Fix (brewery)

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fix

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1864
Seat Kifisia , Greece
Website fix-beer.gr

The Fix brewery ( Greek Φιξ ) was founded by Johann Karl Fix in Athens in 1864 and was the first large brewery in Greece. His father had started brewing beer in Greece around 30 years earlier. As purveyor to the court of the Greek king, the company was able to maintain a monopoly-like position on the Greek market for around 100 years. After the company went bankrupt in 1983 and several failed attempts at revival, Fix-Bier has been brewing in its own brewery again since 2009. The main reason for this is the relatively high popularity of beer in the country for Mediterranean countries .

history

19th century advertisement
Karl Johann Fix (Karolos Ioannou Fix), the son of Johann Ludwig Fix
Labels until the late 1920s with a lion as a logo. Noteworthy is the Fraktur typeface, which was unusual in Greece, and the then unusual because it was a vernacular word Birra

Beer enjoyment in the young Greek state

In 1833, Adolph von Schaden reported in a handbook for Bavarian emigrants to Greece about the popularity of the British porter beer exported to Greece among the Greek aristocracy. In addition, beer from Naples was exported to Greece in 1833 . Before the revolution there were the first successful attempts by an Armenian brewer in Tripoli in Arcadian . In a note, Schaden for a beer production in Greece predicted good economic success and recommended Joseph Pschorr in particular to send one of his sons to Greece to build a brewery.

Establishment of the Athens brewery

The father of the brewery founder, Johann Adam Fix, a miner from Edelbach in Spessart, had answered King Otto's call to Greece and - like other Bavarians - settled in the settlement of Iraklion not far from Athens . He was responsible for the organization of the mines in Kymi on Evia. At first he had to leave his son Johann Georg behind with his mother. When Johann Georg traveled after his father at the age of twenty, he picked him up in Piraeus ; his father was murdered by robbers on the way. After the attack, Johann Georg Fix escaped to Iraklion, then stayed there and initially imported a few barrels of beer from Bavaria. He later decided to produce beer himself and opened a small brewery in the Kolonaki district of Athens with an attached brewery, which became a central place in the social life of the Bavarian Athenians. Josef von Ow, who was in the service of the Athens royal court from 1837–39, wrote in his memoirs:

“The Bavarian compatriots have company among themselves. - A brewery has been in operation in Athens for two years and is heavily used. Professor G [r] everus from Oldenburg remarks very correctly how wonderful it must be for a Bavarian soul that his native drink is available here - on the border of the Orient! A company ›Zum green Baum‹ (with garden, bowling alley, stone beer mugs, singing and loud conversations) reminds of the distant bank of the Isar! "

Beer is said to have established itself throughout Greece by 1840. Johann Ludwig's son Karl Johann Fix (Karolos Ioannou Fix) opened the Fix brewery in 1864, which was the only large brewery in the country until the middle of the 20th century. It was also located at the foot of the Lykavittos in Kolonaki and competed with small breweries such as Guilelmos (Wilhelm) and imported beer from Trieste and Vienna ( Schwechat ). The German brewers (including Fix) are said to have barely kept up with the demand for beer and “became wealthy people in a short period of time”. Beer was therefore more expensive than wine. Around 1905, 89,000 hectoliters were produced in eleven breweries.

monopoly

From the late 1920s, blue and white were combined with the rhombus as design features of the appearance

Unlike that of the Fischer (Φίσερ), Bachauer (Μπαχάουερ) and Melcher (Μέλχερ) breweries, the Fix beer was distinguished by its constant quality and had established itself at the latest since the first half of the 20th century. In 1925, the brewery invested in a refrigeration unit with a power of 2 to 6 million in  BTU of Sulzer AG , which cooled the entire basement. Until the 1950s, this was one of the most powerful compressors ever. Previously, ice was only used for cooling, of which a system built by LA Riedinger produced 1000 kg per day. “The good and light fix beer (birra) is available in every restaurant. It costs 5 Drs per glass, 1 bottle around 18 Drs ”, wrote a travel guide to Athens in 1937. During the occupation of Athens by the Nazis, Antonios (Anthony) and Elli Fix hid the Jewess Yvonne Molho in their house. (In 2004 they were accepted into the Righteous Among the Nations for this ). At that time the brewery also had its own bar in Patisia, which was mainly visited by Germans.

After studying chemistry at the University of Lausanne and working as a chemist in the Greek military for two years, Karolos Fix (the son of Antonios Fix) took over the management of the company in 1950. In the 1960s, the German Dr. Karl Lietz. In 1965, the new brewery designed by Takis Zenetos opened on Syngrou Avenue . The high profits from the de facto beer monopoly were partly invested in other beverage companies that were also aiming for a monopoly position, including Tam-Tam (a cola drink) and Retsina Plaka ( Retsina was the most popular table wine at the time).

