Ganser private brewery
The private brewery Ganser GmbH & Co.KG was a brewery company from Leverkusen that was founded in Lechenich in the Rhein-Erft district in 1869 . It still operates as a beer distribution company today.
Beginnings in Lechenich
Peter Ganser (1842-1891), who had lived in Lechenich since 1868, ran an inn on Bonner Strasse in Lechenich and had run a brewery since 1869, the buildings of which were on the courtyard behind the house. After the establishment of the Empire in 1871, Peter Ganser (between 1871 and 1876) gave his brewery and restaurant the name "Deutsches Brauhaus". Ganser initially produced bottom-fermented Cologne Knupp beer . It was only in 1879, after the construction of a larger brewhouse and an ice cellar, that he was able to produce top-fermented beer.
After Peter Ganser's death, the oldest, Franz Josef Ganser, ran the company. In 1895, Peter Ganser's nine children founded a trading company under the name “Deutsches Brauhaus Witwe Ganser mbH”. In 1896 the company switched to industrial beer production. The previous brewery buildings were demolished and replaced by a modern steam brewery. In 1898 and 1900, further steam boilers, an ice cream factory and an electric lighting system followed. The investments led to an increase in quality, so that in 1900 the “Ganser Bier” was awarded the “Golden Medal” at the Strasbourg fair .
The open-cast lignite mining in the mayor's office in Liblar led to a lowering of the groundwater level in Lechenich, which had consequences for the brewery's brewery water supply. The Ganser siblings were forced to look for a new production facility.
The difficult economic conditions during the First World War led to the cessation of the brewery in Lechenich in 1919. Only beer was stored in the main building for delivery to the restaurants in the Lechenich area. The company name "Deutsches Brauhaus Witwe Ganser" existed until the 1920s, while the inn in Lechenich was closed before the First World War.
Today among recalls the brewing time in Lechenich monument standing large two-story vaulted storage cellar on the farm estate behind the "Ganser".
Wiesdorf brewery
In 1910 the bankrupt “Germania Brewery” in Wiesdorf was acquired at a foreclosure auction . For this purpose the Ganser brothers founded the "Gesellschaft Kronenbrauerei Wiesdorf mbH".
Since 1936 the brewery has been run by the next generation as a limited partnership. During the Second World War , production came to a complete standstill after the brewery buildings were massively destroyed by Allied air raids.
After the reconstruction in the post-war years, after 1950 the brewery was expanded, which was necessary due to the expansion of beer sales. In 1972 the beer output was 180,000 hl, which remained at this level until around 1996. In addition to the “Wiesdorfer Kronenbier” at the beginning, the following types of beer were produced: “Ganser Kronen Kölsch”, “Ganser Kronen Pils”, “Ganser Kronen Export”, “Ganser Kronen Spezial”, “Alkrather Pilsener” and “Ganserator”. The company "Kronenbrauerei Gebrüder Ganser" was renamed Ganser-Brauerei KG in 1975 and Ganser-Brauerei GmbH & Co. KG in 1979.
At the end of the 1990s, severe cuts were necessary due to the great competition in the brewery industry as well as requirements due to the central urban location of the brewery buildings, which led to a reduction in jobs. The brewery products were reduced to Ganser-Kölsch and Rallye Malz.
End of the brewery
In 2000 the brewery in Leverkusen was closed. Since then, Ganser-Kölsch has been produced using the contract brewing process at the Bergische Löwenbrauerei in Cologne-Mülheim, which belongs to the "Kölner Verbund Brauereien GmbH & Co. KG" and is now part of the Oetker Group's Radeberger Group . Cooperation agreements have been signed with the Bitburger and Diebels breweries to supply restaurants. In many restaurants Ganser Kölsch was offered together with Bitburger Pils and Diebels Alt.
The company's managing director was a member of the Ganser family, Peter Josef Ganser, until his death on February 9, 2018.
Ganser-Kölsch has not been brewed since 2018.
literature
- Udo Müller: From Lechenich to Leverkusen. A chronicle of the Ganser brewery . In: Erftstadt City Yearbook 2004 . ISBN 3-9805019-9-X
Individual evidence
- ^ Stadtarchiv Euskirchen: Euskirchener Zeitung of August 7, 1869, advertisement by Peter Ganser, in which he is looking for apprentices for the brewery trade
- ↑ Stadtarchiv Euskirchen: Euskirchener Zeitung No. 93 of November 18, 1876
- ↑ Main State Archive Düsseldorf (today State Archive North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland Department) Holdings Courts Rep. 162 No. 69: HR A No. 23 of the Lechenich District Court
- ^ Frank Bartsch: Continuity and change in the country. The Rhine Prussian mayor of Lechenich in the 19th and early 20th centuries (1815–1914) . Weilerswist 2012, pp. 139–141
- ↑ Udo Müller: From Lechenich to Leverkusen. A chronicle of the Ganser brewery . In: Erftstadt City Yearbook , 2004, pp. 107–116