Culture and creative center Bürgerbräu Würzburg

The Bürgerbräu Würzburg cultural and creative center was created on the premises of the former Würzburger Bürgerbräu brewery . The brewery site is located at the end of Frankfurter Strasse in the Zellerau district of Würzburg - largely unchanged in terms of the building structure and largely under monument protection . The history of the brewery - at first it was called Brauhaus Zell am Main - goes back to the beginning of the 19th century. In 1989 the Bürgerbräu Würzburg company was closed due to bankruptcy and the site was bought by the city of Würzburg. Since 2012, the 5.2 hectare area has been revitalized as a so-called culture and creative center, whereby the listed building fabric is largely preserved. The Kultur- und Kreativzentrum Bürgerbräu Würzburg is an example of a sensible use of a brewery premises, in which the municipality and private investors work together.

The culture and creative center Bürgerbräu Würzburg - street view

History of Bürgerbräu Würzburg

Renovated door to the engine house

Street side of the machine house

In 1809 the winemaker and mayor Kilian Lauck bought a former palace in Zell am Main and, after acquiring the beer brewing license, began to develop the property into a brewery. In 1815 he opened the brewhouse Brauhaus Zell am Main '.
In 1832 Lauck sold the brewery to Michael Böhnlein, who had a storage cellar for beer built in Zellerauer Frankfurter Straße - the actual brewery, however, was still in Zell am Main.
In 1840 Böhnlein sold the brewery and the beer cellar to Karl Anton Kinzinger and his partner Wiskemann. Kinzinger took over the brewery completely in 1855 and converted it into a machine shop.
Johann Baptist Kinzinger and Gustav d'Henglière acquired the brewery and a 20 hectare site from Carl Anton Kinzinger in 1877. The brewery moved to Würzburg in stages by 1886 and since then has been called Bürgerliches Brauhaus Zell-Würzburg Kinzinger & d'Hengelière. Business went so well economically that the site on Frankfurter Strasse was continuously expanded.
In 1894 the brewery was converted into a limited liability company (GmbH), whose shares were divided between only three people. In the following years, the Würzburger Bürgerbräu, as the brewery was now called, was the first Bavarian brewery to export to the USA.
In 1917 the Königsbräu (König brewery; formerly Gabler brewery) in the Würzburg-Mainviertel district was taken over. In November 1922 the GmbH was converted into a stock corporation.
In 1923, the economic crisis made life difficult for many breweries - the number in the city area continued to decline. After the Second World War, which the Bürgerbräu building survived almost without damage, there were still two breweries: Würzburger Bürgerbräu and Würzburger Hofbräu .
In 1952 the bourgeois brewery became the Würzburger Bürgerbräu AG.
The brewery experienced its decline after it was taken over by Patrizier Bräu Nürnberg in 1972.
On July 5, 1989, the closure of the brewery was announced, which had previously been denied.
The last beer was brewed on December 19, 1989: The Würzburger Bürgerbräu (at that time it was called: Patrizier Bräu Braustätte Würzburg) finally closed due to bankruptcy. The Würzburg city council had already decided a month earlier to buy the brewery property for 9 million Deutschmarks. Around 100 employees were laid off, only a few taken over by the Würzburger Hofbräu.
In 1991 brewing kettles and 17 tanks were auctioned and transported away. The brewhouse has been empty since then.
On February 15, 2016, the once competing Würzburger Hofbräu presented an unfiltered cellar beer to the public called Bürgerbräu Haustrunk. Hofbräu had already secured the naming rights in the 1990s and brought a Würzburger Bürgerbräu Pils onto the market for a few years, but its production was discontinued.

Use of the site and the listed buildings

Development of the area

After the bankruptcy, the Würzburg city council decided in November 1989 to purchase the site for nine million marks. The former brewery building dates from 1886 and is a listed building. The same applies to the director's villa, which was built by Friedrich Buchner in 1887. The city did not sell the site immediately because it made certain demands on the future owner. Only on December 14, 2011, part of the site was sold to a group of investors. The Siebold Museum and the theater and studio building remained the property of the city.

The investors began to develop a cultural and creative center on the site subject to appropriate conditions. To do this, the site first had to be painstakingly measured. In 2012 the plans were presented to the public for the first time at a “Bürgerbräu Festival”. The plans have been implemented since the beginning of 2013 and a center for work, handicrafts, culture, gastronomy and leisure was created. In 2015 the horse stable was completed in its current form and the first offices in the brewhouse were moved into. The event center in the machine hall also went into operation.

