{"id":3217,"date":"2025-08-18T15:25:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T15:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/all\/good-chocolate-hub-at-eurobean-chemnitz-honest-chocolate-enlightenment-and-the-legacy-of-karl-marx\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T10:31:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T10:31:29","slug":"good-chocolate-hub-at-eurobean-chemnitz-honest-chocolate-enlightenment-and-the-legacy-of-karl-marx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/all\/good-chocolate-hub-at-eurobean-chemnitz-honest-chocolate-enlightenment-and-the-legacy-of-karl-marx\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Chocolate Hub at EuroBean Chemnitz \u2013 honest chocolate, enlightenment and the legacy of Karl Marx"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Chemnitz \u2013 the city best known to many for its huge Karl Marx monument. \u2018Nischel\u2019, as the people of Chemnitz affectionately call it, still towers solemnly over the square. Just nearby, in the impressive Industrial Museum, the EuroBean Festival<\/a> took place two weeks ago \u2013 Germany’s largest bean-to-bar chocolate festival, and this year, for the first time, we from the Swiss Good Chocolate Hub were right in the middle of it.<\/p>\n\n

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For me, it almost felt a bit like visiting our big sister: while our honest chocolate festival in spring is a fine, one-day and deliberately small celebration, EuroBean unfolded a veritable chocolate universe \u2013 three days full of enjoyment, exciting discussions and genuine encounters. With an impressive 50 exhibitors from 22 countries, the festival showcased the international diversity of the bean-to-bar chocolate scene. I was particularly pleased to see our four Schoggifestival friends from Switzerland, who were also there: K\u00fcrzi Kakao<\/a>, Treegether<\/a>, Cacao de Corazon<\/a> and Musa Cacao<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

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What makes EuroBean \u2013 just like our Schoggifestival ehrundredlich \u2013 so special is, on the one hand, the direct contact: the stands are usually manned not just by salespeople, but by the founders and creators themselves, such as Peggy and Patrick Walter from Choco Del Sol, to whom we owe this inspiring festival in the first place. On the other hand, these two festivals also deliberately differ from many traditional food fairs: it’s not just about selling, but also about education and awareness. Many visitors have noted this in our guest book \u2013 with entries such as: \u2018Enjoyment and fair trade\u2019, \u2018Less is more\u2019 or \u2018Fair pay and a fair value chain for everyone involved\u2019. This spirit makes all the difference \u2013 and motivates us anew every year.<\/p>\n\n

How do people in Germany respond to our mission to raise awareness about cocoa production and everything related to it? The answer: with incredible interest and genuine appreciation! Many visitors thanked us after our presentation, often with moments of realisation \u2013 especially when we talked about problematic issues such as child labour, deforestation and the connection between market power and global responsibility. There was also noticeable interest in the fact that not only are major brands based in Switzerland, but that these companies, with their market power, are setting an important course for the future of the cocoa sector \u2013 and that consumers have more influence than many realise.<\/p>\n\n

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For many, our metate \u2013 the traditional grinding stone to grind cocoa beans \u2013 was a real highlight. Repeatedly, a curious crowd gathered when a visitor or I celebrated the moment when the beans suddenly gave off an intense chocolate aroma. The enthusiasm was contagious.<\/p>\n\n

We were one of the few NGOs among the exhibitors, which is precisely why \u2013 between tempting sweet samples \u2013 we were able to raise awareness among many visitors about the background to chocolate, asking questions such as: Why is handmade \u2018bean to bar\u2019 chocolate more expensive here? What does this have to do with living wages, environmental protection and politics? Why are laws needed, not just voluntary programmes \u2013 and why is Germany ahead of Switzerland in this regard (keyword: supply chain law)? I was able to explore the big question of \u2018How much should it cost?\u2019 at a public presentation by the Good Chocolate Hub.<\/p>\n\n

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Away from the hustle and bustle of the festival, we went on a little trip to the Karl Marx monument. The monument’s sombre gaze was sadly fitting for the topic that concerns us: global injustices and modern slavery, unfortunately also in the cocoa sector. He warns \u2013 then as now: \u2018Proletarians of all countries, unite!\u2019 And perhaps Marx looks so stern because so much is still not as it should be. At the same time, the monument and the surrounding ensemble show how relevant it is to engage with history \u2013 especially when it comes to the topic of fair trade chocolate.<\/p>\n\n

At the end of the three days, I look back with gratitude: for inspiring conversations, new contacts, lots of professional exchange and the awareness that education can achieve more than any bar of chocolate alone. Many thanks to Peggy and Patrick Walter and all the hosts at Choco Del Sol<\/a> for the invitation and for organising EuroBean<\/a> \u2013 we’ll be happy to come back!<\/p>\n\n

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Chemnitz \u2013 the city best known to many for its huge Karl Marx monument. \u2018Nischel\u2019, as the people of Chemnitz affectionately call it, still towers solemnly over the square. Just nearby, in the impressive Industrial Museum, the EuroBean Festival took place two weeks ago \u2013 Germany’s largest bean-to-bar chocolate festival, and this year, for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[70,68,71,67,69,72,73],"class_list":["post-3217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-bean-to-bar","tag-cacao","tag-chemnitz-en","tag-chocolate-en","tag-eurobean-en","tag-karlmarx-en","tag-metate-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3217"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3220,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3217\/revisions\/3220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}