What happened to the Spreewald gherkin was peculiar, though. It was one of very few East German products that never quite disappeared from the market after reunification—which is not to say that they did not come close. In a 2006 case study researchers at the Institute for International and European Environmental Policy found that after reunification, West German companies started using “Spreewald” as a label on their pickles, capitalizing on the history and prestige associated with it, and consequently dipping into the revenue that might otherwise have gone to actual Spreewald gherkin producers.

In any case, the amount of land used for cucumber cultivation at first dropped precipitously after German reunification, according to data from the Spreewaldverein. That trend reversed when “Spreewald” became a certified national trademark in 1995. But Kossatz thinks that real gains, and real protection, came when the “Spreewälder Gurken” was recognized by the EU in 1999 and given Protected Geographical Indication. Today Spreewald gherkins are in supermarkets all across Germany. The Institute for International and European Environmental Policy estimates that Spreewald gherkins make up 50 percent of the domestic pickle market.

But this humble pickle that survived so many economic convulsions is again facing an uncertain future as Germans debate various free-trade deals, including one between the EU and the U.S. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP as it is known colloquially, would be the biggest bilateral trade deal in history if passed. Although Germany is the third-largest exporter in the world, thousands of its citizens have protested or otherwise tried to stop TTIP, which seeks to “eliminate all tariffs and other duties and charges on trade in agriculture, industrial and consumer products between the United States and Europe.”

The U.S. and the EU have been negotiating TTIP since 2013, but in the meantime free trade has become the subject of more-heated debate on both sides of the Atlantic. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump brought the issue to the forefront of the U.S. presidential election; in late August, Germany’s Vice-Chancellor and Minister for Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel said that TTIP negotiations had essentially failed. The 15th round of negotiations for that agreement are occurring this week, though in an informal meeting in late September European trade ministers expressed doubt that TTIP could be passed by the end of President Obama’s term.

As for what all this has to do with a pickle, one of the sticking points in the negotiations has been the very premise of the kind of geographic indicator that has helped promote the Spreewald gherkin. In Europe, for example, “Feta” only comes from sheep and goats milk from Greece. In the United States much of the feta in the grocery store probably comes from a cow in Wisconsin. If an agreement results in “harmonizing standards”—that is, applying the same rules in both Europe and the United States on things like factory farming, genetically modified food, and, yes, geographic indicators—whose rules apply? Will American shoppers get what Germans would consider counterfeit Spreewald gherkins grown and pickled in, say, Michigan?