Fritz Schoellhorn

Fritz Schoellhorn (born October 19, 1863 in Oberurbach ; † February 2, 1933 in Winterthur ) was a Swiss entrepreneur and author . He was director and chairman of the board of directors of the Haldengut brewery in Winterthur.

childhood

Fritz Schoellhorn came to Switzerland with his family in 1875 because his father Johann Georg Schoellhorn took over the Haldengut brewery in Winterthur.

education

Fritz Schoellhorn went to the commercial school at the Technikum Winterthur and after completing this training was able to work for his father. In 1880 his father acquired Swiss citizenship and Fritz Schoellhorn also became a Swiss citizen. In 1881 and 1882 he continued his education in a bank in Ulm . He later enjoyed his training in brewing at the Weihenstephan Brewery School , in a Munich malt house and in a brewery in Graz .

Brasserie Tivoli in Geneva

Fritz Schoellhorn actually wanted to continue his education in England and America. But since his father needed help with the Geneva “Brasserie Tivoli” (formerly called “Brewery de la Bâtie”), Fritz Schoellhorn went to Geneva in 1887. The brewery was only half built and had already suffered some damage. The brewery was also not immune to breakdowns and the beers were of poor quality. Fritz Schoellhorn first had to crack down on personnel. But the brewery was still haunted by misfortune. In the summer of 1887, the brewery was accidentally hit by bullets from the Swiss Federal Shooting Festival. In the spring of 1888 part of the brewery was destroyed by a rock fall . Later when the brewhouse was being built, a stone fell on Fritz Schoellhorn and injured him, so that he had to recover for five weeks. The situation in Geneva often led to "deep despondency", as he himself described it. On October 1, 1888, the “Brasserie Tivoli”, the “Haldengut” and the “Bavaria” brewery in St. Gallen were transferred to the joint stock company “United Swiss Breweries”.

From director to chairman of the board of directors of Haldengut

At the age of 25, Fritz Schoellhorn was appointed director of the stock corporation at the beginning of 1889 and moved from Geneva back to Winterthur. It got off to a difficult start because the quality of the beers in the “Brasserie Tivoli” and “Haldenguts” did not meet expectations and became a significant competitive disadvantage. On January 22, 1890, the father died of pneumonia during a flu epidemic . Fritz Schoellhorn was on his own and had to take on a difficult inheritance with the many plans his father had started.

Formally he was only an employee of the United Swiss Breweries, but as the main heir and son of the important deceased patron, he held an undisputed position. In 1895 he was even elected delegate of the administrative board and appointed master brewer Heinrich Bibus as director. This enabled him to devote more time to his entrepreneurial tasks. Fritz Schoellhorn also had to overcome many obstacles, such as the brewers' strike in 1886, which was quickly settled with the lockout of the strikers, or the fire in the stable building in 1898, which killed twenty brewery horses. He also had to struggle with poor customer payment practices due to the economic crisis.

In the 1900/1901 financial year, Fritz Schoellhorn took over from the resigning Chairman of the Board of Directors, Hans Knüsli. In this position he concentrated the entire company capital on a single brewery. He had had this idea for a long time, but has not yet been able to implement it. The Tivoli brewery was sold and the Bavaria brewery in St. Gallen was converted into a depot for Haldengut beer. In 1904 the “United Swiss Breweries” were officially converted into the “Brauerei Haldengut” joint stock company. Likewise, his position as Chairman of the Board of Directors changed his role with regard to employees. If he was used to referring to the brewers, he began to address them as "Herr".

In 1910 he was again confronted with a labor dispute. The Association of Food and Beverage Workers demanded that in future only association members may be employed by the breweries. When the demand was denied, the brewers went on strike, which again ended with a lockout.

Fritz Schoellhorn was able to steadily increase production in the first few years. The First World War represented a setback , which was a acid test for many breweries and so the Haldengut brewery had to navigate through this difficult time. He wrote about this difficult time for breweries in a book, "The Swiss Brewing Industry, Its Crisis as a Result of the World War and Overcoming it" , which he published in 1929.

He also made a name for himself by researching scientifically about brewing. He also conducted research on plant physiology. In 1928 he received an honorary doctorate from the ETH Zurich . Schoellhorn was also accepted into the Herrenstuben Society in Winterthur . In 1930 he published his memoirs covering the years 1863 to 1889. Fritz Schoellhorn was no longer able to undertake a planned military study trip to Romania. He fell seriously ill in 1932 and died on February 2, 1933. After that, the company was continued in the third generation by his sons Georg (1891–1973) and Kurt (1894–1966).

Web links

• Literature by and about Fritz Schoellhorn in the catalog of the German National Library
• Urs Widmer: Schöllhorn, Fritz. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Schoellhorn Fritz, Dr.hc., Entrepreneur, 1863–1933 in the Winterthur Glossary.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Heinz Ruprecht: Ferdinand Ernst 1819–1875, Johann Georg Schoellhorn 1837–1890, Fritz Schoellhorn 1863–1933. Haldengut brewery. From commercial to industrial brewing. Association for Economic History Studies, Meilen 1993.
3. ^ Alfred Ziegler: The Society of the Herrenstube zu Winterthur. Updated to the present day and provided with an appendix by Hans Klaui. Edited by the Herrenstubengesellschaft Winterthur, Winterthur 1956, p. 93.