Georg Leonhard Hopf

Georg Leonhard Hopf (born December 22, 1799 ; † April 30, 1844 ) was a German cooper, wine merchant and brewer. He founded the Berlin Bock beer brewery .

Life

Georg Leonhard Hopf, who, according to contradicting information in the literature , came from either Württemberg or the Bavarian Palatinate , came to Berlin in the early 1820s. He first worked as a cooper in the Habel brothers' wine shop, Unter den Linden  30, the largest in Berlin at the time, where he soon rose to become cellar master due to his ability . In 1825 he went into business for himself and rented  space for a winery with its own wine shop in Leipziger Strasse 6, right next to the Prussian War Ministry. He opened this under the established name “M. Deibel ”. The Deibel wine shop was previously located in the neighboring house at Leipziger Strasse 7, but Deibel himself died around 1821 and the business was then run by his widow Marie Margarethe Deibel, née. Schweitzer (1791-1858) continued to operate. The arrangement that Hopf found with Marie Deibel, under whose name the new wine shop ran, was to lead to the marriage of the two two years later.

With foresight, Hopf recognized that in Berlin, where wheat beer dominated, there was a market for the qualitatively superior "Baierische Bier", the common name for bottom-fermented beer . However, there was a lack of cooling methods that would have allowed such beer - especially in summer - to be transported from the breweries in Munich or Nuremberg to the Spree without the risk of spoilage. Hopf therefore decided to brew his own beer based on a Bavarian recipe on Leipziger Strasse. For the first successful brewing attempt, in 1826 or 1827, the washing kettle of the wash house was supposedly used. However, the beer produced in this way was still top-fermented, so that it could only be sold in bottles, which is why the circle of buyers remained limited, despite the good popularity.

Having become wealthy through his marriage to Marie Deibel, Hopf acquired a former brown beer brewery at Friedrichstrasse  126, located directly at the Oranienburger Tor . From 1828 the Berlin address book lists him at this address as a “Baierischer Bierbrauer” and at the old address in Leipziger Strasse as a “wine merchant”. From 1831 the merchant F. W. Fanta from Linienstraße  139, "a highly respected money man at the time", is listed as Hopf's partner in Friedrichstraße. It is uncertain whether Fanta was previously a silent partner, i.e. whether it (co) financed the original purchase, or whether it later joined the company after Hopf's financial resources had proven to be inadequate. During this time, Hopf was also active in local politics. In 1831/1832 he was deputy city councilor.

The first bottom-fermented beer in Berlin was brewed in the brewery on Friedrichstrasse. Brewmaster was first Johann M. Ley, then Joseph Pfeffer. Both later went into business for themselves and opened their own breweries in Berlin, Ley first on Kleine Frankfurter Strasse, then on Schönhauser Allee , Pfeffer, after a failed first attempt, successfully on the Pfefferberg, which is now named after him . The brewery building on Friedrichstrasse was demolished in the 1840s and the Friedrichs Gymnasium - now a listed building - was built in its place in 1848/1849 .

In 1838, Hopf acquired a 4 acre property on Tempelhofer Berg in the area of ​​today's Fidicinstrasse for 800 thalers , which had previously been used as pastureland. The laying of the foundation stone there for the Baierisch beer brewery G. Hopf on May 8, 1838 was soon followed by the opening. The associated "beer garden" consisted only of a treeless sand square, on which two wooden booths with conventional wooden benches and wooden tables had been erected, but which were grandly called "beer halls".

At Easter 1840, Hopf organized the first Berlin Bock beer festival here . The success was so resounding and the popularity of the unusually tasty brown beer so great that Hopf was soon able to expand strongly.

The Hopf-Schweitzer hereditary burial at the Trinity Cemetery I in Berlin-Kreuzberg

A fire destroyed the brewery in 1842. It was rebuilt, but Georg Leonhard Hopf died on April 30, 1844 at the age of only 44, allegedly from the consequences of the excitement caused by the catastrophic fire. The burial took place in a hereditary burial on the Trinity Cemetery I in front of the Hallesches Tor . His wife Marie Margarethe Hopf born Schweitzer used Deibel was later buried there. Friedrich Holtze speculated in 1898 in the writings of the Association for the History of Berlin about Hopf: "[S] a grave has certainly long since fallen into disrepair". The historian was wrong. The plastered Hopf-Schweitzer wall grave on Trinity Cemetery I has been preserved to this day. The three still existing cast-iron inscription panels remind of Georg Leonard and Marie Hopf as well as Caroline Schweitzer née. Lang (1768–1835), the mother of Mrs. Hopf.

