Hofbrauhaus Wolters

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Hofbrauhaus Wolters GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1627
Seat Braunschweig
management Thomas Renneke, Hans-Peter Lehna and Hanns-Bernd de Wall
Number of employees 150
Branch brewery
Website www.hofbrauhaus-wolters.de

The Hofbrauhaus Wolters GmbH is a major regional brewery in Braunschweig and the largest private brewery in Lower Saxony . The Hofbrauhaus Wolters has a tradition that goes back to 1627. The “Herzogliches Hofbrauhaus” award was given to the brewery in 1882, from which the authorization for further use of the prefix Hof is derived to this day. The most famous beer brands include Wolters Pilsener and the Black Duke .

history

House of the Hanseatic League around 1900

Parent company

On June 19, 1627, Braunschweig's mayor Zacharias Boiling married the widow Haberland (Haverland) and became a co-owner of the " Haus zur Hanse " in Güldenstrasse . With the acquisition of the brewing rights , Boiling was able to brew and sell beer for the first time. Thus the "Haus zur Hanse" became the parent house of the later Hofbrauhaus Wolters. After Boiling's death, Peter Warnecke took over the brewery and later bequeathed it to his son.

In 1734 Heinrich Levin Wolters married into the family and gave the brewery its current name. This year the Wolters brewery was first mentioned in the city's history. His son Johann Heinrich Wolters founded Wolters & Co. in 1763  .

Under the leadership of his grandson Carl Christian Julius Wolters, the brewery grew steadily. In the 1870s, sales rose to around 30,000 hectoliters, and the brewery reached its limits at the headquarters on Güldenstrasse.

After moving into the new building, the old brewery was converted into a restaurant. The "Haus zur Hanse" changed hands several times. Wolters sold it several times and bought it back a little later. Today the "Haus zur Hanse" is used as an upscale hotel with a restaurant.

Ascent

Carl Christian Julius Wolters

Carl Christian Julius Wolters bought a large area on the southern edge of the city and had a modern brewery built there. In 1876 the company moved into the new business and brewery building on the property at Wolfenbütteler Strasse 39.

On April 3, 1876, Duke Wilhelm zu Braunschweig awarded him the title of “Hofbierbrauer”. In 1882 the brewery was awarded the title “Herzogliches Hofbrauhaus”.

After the death of Carl Christian Julius Wolters in 1886, his two sons ran the company together. When Carl Alwin Wolters died in 1894, Carl August Wolters became sole owner of the company. In 1903/1904 over 100,000 hectoliters of beer were produced for the first time and the Hofbrauhaus was considered a large brewery .

In 1920 the society Herzogliches Hofbrauhaus Carl Wolters & Co. and the Balhornsche Bierbrauerei AG merged to form Hofbrauhaus Wolters and Balhorn AG . The Balhorn brewery was first mentioned in writing in 1692, and in 1830 the owner at the time, August Balhorn, was given the title of “Hofbierbrauer”.

Since 1940 the company has been Hofbrauhaus Wolters AG . With the death of Carl August Wolters in 1943, the era of the Wolters family business ended. The brewery was family-owned for six generations or over 200 years.

Brewers from 1627 to 1943

Advertisement, Braunschweig address book for the year 1894

An overview of the life data of the owners of the Wolters brewery:

  • 1597-1664: Zacharias Boiling
  • 1624–1687: Peter Warnecke
    • 1665–1727: Hans Heinrich Warnecke
  • 1700–1762: Heinrich Levin Wolters
    • 1736–1808: Johann Heinrich Wolters
      • 1778–1835: Johann Friedrich Martin Wolters
        • 1817–1886: Carl Christian Julius Wolters
          • 1859–1894: Carl Alwin August Reinhard Wolters
          • 1860–1943: Dr. jur. Carl August Jacob Willi Wolters

Post-war period and takeover

"House of the Hanse"

During the Second World War, more than a third of the brewery was destroyed by air raids. In 1947 the community of heirs of Dr. Wolters took over the management of Hofbrauhaus Wolters AG . In the post-war period, the partly destroyed brewery had to be rebuilt and the Central and Eastern German market had to be overcome.

With the rebuilding came the upswing. In 1976 the brewery was expanded and modernized with what was then the quietest bottling plant in the world.

In 1985 the Gilde Brewery from Hanover took over the majority of shares in Hofbrauhaus Wolters AG with 83.28%. A domination and profit transfer agreement existed from 1989 . The Gilde Group was taken over in 2003 by the Belgian InterBrew group. InterBrew acquired a further 6.68% of the shares in Hofbrauhaus Wolters AG.

