Reininghaus (entrepreneurial family)

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Brothers Reininghaus - corporation for brewery and alcohol industry, Graz-Steinfeld

The Reininghaus family is an entrepreneurial family from Styria in Austria .

history

Johann Peter Reininghaus , a young entrepreneur from Westphalia, bought   the Mauthaus am Steinfeld in Graz with his Viennese wife Therese Mautner Markhof in 1853 . It consisted of a house, storage cellar, brewhouse, fermenting cellar, stable and barn and a total of almost 45 hectares of land. In addition to beer, he began to produce alcohol, liqueur, vinegar and pressed yeast. Together with his brother Julius Reininghaus (1823–1862), who had also married a Mautner Markhof, in 1855 he founded the “Brothers Reininghaus” company. The brothers, both studied chemists, built the first steam-powered brewery in Styria (of which the machine house is still left today) and applied for several patents for brewery equipment. Johann Peter Reininghaus won a medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1867 for a liquid measuring and control device . Around 1900 the Reininghaus brewery was the fifth largest brewery in Austria. By then, land ownership in the Graz area had also increased twenty-fivefold and the Reininghaus grounds extended to today's Weblinger Gürtel. The buffalo with which the Reininghaus beer was delivered in Graz were also legendary . In 1893, the sales area extended far beyond the country's borders: to Greece , Egypt , East India , Zanzibar and as far as South America . Johann Peter Reininghaus loved art and became a great supporter of the young Peter Rosegger , whom he met for the first time in the courtyard of the brewery and made it possible for him to study in Laibach and Graz. The progressive entrepreneur set up a pension scheme for his around 700 employees at an early stage and built a company hospital, an old people's home and a sports field in addition to apartments. A foundation was set up for widows and orphans. Therese Reininghaus was committed to girls' schools and the admission of women to university. In addition, they participated in the founding of the Grazer Tramwaygesellschaft, the power station in Lebring and the construction of the Schlossbergbahn.

In 1901 the widow Johann Peters, Therese Reininghaus, converted the company into a stock corporation . More cold rooms, huge cellars and halls were built until the First World War broke out. After the war, exports ceased due to protective tariffs against Austria. The grandson Peter Reininghaus took over the company in 1920 as an authorized signatory and started beer production again. In the mid-thirties, a block of shares in the Leobner brewery Göss was bought and the foundation stone for the later Steirerbrau was laid . In the inter-war period, Eggenberg was the most populous market town in Austria with over 15,000 inhabitants. The largest employer was the Reininghaus brewery.

When the Second World War broke out, the Reininghaus family, which had been ennobled in the Danube Monarchy, was not considered fully Aryan under the Nuremberg Laws . The brewery came under the rule of the National Socialists and was forcibly merged with the brewery in Puntigam in 1944. The family also owned large property in Graz-Eggenberg, which is currently only to be put to use (see Reininghaus grounds ).

The prominent representatives of the entrepreneurial family also include Carl Reininghaus and the insurance specialist Eberhard Reininghaus (from 1945 to 1950 general director of the Munich Reinsurance Company ).

literature

  • The Reininghaus Brothers' establishments in Steinfeld near Graz. Compiled on the occasion of the very highest visit to the factories by ... Emperor Franz Josef I. on July 7th, 1883 . Self-published, Graz 1883, OBV .
  • Emma Urban-Reininghaus: 100 years of the Reininghaus brothers. Commemorative sheets dedicated to our friends and co-workers . Styria, Graz 1953, OBV .
  • Gerhard Michael Dienes, Karl A. Kubinzky (Ed.): Eggenberg. History and everyday life . Stadtmuseum Graz, Graz 1999, ISBN 3-900764-22-0 .
  • Hans Ludwig Rosegger: From the “squeeze” to a large company. The history of the Brothers Reininghaus company, a stock corporation for the brewery and alcohol industry in Steinfeld near Graz, Styria. Published on the occasion of the company's 75th anniversary (1853–1928) . Reininghaus AG, Graz 1928, OBV .
  • Josef Mentschl:  Reininghaus, noble from. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 371 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ulrike Felber, Peter Melichar , Markus Priller, Berthold Unfried, Fritz Weber : Basic features, actors and institutions . Economy of Aryanization , Volume 1. Oldenbourg-Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7029-0515-4 , especially p. 144.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Died in Graz on March 20, 1926 at the age of 94. - See: All sorts. Austria. (...) Therese Reininghaus †. In:  Badener Zeitung , No. 25/1926 (XLVII. Volume), March 27, 1926, p. 5 middle. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bzt.
  2. ↑ This is considered to be the year the company was founded. - See: The Federal Chancellor at a factory anniversary. In:  Wiener Zeitung , No. 228/1928 (CCXXV. Volume), October 2, 1928, p. 4 f. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz.

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