Marie Hopf and her sons from their first marriage, the Deibel brothers, ran the brewery until 1861; Then it was sold to the hotel owner Ehrenreich, who in 1871 converted the Berlin Bockbier brewery into an AG. In 1917 the Bock brewery merged with the Patzenhofer brewery , which in turn merged with Schultheiss three years later .

literature

• Erich Borkenhagen: 125 years of the Schultheiss brewery: The history of the Schultheiss beer in Berlin from 1842 to 1967 . Berlin 1967, p. 26.
• Henry Gidom: Berlin and its breweries. Complete directory of the brewing locations from 1800 to 1925 . Berlin 2016 (3rd, revised and updated edition).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carl Brecht: The village of Tempelhof . = Writings of the Association for the History of Berlin , Issue 15, Berlin 1878, pp. 172–173 (footnote), here p. 172.
2. ↑ Martin Albrecht: The Kulturbrauerei in Berlin. History and present of the former Schultheiss brewery. Links, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86153-955-1 . P. 7.
3. ^ Brecht: The village of Tempelhof . Pp. 172-173 (footnote). General address book for Berlin . Verlag J. W. Boicke, Berlin 1820, p. 150. The house number counting on the boulevard Unter den Linden was changed in 1937 from consecutive to the reciprocal counting (with even house numbers on the north side and odd ones on the south side) which is still valid today. The historic house number 30 was on the south side of the boulevard, between Friedrichstrasse and Charlottenstrasse.
4. ^ Brecht: The village of Tempelhof . Pp. 172-173 (footnote). See also the entries in the Berlin address book : “Deibel, M., wine dealer, Leipzigerstr. 7 "(1820); "Leipziger Strasse 7 - Deibel, Wwe. Weinhandlung" (1822); “Deibel, M., b. Schweitzer, Wine Merchant Ww., Leipzigerstr. 6 "(1825). The address book for 1823 lists them as “Deibel, M geb. Schweitzer, Cattle Dealer Ww., Leipzistr. [Sic] 7 “, but it is unclear whether this is an interim business termination or just an error in the address book.
5. ^ Brecht: The village of Tempelhof . Pp. 172-173 (footnote). Bavarian Beer Brewery, Friedrichstrasse 126 . On: http://berlin-mitte.com (accessed April 4, 2019). Friedrich Holtze: Pictures from Berlin two generations ago . In: Writings of the Association for the History of Berlin , Issue 35, 1898, pp. 67–123, here p. 119.
6. ↑ Bavarian Beer Brewery, Friedrichstrasse 126 . On: http://berlin-mitte.com (accessed April 4, 2019). Entries for "Hopf, G." in the Berlin address book from 1828, 1829 and 1830.
7. ^ Brecht: The village of Tempelhof . P. 172 (footnote).
8. ↑ See entries in the Berlin address book: “Fanta, F. W, Kaufmann, Linienstr. 139 "(1830) and" Fanta u. Comp., Braueigene, Friedrichsstr. [Sic] 126 “(1831).
9. ^ Brecht: The village of Tempelhof . P. 172 (footnote).
10. ↑ Bavarian Beer Brewery, Friedrichstrasse 126 . On: http://berlin-mitte.com (accessed April 4, 2019).
11. ↑ Debora Paffen, Hans-Jürgen Mende : The cemeteries in front of the Hallesches Tor. A cemetery guide . Part 1. Edition Luisenstadt, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89542-132-4 , pp. 52–53.
12. ^ Brecht: The village of Tempelhof . P. 172 (footnote). Holtze: Pictures from Berlin two generations ago . P. 119.
13. ^ Paffen, Mende: The cemeteries in front of the Hallesches Tor . Part 1, pp. 52-53. George Leonhardt Hopf . On: Historical personalities in Berlin cemeteries , website (accessed April 4, 2019).
14. ↑ In some sources the year 1839 is mentioned.
15. ↑ George Leonhardt Hopf . On: Historical personalities in Berlin cemeteries , website (accessed April 4, 2019).
16. ^ Paffen, Mende: The cemeteries in front of the Hallesches Tor . Part 1, pp. 52-53.
17. ↑ Holtze: Pictures from Berlin two generations ago . P. 119.
18. ^ Paffen, Mende: The cemeteries in front of the Hallesches Tor . Part 1, pp. 52-53. Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 226.