The brewery advertised on labels with the status of purveyor to the Greek court and with reference to 38 gold medals won.

Decline and bankruptcy

The brewery was accused in the early 1960s of using its quasi-monopoly to specifically prevent other breweries from entering the Greek market. On July 15, 1965, the government passed a resolution to facilitate the entry of foreign breweries into the market . In the same year, Amstel Hellas started operations as an offshoot of the Dutch Amstel brand .

After the defense minister of the Greek junta , Garoufalias, married into the Fix family, the company's reputation was permanently damaged. The slogan "i bira Fix kani kalo" (η μπίρα Φιξ κάνει καλό 'Fix beer is good') was repositioned in "i bira Fix kani kako" (η μπίρα Φιξ κάνει κακό, for example, 'Fix beer is bad'). “Nobody wants to drink junta beer any more,” wrote Spiegel in 1974.

1977-1983 the shareholders of the brewery delivered a legal dispute, first with the city of Athens and then with the state, in which it was about the provision of real estate and the relocation of the brewery. Fix wanted to change the use of the brewery building into a shopping center. In the meantime, many new breweries emerged, mostly as offshoots of foreign breweries (including Löwenbräu Hellas, Henninger Hellas, Amstel , Heineken ), and Fix lost enormous market shares. Karolos Fix, descendant of the founder, and his wife Ninetta moved their main residence to Gstaad in 1982 , where numerous Greek millionaires live. Karolos opened Fix Asset Management there that same year , which today manages assets of 12 billion euros in 300 funds. A year later the Fix brewery went bankrupt. The naming rights went to the National Bank of Greece , with which the brewery was heavily indebted. The former company archive has since been located in the Historical Archive of Macedonia in Thessaloniki.

Resurgence of the Fix brand

Can and bottle until 2009
Can and bottle since 2010

As early as 1985, John Manolakos from the Florida company Greco-Roman Importers tried to revive the brand and brew a beer called FIX Special at Carlsberg in Greece. The project failed for unknown reasons. In 1995 Aris Zizis had the Fix 1864 Special trademark protected in the USA with the aim of having the beer brewed by the Holsten Brewery in Germany and exporting it to the USA and Greece. In the meantime, Kourtakis had acquired the trademark rights of the old brewery from the owner National Bank of Greece for 120 million drachmas plus 1.5 percent of sales and was thus able to prevent the distribution of the plagiarism. He founded the Olympic Brewery ( Olymbiaki Zythopiia Ολυμπιακή Ζυθοποιία) and had the beer brewed in the lager and export varieties at Mythos in Atalanta near Thessaloniki. The success was rather small. Meanwhile, Fix has been brewed in the USA and Canada. In the meantime, Karolos Fix had a beer brewed in Holland using its own old recipe and the name Karolos I. Fix , which was sold in Greece through the supermarket chain of his brother-in-law Marinopoulos. However, this was stopped by a court. The production of the Fix brand was relocated in 2008 from the Olympic Brewery to the Greek microbreweries ( Ellinikes Mikrozythopiies Ελληνικές Μικροζυθοποιίες), as the output was only 1000 hectoliters. Sklavenitis was the only supermarket chain to sell beer.

In 2009 the Olympic Brewery was sold to the previous minority shareholder Chitos. The old logo was modified and reintroduced and the brand's own brewery was put into operation in Ritsona on the island of Evia . Only lager with an alcohol content of 5% is brewed there. In 2009 a beer output of 150,000 hectoliters was achieved. The ingredients come from organic farming, although the product does not have an organic seal. Since 2010 Fix has been advertised on television again.

In 2015 the Olympic Brewery merged with Mythos Brewery . Since then, the majority of the breweries have been owned by Carlsberg .

Former locations

The brewery had different locations where beer was brewed at different times, including the following in Attica: Karneadou / corner of Irodotou Street, Timoleontos Street 7 (today Ypsilantou), Gragratetta-Feld to Makrigianni / Kallirois Street, and finally Syngrou Avenue. According to the places in: Heraklion, Kolonaki and Patissia. There were also at least two locations in Thessaloniki.

The brewery at Syngrou

The old brewery on Syngrou Avenue was demolished and replaced by a new building in 1965. This is an early work by Takis Zenetos , an 'enfant terrible' of Greek architecture. Nevertheless, because of its size, it became a symbol of an ignorant large-scale industry, and residents demanded its demolition and the construction of a park as early as 1982.

