coffee from Vietnam
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2024
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the 1980s, a thirst for caffeine caused an unusual global collaboration.
Coffee-loving East Germans were left without after a crop failure in the world’s biggest exporter of the drink, Brazil.
So the East Germans hatched a scheme, linking up with fellow communist state Vietnam to create a mass of coffee plantations.
The man behind the plan, Siegfried Kaulfuß, tells Michael Rossi about the scale and success of the endeavour.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.
(Photo: Siegfried Kaulfuß with Vietnamese coffee farmers. Credit: Siegfried Kaulfuß)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast I'd like to introduce myself. |
| 0:03.4 | My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC commissioner for a load of sport |
| 0:07.4 | podcasts. I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with |
| 0:10.7 | leading journalists, experienced pundits and the biggest |
| 0:13.2 | sports stars. Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights |
| 0:17.5 | straight from the player's mouths. But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sporting world. |
| 0:24.4 | What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection |
| 0:28.7 | to dedicated sports fans across the UK. |
| 0:31.1 | So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more. |
| 0:40.4 | Hello, welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Michael Rossi. I'm taking you back to |
| 0:57.0 | I'm taking you back to 1980 when East Germany made a deal with |
| 1:01.0 | fellow Communist state Vietnam to plant thousands of coffee trees. |
| 1:07.0 | In return for helping Vietnam create an industry, East Germany would get a large percentage of all those lovely coffee beans. |
| 1:17.0 | I've been speaking to Siegfried-Calfos, the East German official whose job it was to create plantations in Vietnam starting from |
| 1:26.5 | scratch. |
| 1:29.5 | I was very surprised and I had no idea how it would work or how long the project would be or indeed how demanding it would be. |
| 1:40.0 | As it turned out, it was a lot of work. More of that in a moment, but why the agreement with Vietnam? |
| 1:48.0 | East Germany had a planned economy and that meant it was sometimes hard to get a hold of things. |
| 1:54.6 | But one of the pleasures for East Germans was a steaming cup of hot coffee and some would say they were |
| 2:00.2 | obsessed with it. |
| 2:01.7 | Imported goods such as coffee had to be paid for in foreign currency. |
| 2:06.6 | A failed harvest in the late 1970s in Brazil, then and still the world's biggest coffee exporter meant a massive rise in prices. |
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