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Sweet Rhineland

Sweet Rhineland

Tracing forgotten chocolate companies

 

A radio project (winter term 2014/15)

Well-known chocolate brands like Novesia are still known in Germany. However, their firms have long since disappeared and are mostly forgotten. The aim of the course was to recover the history of some of these firms along the Rhine between Emmerich and Cologne and present the findings in short podcasts. The course cooperated with the Chocolate Museum in Cologne and the Rhenish-Westfalian Business Archive in Cologne.

The students were involved in every step of the production, beginning with the research - if necessary in local archives -, to writing the script, selecting the appropriate music and sounds, speaking their histories in the recording studio of the Hochschulradio of the University, cutting and finally arranging the cuttings.

In all, ten podcasts were produced: an introductory feature on the history of chocolate: ‘From ‘a drink for the pigs’ to mass consumption’, ‘Chocolate and Health’, the ‘History of Neugebaur & Lohmann’, a firm that existed for more than a hundred years in Emmerich, ‘Novesia - a family dynasty’ in Neuss, ‘Chocolate firms in Düsseldorf’ =  a walk through the town tracing old chocolate firms, ‘Kaisers and Schmitzl – a chocolate tale’ in Viersen and Mülheim (Tengelmann), ‘Ludwig Stollwerck and his chocolate machines’, ‘Albert Stollwerck – a chocolate rebel’, ‘Adventure Chocolate Museum’ and the history of the “Association of German Chocolate Producers”.

Those podcasts having any relation with Düsseldorf were already broadcasted on Antenne Düsseldorf on January 24th at 9 o’clock pm and all podcasts were broadcasted on Hochschulradio of the University of Düsseldorf on January 31st and February 1 at 9 o’clock pm.

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