In 1994 the former brewery building on Syngrou Avenue was sold to the subway operator Attiko Metro , who wanted to build an underground car park and a park above it. Numerous monument conservationists and fans of the architect demonstrated. After 40% of the building was demolished and violent protests, the parking garage investor gave in and limited himself to the area that had already been demolished, where he built a deeper building. The rest was donated for future use as a museum for modern art. The Athens subway station, which opened directly at the building in 2001, and a tram stop above it are called Syngrou-Fix .

The brewery in Patisia

In 1900, K. Klonaridis built a large brewery complex at the Patision / Kaftantzoglou intersection in northern Athens, which Fix took over in 1930 and was ultimately used for the production of ice cream. The complex was demolished in 2000 under the Mayor of Athens Dimitris Avramopoulos and the area was turned into a park. All that remained was the Villa Klonaridi, the builder's residence. Opposite a Café Fix still reminds of the location of the brewery, the area was named after the first owner Klonaridis.

Thessaloniki

An ensemble of brick buildings and ruins has been preserved near the port (Straße des 26. Oktober). There was previously a winery on the site, in 1882 the Misrachi-Fernandez brewery (Μισραχή-Φερνάντεζ) was built according to German plans and operated as the Olymbos Brewery (Ζυθοποιείο ΟΛΥΜΠΟΣ) from 1912 and after a merger as Olymbos Naoussa. Fix acquired the brewery in 1926 and brewed at the site until bankruptcy in 1983. Large lettering with the inscription ZYTHOPIIA KAROLOS FIX can still be seen on the outside of the buildings . The buildings were first illegally occupied and used for cultural events and then regularly rented. Applications for monument protection were delayed several times, in some cases contested by the owners of the site. The site has been an irrevocable listed building since 2004. A restoration remains uncertain.

Trivia

  • In 1904 the Fix & Cie brewery was founded in Niedermendig . A reference to the Athens brewery has not been proven.
  • The later composer Manos Hadjidakis worked as a worker at Fix in his youth.
  • A town partnership was established between Mühldorf am Inn (the hometown of the brewery's founder) and Heraklion , the later headquarters of the brewery.
  • In Palio Faliro there is a street called Ioannou Fix, named after Johann Ludwig Fix.

Beer in Greece

The market is determined by three large breweries, Athenian Brewery with the brands Heineken and Amstel has 70%, followed by Carlsberg A / S with the brands Mythos , Henninger , Foster’s and Guinness . Only in third place is the Olympian Brewery, to which the Fix brand belongs. 95% of the beer consumed is brewed in Greece.