Culture and creative center

With this cultural and creative center, the investor group is revitalizing the Bürgerbräu site and the rear Zellerau. Extensive gastronomic use of the brewhouse is planned. The western part of the horse stable is already used by the Glück UND GUT café. The number of studios on the site is to be doubled, among other things by building four small studio houses. A hotel with 60 beds will also find its place on the site. Atelier houses and a hotel are being built next to the theater ensemble on the southern slope, where the automobile hall used to be.

The art-house cinema Central , which was previously located in the former Mozart grammar school , also moved to the Bürgerbräu site in November 2016, thus adding additional cultural value to it. At the end of October 2012, the cinema cooperative members gave the go-ahead for further planning with a clear majority. In a vote by the comrades on July 16, 2014, the further planning of the Bürgerbräu site was confirmed.

Overall, the entire site will be more integrated into its surroundings, including in the form of wall breakthroughs in the Frankfurter Strasse area. In the east, a public park should invite you to stroll. Numerous parking spaces are to be created - including 83 parking spaces on the main square, which was previously planted with trees. The square will continue to be used as a festival area for the summer festival. The old building fabric will be largely renovated and preserved. The previous uses (basketball center, champagne cellar, museum, etc.) will be retained with the exception of the fitness center. The redesign began in early 2013, and the main work began in summer 2013. At the beginning of August, the development plan was changed accordingly.

The historic buildings and their new uses

Buildings under monument protection

The listed buildings of the brewery area are described as follows in the list of monuments:

Factory owner's villa, today the Siebold Museum , free-standing two-storey hipped mansard roof building with risalits and columned altar, sandstone ashlar masonry with limestone base structure, historicism, Friedrich Buchner, 1887, roof changed;

Associated large park;

Porter's house, single-storey flat roof construction, unplastered limestone masonry with sandstone frames, from 1886;

Factory building, partly in Neo-Renaissance forms, by Friedrich Buchner from 1886;

Braumeisterhaus, three-storey hipped roof building, plaster masonry with sandstone framing, Swiss house style, from 1886;

Ornamental fountain, former grotto-style fountain, limestone sinter, late 19th century.

The Siebold Museum
Associated large park
Gatehouse
Former horse stable, café and shops
Factory building
Brewmaster House
Restored ornamental fountain

Today's use of the partial buildings

Overview of the cultural and creative center

The following sections are numbered according to the overview table.

Braumeisterhaus (01) - Multiple commercial use, offices
Brewhouse (02) - Commercial use and gastronomy
Kesselhaus (03) - From 2016 outdoor catering
Maschinenhaus (04) - Bürgerbräu machine hall, with events and conferences
Generator house (05) - Sparkling wine cellar: sales, tasting, etc.
Horse stable (06) - café-bar, shops, atelier and offices
Automobile hall (07) - Planned: hotel
Barrel store (08) - farmers market, champagne cellar
Bottle filling (09) - vaulted cellar: media companies, dance school and Central Cinema; Sparkling wine cellar: additional shops and businesses
Fasswichse (10/11) - fitness center (moving!) And basketball center
Büttnerei (12) - architecture office
Picherei (13) - creative room
Studio house (14) - Planned new building
Gatehouse (15) - belongs to the sparkling wine cellar
Director's villa (16) and associated park - (the house is the property of the city of Würzburg): Siebold Museum and Siebold Park
Canteen building (17) - (The house is the property of the City of Würzburg): “Theater Ensemble”, studios and social facilities

Events

During the festivities on the Bürgerbräu site, site tours and insights into the current plans have been offered since 2012. There was also a musical and gastronomic program, children's entertainment and a farmers' market. A Christmas party and various events in the former machine hall also attracted many people to the site. Every first Saturday of the month there is a farmers market on the premises.

Public transport

The next tram stops are: "Sieboldmuseum" and "Bürgerbräu"

Press review

literature

Würzburger Bürgerbräu Aktiengesellschaft (1959): "A picture report of the Würzburger Bürgerbräu AG that would like to guide you through an efficient, modern Bavarian brewery". Landesdienst-Verlag. Can be ordered from the Würzburg University Library .

Web links

Commons : Frankfurter Straße 87 (Würzburg) - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Thomas Memminger: Würzburgs streets and buildings. 2nd edition, Gebrüder Memminger Verlagsbuchhandlung, Würzburg 1921, p. 148 f.

↑ Telephone system Würzburg: Directory of the telephone stations, No. 1 - completed on September 30, 1887 , Königl. University printing house by H. Stürtz , Würzburg 1887, p. 23