Avoiding the closure

Restaurant sign of the Ratskeller in Wolfenbüttel with Sachsenross and brewery advertising

On December 2, 2005, InBev Germany announced the closure of the brewery and liquidation of the stock corporation on the grounds that the brewery could no longer be operated economically within the group's worldwide brewery network. However, Wolters was in the black in the previous fiscal year.

The closure of the company would have put over a hundred jobs at risk. In addition, the traditional brewery is anchored in the city and the region and provides sponsorship in the cultural and sporting fields.

Numerous actions to rescue Wolters have been launched across the region. Groups organized in Internet forums to start signature campaigns. Under the motto "Save Wolters", there were special price campaigns by the trade and in numerous Braunschweig discos and pubs "Save Wolters parties". Once again the strong brand loyalty and regional solidarity of the beer drinkers in the Braunschweig region was evident.

After difficult, most recently secret negotiations, Hofbrauhaus Wolters AG and a group of investors signed an agreement on the sale of the brewery on May 26, 2006. The group of four former managers (Thomas Renneke, Wilhelm Koch, Hans-Peter Lehna and Hanns-Bernd de Wall) took over the brewery for a net amount of 7 million euros. After the handover, the company traded as Hofbrauhaus Wolters GmbH based in Braunschweig.

The city of Braunschweig bought the brewery site for 3 million euros from InBev and leased it to Hofbrauhaus Wolters GmbH by way of a heritable building right . InBev provided the sales proceeds as start-up capital. The entire purchase price of 8.3 million euros had to be paid in monthly installments of 110,000 euros (interest rate 4% per year).

Business operations were transferred to the new management team on October 1, 2006, including the brand names “Wolters” and “Schwarzer Herzog”, as well as the restaurant network.

Private brewery

After more than a year of the now independent brewery, the 380th birthday of the traditional brewery was celebrated in 2007. Despite the downward trend on the German beer market, Wolters was able to maintain its sales volumes. The first financial year of Lower Saxony's largest private brewery was so successful that a quarter of the purchase price had already been repaid by August 2008. The company's success is based on the joint efforts of the city of Braunschweig, the Wolters workforce, the new management and the consumers. All employees were kept on, a previous Wolters brand was reintroduced, modernizations were carried out and a new advertising campaign was started.

Wolters has been brewing Oktoberfest beer in autumn since the 1980s, and October beer since the mid-1990s. In 2009, Wolters was banned from using the name Oktoberbier following a lawsuit brought by the Association of Munich Breweries against the use of the name Oktoberbier . The Augustiner, Hacker-Pschorr, Spaten-Franziskaner, Löwenbräu, Paulaner and Hofbräuhaus breweries belonging to the Munich Breweries Association have registered the term Oktoberfest beer as a collective trademark. Because of the poor prospects of success for Wolters, the settlement submitted by the court was approved in order to avoid further warnings and claims for damages.

With effect from September 1, 2013 Wolters took over the Colbitzer Heide brewery . 3 million euros were invested in a new brewhouse, among other things, to get the brewery going again.

In 2020, Volksbank Braunschweig Wolfsburg joined Wolters as a partner.

Products

In the beginning, top-fermented beer was brewed. From the middle of the 19th century Wolters changed the brewing method and from then on produced bottom-fermented beer. The draft beer share is 10% (compared to about 30% at the turn of the millennium). The products can be assigned to several markets. "Wolters" brand beers are mainly drunk in the Braunschweig region . “Contract productions” are carried out for customers such as Getränke Ahlers ( Hemelinger ) and for the Dutch distribution company United Dutch Breweries (UDB). UDB was formerly part of InBev and markets products made by Wolters in South America, Asia and Africa. Wolters itself also exports beers, for example the first export to China in January 2008 : over 45,000 bottles of Wolters Pilsener Premium were shipped in containers via the port of Hamburg. Wolters currently exports beer and malt drinks to Albania , Benin , Brazil , Burkina Faso , Colombia , Ivory Coast , China , Chile , Gabon , Ghana , Iraq , Iran , Iceland , Israel , Lithuania , Paraguay , Peru , Russia , Saudi Arabia , Singapore , in Chad , Ukraine , the United Arab Emirates and the USA .

Main brand Wolters products
Wolters Pilsener in a former one-way bottle
  • Pilsener Premium / Pilsener / Märzen
  • Black Duke / Autumn Beer / Prinzen Sud
  • Mai-Bock / Traditionsbock
  • Wheat / wheat alcohol-free
  • Special / malt
  • Radler / Radler naturally cloudy / alcohol-free

Sponsorship and advertising

The Hofbrauhaus Wolters is regionally involved in the areas of culture and sport.

Festivals

From 1987 to 2011, the brewery hosted the two-day Wolters courtyard festival in June . Beer stalls, food stalls and numerous stages were set up on the entire premises, on which jazz, blues and cover bands performed. Today Wolters supports the " Jazz & Blues Festival Braunschweig", the Magnifest and the Braunschweig Carnival .