In general, beer consumption in Mediterranean countries is well below the European average. Greece is no exception, but ranked ahead of Italy and France in 1995. Between 1996 and 2004 beer consumption increased by 20%, with beer in Greece being a purely seasonal drink, 60% of the bottles sold are sold between May and September. Beer consumption in Greece is highly dependent on the weather. Generally more beer than wine is drunk there.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Adolph von Schaden: The Bavarian in Greece, a manual for everyone who intends to move to Hellas, or who would like to get to know the same thing better in every respect. Munich 1833, pp. 11, 85 [1]
  2. ↑ a b c d Alfred Diel: Johann Georg Fix. Greece conquered with Bavarian beer in 1854 . In: Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Heimatforschung und Heimatpflege Kahlgrund eV, seat Alzenau (ed.): Our Kahlgrund 2004. Heimatjahrbuch for the former district Alzenau . 49th year, self-published by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Heimatforschung und Heimatpflege Kahlgrund eV, Karlstein / Main 2004. - This source refutes the often rumored but unsubstantiated claim that Fix was first called Fuchs and came from Mühldorf .
  3. ↑ Panellinion Lefkoma Ethnikis Ekatontaetiridos 1821–1921, quoted by Dimitris Charontakis: To Vima newspaper. (No longer available online.) To Vima online, archived from the original on November 11, 2010 ; Retrieved August 26, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tovima.gr
  4. ↑ Josef von Ow: Notes of a Junker at the Court of Athens, edited by J. Bar. Ow after his death. Pest, Vienna and Leipzig 1854, Volume I, p. 84 [2]
  5. ^ Elisabeth von Dryander: Six times Greece . 1969 p. 152
  6. ↑ Fix Beer USA ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 25, 2010.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fixbeerusa.com
  7. ↑ a b Theopedia: Help for beer drinkers , viewed on August 25, 2010
  8. ↑ Siegfried Mack Roth: The Germans in Greece . 1930, p. 45
  9. ^ Henry Clifford Darby: Greece: Economic geography, ports, and communications . 1945, p. 134
  10. ^ Deutsche Rundschau for Geography and Statistics 27/1905, p. 83
  11. ↑ Sakopetra (Greek)
  12. ^ Sulzer technical review, Vol. 82, 1949, p. 31
  13. ↑ Modern refrigeration, Vol. 55, Empire House 1952, p. 163
  14. ↑ United States. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce: Trade information bulletin: Issue 382-401, 1939
  15. ^ Georg Karo: Athens and Surroundings , Grieben-Verlag, 1937, p. 30
  16. ↑ El Avenir, Newsletter of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, p. 6 ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jct.gr
  17. ↑ yadvashem.org accessed on August 26, 2010 (PDF; 238 kB)
  18. ↑ Alfred Philippson / Hans Böhm: How I became a geographer , recorded in the Theresienstadt concentration camp between 1942 and 1945, 2000, p. 321
  19. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Greek "Who's Who" page on funds, report on Karolos Fix accessed on August 26, 2010  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sofokleous10.gr
  20. ↑ a b c Axiaplus.gr  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Greek), accessed August 24, 2010@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.axiaplus.gr  
  21. ↑ Image of an old can on picasa  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 25, 2010@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / lh6.ggpht.com  
  22. ↑ a b c tovima.gr ( Memento of the original from November 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Greek), accessed August 24, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tovima.gr
  23. ↑ Der Spiegel 28/1974: Give the junta to the people! , P. 126
  24. ^ R. Doak Bishop / James Crawford / William Michael Reisman: Foreign investment disputes: cases, materials, and commentary . P. 479
  25. ↑ Gstaadlife: Ninetta Fix: in Saanenland's embrace ( memento of the original dated September 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 24, 2010  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gstaadlife.com
  26. ↑ Kathimerini: Celebrities to gather in Gstaad for private viewing of Depy Chandris's jewelry collection , accessed on August 24, 2010
  27. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Greek "Who's Who" page on funds, report on Karolos Fix accessed on August 26, 2010  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sofokleous10.gr
  28. ↑ tovima.gr ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Greek), accessed August 24, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tovima.gr
  29. ↑ isotimia.gr ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Greek), accessed August 24, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.isotimia.gr
  30. ↑ Ratebeer.com: Fix Hellas , accessed on August 24, 2010
  31. ↑ Bier1.de: FIX Hellas Beer  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bier1.de   , accessed August 24, 2010
  32. ↑ fix-beer.gr: Information on the brand's website, accessed on August 26, 2010
  33. ^ "Mythical" beer fusion in Greece , on www.griechenland.net , accessed on April 29, 2017
  34. ↑ Sakopetra.com (Greek) , accessed August 26, 2010
  35. ↑ About the architecture of the brewery building ( Memento of the original dated November 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 25, 2010.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.emst.gr
  36. ↑ ΕΜΣΤ National Museum Of Contemporary Art. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 12, 2010 ; accessed on August 24, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.emst.gr
  37. ↑ Η βίλα Κλωναρίδου και το Φιξ. Η Αθήνα απ 'τη βιτρίνα, accessed August 27, 2010 (Greek).
  38. ↑ Κατεδάφισε το πρώην εργοστάσιο του ΦΙΞ στην Πατησίων. Rizospastis, accessed August 27, 2010 (Greek).
  39. ↑ Το ΦΙΞ ρημάζει από την αδιαφορία. (No longer available online.) ToVima newspaper, archived from the original on September 1, 2009 ; Retrieved August 27, 2010 (Greek). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ethnos.gr
  40. ^ After M. Friedrich Heidelberg: Directory of former Niedermendiger breweries. (No longer available online.) Vulkan Brewery, archived from the original on November 13, 2010 ; Retrieved August 24, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vulkan-brauhaus.de
  41. ↑ Manos Hadjidakis (1925-1994). Greece Newspaper, accessed August 24, 2010 .
  42. ^ Heraklion and Mühldorf. City of Mühldorf, accessed on August 24, 2010 .
  43. ↑ Food market in Greece. (PDF; 892 kB) Retrieved August 25, 2010 .
  44. ↑ Birgit Speckle: Dispute about beer in Bavaria: moral concepts about purity, community and tradition. Waxmann-Verlag, 2001, p. 250
  45. ↑ 2007 report on beer consumption in Greece. Retrieved August 25, 2010 .
  46. ↑ Μαζί με το καλοκαίρι έρχεται και η "μάχη" της μπύρας. Retrieved August 25, 2010 .
  47. ↑ Food market in Greece. (PDF; 892 kB) Retrieved August 25, 2010 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 9, 2010 .