Joseph Schlitz

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Joseph Schlitz

Joseph Schlitz ( May 15, 1831 - May 7, 1875 ) was a German-American brewing entrepreneur and owner of the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company .

Life

Joseph Schlitz, who came from Mainz , emigrated to the USA in 1850 . First he worked as an accountant for August Krug , the owner of the Krug Brewery in Milwaukee . In 1856 he rose to the management of the Krug Brewery . After Krug's death he married his widow in 1858 and changed the name of the brewery he took over to Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company . His success grew when he sent hundreds of beer kegs to Chicago as a donation after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 . Many of the breweries there did not reopen after the major fire and so Schlitz took over the local market share. The beer of the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was popularized with one of the most famous American advertising slogans: "The beer that made Milwaukee famous" .

Cenotaph for Joseph Schlitz in the Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee

Joseph Schlitz died in a shipwreck off the coast of England in 1875 , shortly before he was able to visit his German homeland. His body was never recovered, but there is a cenotaph reminiscent of Schlitz in the Forest Home Cemetery in southern Milwaukee .

literature

  • Helmut Schmahl: Planted, but not uprooted. The emigration from Hessen-Darmstadt (province of Rheinhessen) to Wisconsin in the 19th century . Frankfurt am Main 2000 (= Mainzer Studies on Modern History , Vol. 1), ISBN 3-631-34952-1 ; therein Chapter 7.5: Rheinhessische Brauer in Milwaukee , pp. 245-253.
  • Uwe Spiekermann : Political Revolution, Emigration, and Establishing a Regional Player in Brewing: August Krug and Joseph Schlitz . In: William J. Hausman, German Historical Institute (ed.): Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present , Vol. 2 ( online , accessed September 19, 2016).