Ersatz good
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An ersatz good is a substitute good, especially one that is considered inferior to the good it replaces. The phrase has particular connotations of wartime usage.
Advertisement for ersatz coffee (containing some coffee beans) in 1926
Ersatz bread from World War I on display at the Imperial War Museum in London. It is an extreme example of an Ersatz good, estimated to actually only be 20% bread.
Ersatz food from the siege of Leningrad, made from goose-foot seed and bran, and fried in mineral oil
Evelyn, Princess Blücher
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Evelyn Fürstin Blücher von Wahlstatt was an English diarist and memoirist, who wrote a standard account of life as a civilian aristocrat in Germany during World War I.
Ersatz good
…Vienna sickness" was coined after malnutrition from such goods was linked to a cause of the tuberculosis epidemic (10,000 reported cases). In Germany, Princess Blücher suffered from influenza in 1916, suggesting that she was suffering from "ersatz illness". She writes: "everyone is feeling ill from too many chemicals…
Evelyn von Wahlstatt
St Bartholomew's Church, Rainhill, burial place of Evelyn Princess Blücher