Eintracht Braunschweig

Wolters has been part of the Eintracht Braunschweig sponsor pool since the regional league and professional football days . Since the 2010/2011 season in the 3rd division, only Woltersbier has been sold in the Eintracht Stadium. The company also advertises as a top sponsor with perimeter advertising during league games. In autumn 2010 it was announced that the 0.5 l can of Wolters Pilsener would be launched on the market in a special edition limited to 100,000 pieces with the traditional coat of arms of Eintracht Braunschweig and the words "once lion, always lion". The entire batch was already sold before the official start of sales in mid-November. Two more collective editions appeared in 2011: cans with the imprint “Become a legend” and the current Eintracht logo or “Never again 3rd League ... Ascent 2011” with the historical coat of arms and the current logo. Both cans came on the market in an edition of 150,000 pieces.

Regional sport

In regional sports, Wolters u. a.

  • Basketball: Dukes Wolfenbüttel
  • Cycling: cycling and everyone's race "Around the Elm"
  • the tennis tournament ATP Challenger Braunschweig
  • the annual sports gala of the Braunschweiger Zeitung in the town hall (last time on March 27, 2009)

Others

Logo and coat of arms

Since the brewery received the title “Herzogliches Hofbrauhaus” in 1882, the logo has consisted of a coat of arms with a cross under a large crown, flanked by two lions . It is the small coat of arms of the Duchy of Braunschweig with the two Latin mottos:

IMMOTA FIDES
"Unshakable in the faith", also "Unshakable loyalty"
Motto of the Order of Henry the Lion (Braunschweig).
NEC ASPERA TERRENT
"You are not afraid of impassability", also "You are not afraid of roughness" or "You are not afraid of anything"
Motto of the Guelfs Order ( Welfen , Hanover). The saying can also be found as a marginal inscription on historical taler coins of the Duchy of Braunschweig.

slogan

The current slogan is “Wohl get's!” And is used on beer mats and in advertising campaigns. In the 1970s, the slogan “Be nice to yourself, drink Wolters beer” could be read on beer mats, glasses and other advertising materials. The saying “Wolters or Wolters not”, which is common among connoisseurs, was never an official advertising slogan, but was picked up and popularized in the 1973 Wolterslied by the Braunschweig musician group Rik Van Dynkel .

Wolters at sea

The German Navy called on the first boat of the new class of corvettes Brunswick , the corvette Braunschweig (F 260) , the brewery in honor of one of their courses under cover "Wolters Alley".

literature

  • Andreas Döring : Wirth! Another two quarters of the room! Braunschweig restaurants & Braunschweig beer back then. Braunschweig 1997, ISBN 3-923696-84-1 .
  • Hofbrauhaus Wolters (Ed.): 350 years Hofbrauhaus Wolters. Braunschweig 1977.

Sound recordings

Web links

Commons : Hofbrauhaus Wolters  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hofbrauhaus Wolters: Think regionally, act globally. kulinarisch38.de, February 5, 2014, accessed June 14, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Freedom for traditional beer. ( Memento from June 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) on blsk.de, p. 2.
  3. ↑ Braunschweiger Brewery - Wolters loses Feldschlößchen. In: Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung. waz-online.de, January 23, 2014, archived from the original on June 17, 2016 ; accessed on June 14, 2016 .
  4. ↑ a b The restart at Wolters has been successful. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of August 16, 2008, p. 11.
  5. ↑ Braunschweiger Zeitung / newsclick.de of May 7, 2009 - Munich court forbids Wolter's October beer. (Access only with subscription) or dispute over October beer. (No longer available online.) In: neue Braunschweiger. Unser38.de, August 17, 2008, archived from the original on June 14, 2016 ; accessed on June 14, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Elisa Sowieja: In May 2014 Colbitzer should flow again. volksstimme.de, 2014, accessed on June 14, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Wolters benefits from the Chinese preference for German beer. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung. haz.de, accessed on June 14, 2016 .
  8. ↑ OB on BraWo entry at Wolters: "Braunschweig traditional company is secured". braunschweig.de, accessed on June 2, 2020.
  9. ↑ What is ... Wolf Horenburg actually doing? ihk-wirtschaft-online.de, accessed on June 14, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Hemelinger History. hemelinger-bier.de, accessed on June 14, 2016 .
  11. ^ Hofbrauhaus Wolters, company news: International Markets (English).
  12. ↑ a b story on hofbrauhaus-wolters.de.
  13. ↑ Ann Claire Richter: Corvette Braunschweig sets sail for a test drive. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung . November 9, 2006, accessed February 17, 2011 (subscription only).

Coordinates: 52 ° 14 ′ 47.8 "  N , 10 ° 31 ′ 45.8"  E