Theodor König

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Theodor König (born November 21, 1825 in Bork near Lünen ; † May 27, 1891 in Beeck near Duisburg ) was a German beer brewer and entrepreneur who founded the König brewery .

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König grew up in a Catholic family as the son of a wealthy farmer in Bork. At first he worked in agriculture like his father until he decided in 1850 to learn the craft of brewing. A long wandering took him to Bavaria and Austria, among other places, where he gained experience in various breweries. He ended his wandering around 1855 and settled in Beeck on the Lower Rhine, where he took a job in a brewery .

A few years later he ventured into self-employment and applied for a concession to build a brewery and malt house with the responsible Prussian district government in Düsseldorf . In September 1858 he received the concession and let his brewery under the company Bairische brewery Theodor King, Beeck at Ruhrort into the commercial register Enter. The Bavarian addition to the name suggests that Theodor König apparently planned not to use the top- fermented brewing method that was prevalent in the Lower Rhine at the time , but rather the bottom-fermented brewing method that was particularly common in Bavaria .

At the end of 1858 he brought the first beer onto the market. At first he only sold it in the immediate vicinity and in his restaurant attached to the brewery. After just a few years, König also supplied the neighboring communities of Meiderich , Ruhrort and Hamborn, which were growing rapidly as part of industrialization . While beer output was still 200 hectoliters in the first year , it grew to 4,600 hectoliters by 1878 and was around 15,000 hectoliters at Theodor König's death in 1891. The company experienced a rapid rise towards the end of the 1870s when modern brewing technology was used (more powerful cooling machines, steam operation).

After Theodor König's death in 1891, his sons Leo (1860–1943) and Hermann (1862–1945) took over the management of the company, which was first converted into a general partnership and then in 1898 into a joint stock company. The company was now listed on the Berlin stock exchange, but the shares remained largely in family ownership.

The Theodor König Comprehensive School in Duisburg-Beeck was named after him in his honor.

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SURNAME King, Theodore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German brewer and entrepreneur, founder of the König brewery
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Bork near Lünen
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 1891
Place of death Beeck near Duisburg