George Gunther

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George Gunther , actually George Günther , (born March 29, 1845 in Wertheim ; † September 5, 1912 in Baltimore ) was a German-American brewer and owner of the Gunther & Gehl Brewery and the George Gunther Jr. Brewing Company .

Life

George Gunther's father was the mayor of Wertheim. In 1866 Gunther emigrated to the USA and found work in various breweries: he worked for a brewery in New York for six years , then for a time as a master brewer for the John Kress Brewery in New York, and later he found a job at the George Brewery Toast in Baltimore .

During his time in the USA he probably adopted the anglicized version of his surname "Günther": "Gunther".

In 1878 Gunther became a business partner of the brewery owner Christian Gehl. The following year it was renamed Gunther & Gehl Brewery . The annual output at that time was around 3,900 barrels , but rose to around 6,850 barrels within the same year. In 1880 Gunther took over Gehl's shares and was therefore the sole owner of the brewery. In 1899 Gunther's Brewery was taken over by the Maryland Brewing Company , which had set itself the goal of consolidating the Baltimore brewing industry. Gunther received approximately $ 900,000 for the sale of his brewery. The Gunther Brewery had thus become one of several subsidiaries of the Maryland Brewing Company.

On March 2, 1899, Gunther was elected director of the Maryland Brewing Company for a one-year term. After his departure, he had to contractually agree not to return to the beer market in Baltimore. Gunther circumvented this contract by founding a brewery on behalf of his son, George Gunther Jr., in March 1899. This went into operation on November 12th of the same year. As a result, Gunther was successfully sued by the Maryland Brewing Company for a contractual penalty of $ 100,000. The former Gunther Brewery owned by the Maryland Brewing Company has closed. In 1906 his son Frank H. Gunther joined the company. The brewery expanded successfully in the following years.

George Gunther died in Baltimore on September 5, 1912. He is buried in the Most Holy Redeemer Cemetery.

The Gunther brewery was in business until 1978. At the height of its success in 1958, the Gunther Brewing Company was the second largest brewery in Baltimore. In 2002 the Gunther Brewery's existing buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places .

Little is known about the George Gunthers family. He had two sons: George Jr. and Frank H.

literature

  • David G. Moyer (2009), "American Breweries of the Past" , Bloomington (Indiana): AuthorHouse, pp. 46-47.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The German name is still marked with umlaut on his tombstone.
personal data
SURNAME Gunther, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Günther, George (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American brewer
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Wertheim
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 1912
Place of death Baltimore