Hürlimann Brewery
The Hürlimann AG brewery was a Swiss beer brewery based in Zurich . The trademark of Hürlimann was a white five-pointed star on a red background with the white lettering "Hürlimann" underneath.
history
Hans Heinrich Hürlimann, a wealthy miller's son, founded the brewery of the same name in Feldbach in the municipality of Hombrechtikon in 1836 . His son Albert, who had learned the brewing trade in Bavaria, relocated the brewery to what was then Enge near Zurich in 1866 . The company premises there, on the old farm near the stone table , which Steinentischstrasse is still reminiscent of today, had a rail connection in contrast to Feldbach. In 1867 the new brewery was put into operation. It included not only the brewery, but also the associated horse stables and the typical fermentation and storage cellars below. Thanks to a new Linde ice cream machine , which was groundbreaking for the time , production could be massively expanded so that the Hürlimann brewery was already the largest in Switzerland by 1880. As a result, numerous smaller competitors could be integrated into the business through purchase, in particular the Üetliberg brewery, which was Zurich's second largest brewery until 1921. In 1897/1898 Albert Hürlimann had the Villa Sihlberg built on the Sihlberg, which is directly adjacent to the factory site .
After the establishment of the Swiss beer cartel in 1935, the enormous competitive pressure on the beer market subsided. The beer cartel controlled the sales channels and dictated the prices for beer in restaurants and retail outlets . The different beer brands also practically divided the regions of Switzerland among themselves. Every restaurant had a firmly established supplier, who usually secured their sales through long-term contracts. Selling foreign beers was forbidden and resulted in severe penalties from the beer cartel, such as delivery boycotts. Foreign beers had no chance under these conditions and thanks to import restrictions. At the end of the 1980s, the market share of foreign beer was only 1%. Since the mid-1960s, Denner's boss Karl Schweri fought against the beer cartel until it finally collapsed in 1991. This worsened the competitive situation for Swiss breweries dramatically. At the same time, while foreign beer was becoming a new fad, beer consumption fell overall. As a result, in the mid-1990s, the pressure on Swiss beer breweries increased to reduce costs through mergers or increased beer sales.
After Hürlimann AG had succeeded in acquiring and closing another major competitor in Zurich, the Löwenbräu Zürich AG brewery, in 1984 , the company was converted into a holding company in 1989 and the Hürlimann family withdrew from the business. In 1996 the merger with Feldschlösschen-Holding, the biggest competitor on the Swiss beer market, followed. In 1997, production was shut down on the brewery site in Zurich-Enge. With the last beer brewed, the Hürlimann brewery looked back on 130 years of brewing.
A specialty of the Hürlimann brewery was the use of mineral water for the brewing process. In 1976, while drilling deeply, the company found a well that was extraordinarily rich in minerals. The company subsequently also sold a corresponding mineral water called Aqui . However, the mineral water used for the brewery came from another, less mineral-rich source. The geological interest of the last patron, Martin Hürlimann-Schmidheiny, was also the reason for Heinrich Jäckli's publication Geology of Zurich .
Shortly after the closure in 1997, a planning competition was held to decide on the use of the company premises. The architecture office Althammer Hochuli finally prevailed and defined an area development concept. which included industrial use. After the subsequent renovation, apartments, a thermal bath, offices and a market were made available in the area. After 2007, the large Internet company Google and the law firm Bär & Karrer moved in, which moved their Zurich headquarters there.
In 2008 a further renovation was carried out by PSP Immobiliengesellschaft, which mainly concerned the spa and thermal baths. The spa is now operated by Aqua Spa Resorts AG, which has transformed the roof and storage vault of the former brewery into a wellness oasis.
In 2012 Turicum Hotel Management AG ultimately developed the B2 concept - Boutique and Bookmark Hotel. The concept, designed by interior designer Ushi Tamborriello among others, aims to combine industrial charm and urban sleeping pleasure, the heart of which is the hotel's Wine Library.
The Hürlimann brand is now owned by Feldschlösschen Getränke AG , which in turn belongs to the Danish company Carlsberg Breweries .
The Hürlimann brewery in Zurich around 1876
The brewery on a municipality map from 1878
The Hürlimann brewery and Villa Sihlberg around 1900
| "The Hürlimänner" | |
| Hans Heinrich Hürlimann-Bleuler | 1803-1872 |
| Albert Hürlimann-Müller | 1828-1888 |
| Albert Heinrich Hürlimann-Hirzel | 1857-1934 |
| Hans Hürlimann-Huber | 1891-1974 |
| Heinrich Hürlimann-Hofmann | 1893-1963 |
| Martin Hürlimann | 1924-2000 |
literature
- Esther Hürlimann, Adrian Stähli: The last Hürlimänner. Orell Füssli, Zurich 2000.
- Paul Knobel: Hürlimann - Five generations of beer brewing. In: Pioneers. Swiss pioneers in business and technology. Edited by the Association for Scientific Studies. Miles 1999.
- Matthias Wiesmann: Hürlimann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Matthias Wiesmann: The beer cartel as a barrier to innovation? Influences of market form on the innovation processes of the Hürlimann brewery. In: Béatrice Veyrassat, Rudolf Jaun, Hans-Jörg Gilomen, Margrit Müller (eds.): Innovations. Requirements and consequences - driving forces and resistance (= Swiss Society for Economic and Social History. Volume 17). Chronos, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-0340-0518-0 .
Movie
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Hürlimann Brewery. Rise and end of a family business. Documentary, Switzerland, 2007, 42 min., Script and director: Arabelle Frey, production: SF , DRS , first broadcast: January 15, 2007, Hürlimann Brewery Rise and end of a family business - film by Arabelle Frey (summary) of the SF
The documentary was traces of the time of Swiss television are broadcast within the series and allows the history of this company to pass in review.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Denner's story , accessed on August 2, 2010.
Coordinates: 47 ° 21 '52.2 " N , 8 ° 31' 32.6" E ; CH1903: 682,117 / 246531