Lück (brewery)
| Brewery for Walkmühle H. Lück AG
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1866 |
| resolution | 1988 |
| Seat | Lübeck , Germany |
| Number of employees | approx. 86 (1988) |
| Branch | brewery |
Lück was a brewery in Lübeck . It was the last industrial brewery in Lübeck and was closed in 1988 by the Bavaria Brewery Hamburg . The production amounted to about 70,000 hectoliters annually.
founding
In the spring of 1865, the former gardener Jürgen Heinrich Christian Lück applied for a brewing permit from the Lübeck city office, which was granted to him on November 28, 1865. This was only the second approval, which was issued after the Lübeck Senate passed a law on November 23, 1864 that reorganized the brewing system, which was still organized in the Middle Ages . Thus, after the Röper brewery, which had been founded shortly before, Lück was the second Lübeck brewery that was no longer subject to the medieval brewing regulations . After Lück had also paid the amount of 300 Courantmarks to the city office, he was awarded the right to start brewing.
Location
Lück set up his brewery on a piece of land in the suburb of St. Jürgen , on which a traditional fulling mill on the Megedebek had previously been located. Until 1834 the mill was owned by a Frenchman who also ran an inn here . He then sold the property to the Dose family, to whom Lück married in 1843. As the mill could no longer be operated profitably, it was demolished in 1846 and replaced by a newly built excursion restaurant with an event hall, which was named Zur Walkmühle . Following on from this, the Lück company also operated as the Walkmühle Brewery and Walkmühle Brewery .
production
Jürgen Heinrich Lück sent his sons, Heinrich and Carl Lück, to Weihenstephan in Bavaria for training , where they learned how to brew lager , which, unlike traditional Lübeck beers , is bottom-fermented . After their return, they convinced their father to start brewing beer the Bavarian style from now on. On March 31, 1866, the first Lück beer of a new brewing style was delivered and proved to be a great success. It shouldn't even have come to town because it was sold out beforehand. Before the brewery opened, guests came to enjoy coffee and cake. Now they came because of the tasty beer. The coffee garden turned into a beer garden. Music events were held on Sundays with the military band of the 76th Regiment . Beer sales increased from year to year.
The demand for the Bavarian Lück beer was so great that the brewery was able to switch from manual operation to steam-powered production in 1872, thus becoming Lübeck's first steam beer brewery . Jürgen Heinrich Lück died on February 23, 1872; his son Heinrich continued the company.
In the following decades the brewery was constantly expanded. In 1881 the malt house was destroyed by fire, which enabled a modernized extension.
Working conditions at the end of the 19th century prompted workers to enter into the boycott in 1894. They had to turn to Heinrich Lück several times to implement improvements in working hours and wages. Luck refused to negotiate with the workers and eventually fired the entire workforce. Anyone who was willing to work under the old conditions was allowed to work for him again.
In 1907 the restaurant business was separated from the company and leased, and in 1914 the entire brewery was enlarged and modernized. Even after Heinrich Lück's death on June 6, 1906, the company remained in family ownership, as his widow managed the company from then on with son and grandson.
It was not until 1925 that the Lück brewery was converted into a stock corporation and existed in this form for six decades. The advertising slogans Lück - our Lübeck Pilsner and Lück must have man - introduced in the 1950s were omnipresent in the cityscape of Lübeck for many years, including on buses , neon signs and large-scale advertising on house walls.
When sales of pilsner rose in Germany in the early 1960s, the Lück brewery reacted quickly and introduced the Lück Pilsner in 1963 . It was to be the brewery's greatest success.
At the end of the 1970s, there was an increased need for investment in order to remain competitive. In 1979 the owner family sold it to the Bavaria-Brauerei Hamburg for a price that was well above its value.
End of operation
In April 1988, the Lück brewery ceased operations and thus also withdrew one of the last products, the 0.5-liter can of Wilcken Pils, from the market. The Pils, famous for Lück, continued to exist for a few years, brewed at the Bavaria location in Hamburg. Since then, no Bavarian brewed beer has been industrially brewed in Lübeck. When it turned out that the brewery at the Lübeck site should be closed, considerable resistance arose. A citizens' movement, supported by politicians and employees, tried to stop the closure through signatures and other measures.
Most of the buildings of the former brewery, which was modernized in the 1960s, still exist today. While the complex in which the production was housed is now used by the immediately neighboring Erasco canning factory ( Continental Foods ), the former ice house , in which natural ice obtained for the summer months before artificial cooling was introduced in winter, now houses a disco .
Luck today
The Lück brewery has had a significant impact on city life in Lübeck for many decades. Lübeck found it difficult to overcome the quasi-forced closure. A centuries-old brewing tradition in the city ended with the brewery.
However, a former Lück variety has been on the market again for several years. On the occasion of the citizens' festival in Ratzeburg , Lück produced a special filling of around 1500 hectoliters per year. This Ratzeburger Rommeldeus is now made elsewhere.
The production of Wilcken Pils was continued on a much larger scale. After the brand was sold, the beer is still available as a cheap brand in the Hamburg area.
Since the beginning of 2011 Lück Pils can be found again in some Lübeck supermarkets. A small Schleswig-Holstein brewery has made it its business to revive the brand. The owners and master brewers of the former Lück brewery were on hand to advise.
literature
- Rüdiger Sengebusch: A turning point - factories in Lübeck: Development features of modern factory work in the city-state of Lübeck 1828–1914 . Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 1993, ISBN 3-7950-0114-5 .
Web links
- Homepage of the new old Lück Pils
- Article about the closure of the Lück brewery in Die Zeit , 1987
- Homepage of the Ratzeburg Rommeldeus
Individual evidence
- ^ Wolfgang Frontzek: Breweries, brewing. Schmidt-Römhild. Lübeck 2006,
- ↑ Gerhard Krüger: Lübeck has his Lück-Pils back ( memento of the original from December 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
