Champagne war

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  • Söhnlein & Co., Rheingold brand
    (advertisement from 1901)

  • Moët & Chandon, White Star brand (1899)

The Champagne War (also: Franco-German Champagne War ) was a worldwide sensational dispute between two sparkling wine producers at the beginning of the 20th century. The French company Moët & Chandon led a two-year press and legal dispute with its German competitor Söhnlein & Co., Rheingauer Schaumweinkellerei Act. Ges. Around a sparkling wine bottle used at a ship's christening in 1902. The bottle with German Rheingold sparkling wine from Söhnlein originally intended for the ship's christening had been secretly replaced by one made with French Moët & Chandon champagne.

history

In 1901, the German Emperor Wilhelm II commissioned the ship designer Archibald Cary Smith to plan a new schooner that, as a racing yacht, was to be able to successfully take part in ship regattas. The Meteor III was built at the Townsend & Downey shipyard on Shooters Island in New York City . The construction of the ship had already led to criticism in the German press because of the financial expense and the commissioning of a US shipyard. The Kaiser had chosen the American shipyard both because of its ability to build fast ships and as a "gesture of reconciliation" between the two countries, as the aggressive German foreign policy of recent years had aroused suspicion among the Americans.

With the solemn commissioning of his new ship, Wilhelm II wanted to express his sympathy for the United States. The representation by his brother, Prince Heinrich , who completed a “political propaganda trip ” through the USA on the occasion of the baptism , should, according to the Kaiser, lead to a German-American rapprochement and thus counteract the development of an all too close Anglo-American alliance.

Prince Heinrich of Prussia and Theodore Roosevelt during the christening of the yacht on Shooters Island, February 25, 1902
Godmother Alice Roosevelt
Prince Heinrich and Alice Roosevelt on the platform built for the christening of the ship. The baptismal bottle, framed by a silver holder, hangs on a silver chain from the ship's deck
The Meteor was launched on February 25, 1902

Ship christening

On February 25, 1902 christening and found launching of Meteor instead. Prince Heinrich had traveled to America on the Hohenzollern yacht as the emperor's representative . Alice Roosevelt , the eighteen-year-old daughter of the American President , named the new building; a female godmother was common for civil ships. In addition to celebrities and the Roosevelts, the party also included the Ambassador of the German Reich in the USA, Theodor von Holleben , Rear Admiral Friedrich von Baudissin and the Mayor of New York City, Seth Low . The event received a great deal of attention from the American public.

At 10:40 a.m. Alice Roosevelt smashed a bottle of sparkling wine on the ship's wall and christened the ship in English in the name of the German Emperor. Then she cut the ropes holding the meteor with a small ax so that the yacht could slide off the slipway into the water. Prince Heinrich presented her with a bouquet of flowers.

Following the christening, the guests of the ceremony were invited by the shipyard to a meal, which took place in the decorated laces of Townsend-Downey. The menu for the meal ("Luncheon to the President of the United States and HRH Prince Henry of Prussia") showed a drawing of a bottle of the White Seal brand from Moët & Chandon and the name of the drinks served: White Seal - Champagne - Punch as well as white-seal magnum bottles. The President and Prince were present for a short time; it was toasted several times with champagne. Then selected participants crossed over to the Hohenzollern for another lunch . In the evening the mayor held a banquet in the Metropolitan Club in honor of Prince Heinrich.

Söhnlein Marketing

The Rheingau sparkling wine cellar Söhnlein & Co. recognized the importance of brands and advertising as early as the end of the 19th century. In 1876, Söhnlein Rheingold was the first sparkling wine brand to be entered in the German trademark register. A year earlier, Kaiser Wilhelm I had decreed that only German sparkling wine could be used for the launch of German warships and that the Rheingold brand should be used.

In the run-up to the launch of the Meteor , representatives of Söhnlein & Co. had sent an immediate request to the emperor to be allowed to provide the sparkling wine that the emperor had approved. The German-American festival committee based in Milwaukee for the preparation of the event had accordingly ordered the use of a Söhnlein sparkling wine. The German ambassador had also worked towards this decision. The magnum bottle of the Rheingold brand provided by Söhnlein , for which a special leather case with a silver lock had been made by the German community in Milwaukee, had the German embassy delivered to the American shipyard organizing the baptism with instructions for use. There was an engraved dedication on the lid of the case:

“The liquid gold of the German Rhine, served by the most German city in the country as a libation of the unbreakable friendship between the two nations that are closest to our hearts. Milwaukee, February 1902. "

