The German Wine Route: A marketing coup from the Nazi era!

The German Wine Route: A marketing coup from the Nazi era!

The “German Wine Route”, one of the first wine tourism routes in the world, was opened by the National Socialists in 1935 with the aim of promoting viticulture in the Palatinate. The idea for the wine route came from an inn and was quickly put into practice - against the backdrop of economic difficulties for wine producers caused by the global economic crisis and the French occupation. The winegrowers suffered from sales problems and often had unsold wine in their cellars. The National Socialists saw this as an opportunity to support local production through targeted advertising and to establish the small wine town of Bad Dürkheim as a center for wine lovers.

The officially celebrated opening took place in Bad Dürkheim on October 19, 1935, where a celebratory motorcade with 300 vehicles caused a stir. Gauleiter Josef Bürckel, a convinced anti-Semite, initiated the ceremony and insisted on receiving the Palatinate wine queen Trudel Knauber in his vehicle. The wine route stretches for around 85 kilometers from Silence to Bockenheim and winds through picturesque wine villages. In 2024, 105,000 tourists have already made a pilgrimage to Neustadt an der Weinstrasse.

The political background

Josef Bürckel cleverly used the wine-loving voices of the population for his own purposes to make the region known and sell wines. A week-long campaign – the “Festival of German Grapes and Wine” – promoted the consumption of local wine. The celebrations included parades, theatrical performances and even wine lotteries, which resulted in a real mobilization of wine drinkers.

Jews who were traditionally involved in the wine trade suffered from Nazi harassment, which led to the displacement of many Jewish wine merchants and cast a dark shadow over the activities of the wine route. Historians point out that in many regions, including the Moselle, the majority of the wine trade was Jewish. This anti-Semitic campaign was also visible in pageants where these wine merchants were degraded.

Wine as a national asset

The slogan “Wine is the people's drink” was propagated in National Socialist propaganda channels to promote domestic wine and counteract the anti-alcoholic movements. Historians such as Christof Krieger examine how viticulture became a question of national identity during National Socialism. This is how the concept of “wine sponsorships” between cities emerged to increase sales.

The first wine sponsorship provided new momentum in the market and only made sponsored wine permitted for sale in certain regions. The focus on wine consumption also reached its peak when there were fewer than ten wine merchants of Jewish descent in 180 wine-growing villages on the Moselle, which calls into question the widespread legend of a high Jewish share in the wine trade.

The events surrounding the “German Wine Route” show how closely the enjoyment of wine was intertwined with political trends. While the roads highlighted the natural beauty of the Palatinate, they were also used as a tool in large-scale political marketing.

The national identity that was propagated through wines and agriculture remains anchored in the region's memory to this day. The history of the “German Wine Route” is therefore not only a story about wine, but also about the turbulent political past of the Palatinate.

For those interested and wine lovers, a visit to the Wine Route is not only a journey through delicious wine varieties, such as the famous Riesling, but also an opportunity to engage with a piece of German history.

Further information on the history of the “German Wine Route” can be found in the articles by Geo, neustadt-und-nationalsocialism.uni-mainz.de and Welt.de.