Wine, Copper, and Bullets: The Centrality of Wine in Vichy’s Metal "Mobilization" Drives

For two weeks in September 1942, Parisians carrying chandeliers, old lamps, and worn kitchenware lined up in front of collection centers where they exchanged their copper, brass, and bronze objects for coupons worth 1 liter of wine for every 200 grams of metal. Radio ads, newspapers, and large posters publicized the event and claimed that the metal was to be used to make copper sulfate, a fungicide used to protect grapevines. Yet, as many suspected, the metal was destined for German munitions.

            In the spring of 1941, the German military in occupied France threatened to requisition church bells and carry out household requisitions to acquire metal critical for munitions production. Fearful of the threat requisitions posed to the illusion of national sovereignty, Vichy agreed to provide Germany with a quota of metal and then implemented a series of voluntary and forced “mobilization” drives. By the summer of 1944, Vichy authorities had “mobilized” 42,000 tons of metal. Surprisingly, the majority of that metal came not from industrial requisitions, but from measures targeting individuals: a voluntary drive, a copper-wine exchange, a copper-sulfate exchange, and a metal tax. Many people participated, and many did so voluntarily. This paper will examine the crucial role played by wine and winegrowers in these state-run collection drives. Statistically, winegrowers—as measured by hectares of vineyards in production during the war—were the one group of individuals most likely to participate in voluntary collection drives. Vichy officials soon discovered this correlation and actively directed their propaganda to appeal to both consumers and producers of wine. An analysis of the origins, implementation and results of these collection drives reveals how the consumption and production of wine indirectly helped provide raw materials for the German war machine.