In a u. a. in the art and literary magazine Jugend (issue 14/1902) advert placed by Söhnlein & Co. proudly showed the use of the Rheingold sparkling wine at the ceremony as "Christening champagne for the imperial schooner yacht Meteor , christened by Miss Alice Roosevelt, daughter of the president of United States of North America ”announced. For marketing purposes, Söhnlein & Co. commissioned the graphic artist Emil Krupa-Krupinski to design a four-part series of correspondence cards entitled “Prince Heinrich in America”. The four postcards were titled with banners describing the processes depicted in each case:

No. 1: “The reception at the White House in Washington, Prince Heinrich enters New York, February 23”
No. 2: “The christening of the new imperial yacht Meteor on Shooters Island on February 25, 1902”
No. 3: “The big one Ceremonial banquet of the American press in honor of the Prince February 26, 1902 "
No. 4:" Homage to the German clubs on the evening of February 26 in front of the house of the German Men's Choir in New York "

Card no. 2 led to the inscription “Rheingold - Taufsect SM Schooneryacht Meteor u. of the ships of the German Navy ”.

The German ambassador to the USA, Theodor von Holleben

scandal

On the eve of the christening of the ship, the German guests were upset. In honor of the German delegation, Roosevelt had given an extraordinarily opulent men's banquet in the East Room of the White House on February 24 . For this festive dinner , Moët & Chandon champagne was served. The active use of Moët & Chandon was arranged by its busy importer, George Alexander Kessler , also known as the “Champagne King” . He not only provided magnum bottles of the Moët & Chandon brands Brut Imperial and White Seal free of charge, but also had an influence on the production of the elaborately decorated menu card , in which reference was made to French champagne.

On the day after the christening of the ship, the German-language press initially published positive articles on the christening of the ship, some of which were initiated by Söhnlein & Co., in which the use of German sparkling wine at the christening act was addressed.

"The grape juice was drawn on German wine soil, the casing of which shattered on the bow of the imperial yacht before it rushed to the element of its destination."

- New York State Newspaper , February 26, 1902

However, as the public learned shortly afterwards from the French press, the Meteor had been christened with French White Star champagne. Corresponding articles and advertisements run by Moët & Chandon reported a great success for the champagne brand. Representatives of Söhnlein & Co. contradicted this claim in published statements and asked Ambassador von Holleben to confirm this. First of all, Holleben confirmed the use of the German sparkling wine. Shortly afterwards, however, it turned out that Kessler had not only slipped the champagne brands he represented at the presidential banquet and lunch at the shipyard, but had also had the proposed Rheingold sparkling wine replaced by a product from Moët & Chandon shortly before the launch. Kessler paid the shipyard owner USD 5,000 for the secret exchange. Holleben had to admit that he had been deceived with regard to the sparkling wine used: The Rheingold champagne bottle in the case sent by the embassy to the shipyard had been replaced without his knowledge shortly before the launch.

This triggered a wave of indignation in Germany and aroused the minds of other nations as well. The Kaiser was so upset that he had Holleben briefly ordered back to Germany.

“The nationalization of sparkling wine - here sparkling wine and there champagne - was particularly successful in the so-called meteor affair. ... No joke was meant here: the honor of the empire sullied with champagne! This was a national question of the first order! "

- Veit Veltzke, historian : The Myth of the Redeemer: Richard Wagner's Dream Worlds and German Society 1871–1918

Kessler, who was described in French and American newspapers as a clever businessman who had achieved an impressive coup, later also traveled to Berlin to explain the events to Oberhofmarschall August Graf zu Eulenburg in a private audience . On March 30, 1902, Eulenburg wrote to Kessler that the emperor thanked him for the photos he received for the ship's christening, and that they had been transferred to the Hohenzollern Museum. Likewise, a bottle of Moët & Chandon sent to the emperor is said to have been passed on to this museum.

President Roosevelt, a reformist politician who fought against corruption, found the process of the exchanged bottles and the subsequent publications very uncomfortable. He stipulated that the sparkling wine brand Rheingold should be used for upcoming baptisms of American warships . The German embassy in the USA was also heavily involved in the case; the process was recorded as a "Christening wine swindle" in the documents of the Federal Foreign Office .

process

This was followed by a court case known as the “ litigation of the century” or, because of the extraordinarily high amount in dispute, also known as the “millions trial”, which again attracted worldwide attention months after the ship was christened.

Kessler saw himself damaged by the false information provided by Söhnlein & Co. about the brand of sparkling wine used:

"It is of the utmost importance to tell the public the truth about this incident, as the Moët & Chandon Society and myself have been morally and financially damaged by these false statements."

- George Alexander Kessler : Telegram to the German ambassador in Washington

The French champagne producer sued Söhnlein & Co. in front of the royal district court in Wiesbaden for damages of over 1 million marks and for omission . Kessler explained that if successful, the sum should be given to a charitable organization in Germany and Moët & Chandon would increase the amount by another million marks. Prince Heinrich's wife, Irene von Hessen-Darmstadt , should decide how the money should be used. Moët & Chandon also called for a six-month prison sentence to be imposed on anyone who claims that the brand used at the christening was Rheingold .

The hearing began on November 13, 1902, to which Ambassador Holleben was invited as a witness. The lawsuit was dismissed by the civil chamber on November 7, 1903. Although the court considered it proven that Söhnlein & Co. had published the untruth about the sparkling wine bottle used in advertisements. The false statement was made because the bribed American shipyard owner and the representative of Moët & Chandon in the USA acted against the will of the American President and the German Emperor. Moët & Chandon had to bear the court costs of 40,000 marks. A commentator on the trial stated that the verdict had repulsed the "attack on a German company", which had led to many advertisements. In response to the process Moët & Chandon was the British king of the list of purveyors deleted.

Söhnlein & Co. used the legal dispute to launch an advertising campaign and published the brochure “Von Rechts Wegen!”, Which was sent to interested parties on request. In 1904 Richard Eichstedt published the 60-page work “A Million Process, Review of the Moët-Söhnlein Trial: Using the Trial Files” on the subject of unfair competition ; both publications appeared in the Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt in Stuttgart . Even nine years later, the "million dollar process" was still used for marketing purposes:

“Who does not remember with some pleasure the litigation of millions between Söhnlein & Co. and a French company when it came to determining whether the American-built racing yacht of the German Emperor Meteor was christened with Rheingold or a French brand. At that time an attempt was made on secret paths to carry out a deception and to have the Söhnlein sparkling wine Rheingold, ordered and ready by the emperor , disappear from the scene into the private cellar of an American involved. "

- 1912 : Söhnlein & Co.

reporting

The christening of the ship was the high-profile highlight of Prince Heinrich's trip to the USA; Newspapers from many countries reported about it. The participation of Alice Roosevelt, who became known around the world, also contributed to this. Film recordings of the baptism and the launch also attracted attention. On the one hand, the Edison Manufacturing Company produced two films by Edwin S. Porter and Jacob Smith: "Christening and Launching Kaiser Wilhelm's Yacht Meteor " and "Kaiser Wilhelm's Yacht Meteor Entering the Water". The films showed the launch from two perspectives; the simultaneous filming with different cameras and the later presentation of both films were considered a cinematic innovation. American Mutoscope & Biograph released another film in March 1902: "The Meteor III Afloat". Several weeks after it was launched, articles appeared on the front pages of the international press discussing the ritual itself and the national importance of sparkling wine.

When the secret exchange of the bottles became known, there was again worldwide reporting. The German newspaper landscape was in turmoil. The press spoke of a Franco-German champagne war. The French daily Le Figaro detailed in an article on the front page of March 10, 1902, the documents that proved the use of the French product.

“All German newspapers are deeply involved in this matter and they are trying to come up with arguments to prove that it was a German wine that was given the honor [of use] at this ceremony. Oh! no justification can contradict reality and facts! It was indeed a happy champagne from France, the most elegant and French wine that a German ship was christened that day. "

- André Nède : Le Figaro, March 10, 1902

The two sparkling wine brands gained worldwide fame as a result of the scandal. The advertising effect for the Rheingold brand was many times stronger than it would have been if the bottle had been baptized without any problems. The subsequent legal dispute with its high value in dispute kept the interest of the German and French press in the dispute alive for a long period of time.

The attention that the events surrounding the ship's christening aroused in the German and French public shows the national significance of the respective sparkling wine brands. The competition between German and French manufacturers had reached a high point at the beginning of the 20th century. It was carried out ruthlessly and confrontationally, products were linked in marketing with the respective common national images of others and oneself. The public was drawn into the battle for market share through the use of modern communication strategies previously only used in the USA. A baptism act was used on both sides for product policy, advertisements took up competition topics and editorial articles were launched in the press.

literature

  • Rainer Gries: The christening of the imperial yacht "Meteor": The champagne skirmish , in: Damals , 2/2002, pp. 58–63 (partly available online at Wissenschaft.de ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d John CG Röhl, The "Mission" of Prince Heinrich in America , in: Wilhelm II .: The way into the abyss 1900–1941 , ISBN 978-3-406-71784-0 , CH Beck , 2017, P. 260ff .
  2. ↑ Jürgen Schwibode, schooner yacht Meteor III: The sailing yachts of the last German imperial family , Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e. V.
  3. ↑ a b c Frederike Gerstner, Staged Takeover: Blackface and Minstrelsy in Berlin around 1900 , Szene & Horizont (Volume 1), dissertation at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , ISBN 978-3-476-04517-1 , JB Metzler , Stuttgart 2017, p. 233f .
  4. ^ Commemorative set for the launch , auction item at Vallejo Gallery, Newport Beach.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g Barbara Kaufhold, German Sektreklame from 1879–1918: Your development under economic, social and artistic aspects , inaugural dissertation at the Faculty of History of the Ruhr University Bochum , 2002.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Henry Voigt, Compliments of George Kessler , in: The American Menu , April 14, 2012 (English).
  7. ↑ a b The brilliant Mr. Söhnlein , December 26, 2016, Rhein-Westerwald (Media World).
  8. ↑ The Finance and commerce of New York and United States: containing exhaustive and comprehensive treatises on the financial, professional and commercial interests of New York and the United States , New York Tribune , 1903, p. 224 (English).
  9. ^ Leo A. Loubère, The Red and the White: The History of Wine in France and Italy in the Nineteenth Century , ISBN 978-0-87395-370-2 , State University of New York Press, Albany 1978, p. 251 ( English).
  10. ^ A b Emil Witte: From a German embassy. Ten years of German-American diplomacy. 1907. / as reprint : Dogma (in: Europäische Hochschulverlag), Bremen 2013, ISBN 978-3-95580-650-7 , pp. 195 ff.
  11. ↑ a b c Translation from the German Newspaper, Die Welt , Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University, North Dakota (English).
  12. ↑ a b Frank J. Prial, Wine Talk; A Bubbly History: Garters, Crowned Heads, Widows , December 24, 1997, The New York Times .
  13. ↑ Veit Veltzke, The Myth of the Redeemer: Richard Wagner's dream worlds and the German Society 1871-1918 , in: Series of Preussen-Museum Nordrhein-Westfalen (Volume 3), ISBN 978-3-89790-184-1 , Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 2002, p. 90.
  14. ^ Memorandum regarding the launching of Kaiser Wilhelm's yacht , Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University, North Dakota (English).
  15. ^ Oskar von Preußen, Wilhelm II. And the United States of America: on the history of his ambivalent relationship , ISBN 978-3-89391-058-8 , Ars-Una-Verlag, 1997 (only as a snippet).
  16. ↑ a b Michael Weisser (Ed.): Söhnlein Rheingold. Artistic advertisement for the Sect 1879–1929. (= Aesthetics of the Everyday World , Volume 3.) Fricke, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-88184-037-0 , p. 30.
  17. ↑ a b Klaus Dreessen: Fall into the brown fascism. In: dodgeball. Agenda Verlag , Münster 2020, ISBN 978-3-89688-653-8 , p. 256 f.
  18. ↑ Karen Sieber, State Dinner for the Prince , February 22, 2019, Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University, North Dakota.
  19. ^ Charles Musser, Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company , ISBN 978-0-520-06986-2 , University of California Press , 1991, p. 194 (English).
  20. ↑ Randall G. Lucchesi, Our future lies on the seas: Meteors last Kaiser , October 17, 2018, yacht-express.net (English).
  21. ↑ 'Meteor III' Afloat (1902) , IMDb.
  22. ↑ Kolleen M. Guy, When Champagne Became French: Wine and the Making of a National Identity , Johns Hopkins University Press , Baltimore 2007, ISBN 978-0-8018-8747-5 , p. 33 .
  23. ↑ in the original: Tous les journaux allemands, en des polémiques enflammées, s'occupent de cette affaire, et ils accumulent tous lés arguments pour essayer de prouver que; c'est bien un vin allemand qui a eu les honors de cette cérémonie. Hélas! aucan argument ne peut tenir contre la réalité et la materialité des faits. C'est bien notre gai Champagne de France, le plus pimpant, le plus français des vins, qui a baptisé ce jour-là un navire allemand. See: front page of the newspaper at Gallica .
  24. ↑ La Vie de Paris: Autour d'une bouteille , March 10, 1902, edition 69/1902, Le Figaro (French).
  25. ↑ Anne Krebiehl, The Joy of champagne , October 18, 2016 The World of Fine Wine , PMI Publishing / Progressive Media Group (English).
  26. ^ Christening and Launching Kaiser Wilhelm's Yacht 'Meteor' (1902) , Edison Manufacturing Company in the IMBd film database.

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to other sources, the shipyard owner received USD 6,000. See e.g. E.g. Barbara Kaufhold, German Sekt advertisement from 1879–1918: Their development under economic, social and artistic aspects .
  2. ↑ This was a confirmation letter from the shipyard owner Wallace Downey, a letter from the New York branch of the Gorham Manufacturing Company, which had made the silver holder for the Moët & Chandon bottle, and an affidavit from George, certified by the notary Theodore Rudd Kessler.