VEB Beverage Combine Berlin
| Beverage Combine Berlin | |
|---|---|
| legal form | VEB ; Combine |
| founding | 1969 |
| resolution | 1990 |
| Reason for dissolution | Liquidation as a result of German reunification |
| Seat | East Berlin |
| sales | 800 million tulips per year (= 200 million liters = 2 million hectoliters); was thus the largest brewery in the GDR |
| Branch | Food |
The Volkseigene Betrieb (VEB) Getränkekombinat Berlin was an association of large companies for the production of beer and non-alcoholic beverages, which was founded in 1969. The breweries combined in this combine were the VEB Schultheiss-Brauerei , the VEB Engelhardt-Brauerei , the VEB Berliner Kindl , the VEB Bärenquell-Brauerei and the VEB Berliner Bürgerbräu . The soft drinks were produced in a separate part of the company, the VEB Berliner Spreequell . Soft drinks containing wine came from the Schultheiss brewery in Schönhauser Allee . The alcohol-free beers came from the Engelhardt brewery in Berlin-Stralau . The combine was dissolved after German reunification in 1990 and individual parts were re-privatized.
History of the breweries
The beers produced by the beverage combine in the 1970s and 1980s were Berliner Kindl Pils (4.6% vol), Kindl-Bräu , Berliner Export-Pils , Berliner Pilsner special , Schultheiss-Pils , Berliner Weisse and AUBI (non-alcoholic beer, suitable for motorists).
Schultheiss
The Georg Patzenhofer brewery, opened in 1855 in Neue Königstrasse (old Berlin), developed until 1877 on a site on Landsberger Allee at the corner of Tilsiter Strasse under the name Aktien-Brauerei-Gesellschaft Friedrichshöhe , vorm. Patzenhofer built a completely new brewery with the most modern equipment at the time. The buildings were created according to plans by the architects Alterthum & Zadek and the council builder Arthur Rohmer . From 1886, the popular bottom-fermented beer Patzenhofer Dunkel was produced here in large quantities. A change of ownership and name results in the following overview:
- 1920–1937: Schultheiss-Patzenhofer Brauerei Aktiengesellschaft, Northeast Department,
- 1938–1945: Schultheiss-Brauerei Aktiengesellschaft, Northeast Department,
- 1946–1947: Schultheiss Brauerei AG Berlin, Department NO Landsberger Allee,
- 1948–1949: Berliner Brauereien GmbH, trust company Schultheiss Leninallee,
- 1949–1950: Schultheiss Brewery Leninallee,
- 1950–1958: VEB Schultheiss Brewery Leninallee,
- 1959–1968: VEB Berliner Breweries, company V Schultheiss Leninallee as well as the headquarters of the new merger,
- 1969–1989: VEB Beverage Combine Berlin, Operation V Schultheiss Leninallee,
- 1990: BEAG Brau- und Erfrischungsgetränke AG Berlin, Leninallee brewery.
In 1990 the brewery was bought by the West German group Brau und Brunnen . Beer production was discontinued, the still usable equipment was sold, but some brewing equipment remained in the rooms. The new owners had developed plans to build the Schultheiss-Passagen here, of which only the multiplex cinema ( UCI cinema ) was realized. The areas created by the demolition of parts of the building along Richard-Sorge-Strasse remained fallow for many years.
The remaining listed buildings were used for cultural purposes until the end of 2011. In 2011 a new investor appeared who would like to convert the protected parts of the building into additional living space.
Bear Spring
Engelhardt
The brewery was founded in 1887 as Schaarschuhsche Brewery on the Stralau peninsula (today Berlin-Stralau ). In 1917 - after several changes of ownership - it came into the possession of the Engelhardt company, which already owned several breweries in Berlin. It then developed into one of the largest industrial companies in Stralau, which - besides the glassworks - employed most of the workers. Because the storage facilities at the original location were insufficient, the brewery owners had the architect Bruno Buch build a “bottle cellar tower ” in 1929 on Krachtstrasse and Glasbläserstrasse to store the filled bottles. While the older buildings on the Stralau site were partly badly damaged in World War II and partly remodeled later, the bottle cellar building has been preserved and is a listed building.
Berliner Kindl
This brewery was based on Lichtenberger Straße in what was then the Weissensee district . It was part of the Kindl brewery , which was founded in Rixdorf in the 19th century . In the 1920s, the owners had a malt house and an administration building built in Weißensee. Between 1950 and 1990 the plant was a state-owned company (VEB) and produced the (East) Berliner Kindl here on its own facilities. Even after that - despite several changes of ownership until 2005 - the beer was and is brewed and successfully sold. It is now about the merger of the Berliner-Kindl-Schultheiss-Brauerei .
Berliner Bürgerbräu
This is a beer brewery founded in Friedrichshagen am Müggelsee in the 19th century . Under the name Berliner Bürgerbräu , it specialized in premium products.
Soft drink production: Spreequell
The soft drinks produced by the beverage combine in the 1970s and 1980s were Club Cola , Spreequell mineral water , bitter lemon (lemonade with a citrus flavor) and some mixed drinks such as Vipa or Virola . The manufacturer traded as Operation VI of the beverage combine in newly built production halls. These were located on Indira-Gandhi-Straße, also in Weißensee, opposite the brewery complex.
Due to a lack of foreign exchange , the ingredients used for the usual cola drinks could not be procured in sufficient quantities on the world market. This led to the development of its own Cola, which was given the catchy name “Club Cola”. It soon became very popular because it was not as sugary as other cola drinks.
After the fall of the Wall , Spreequell was converted into a GmbH and, after brief difficulties, was able to successfully establish itself on the market with the Club-Cola and Spreequell Mineralwasser brands. Because of the new quality requirements that now apply, the management had its own deep well drilled on the company premises. Production was relocated from Berlin to Brandenburg in the late 1990s. What remained was a sales organization and the Preuss beverage logistics group settled in some areas.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Berliner Bier , article in the Berliner Zeitung from the beginning of March 1968
- ^ Historical beer labels from VEB Beverage Combine Berlin
- ^ Private homepage of Beat Hauser from Rheinfelden, u. a. with a photo from inside Schultheiss ; Accessed July 9, 2010
- ↑ Website with photos before and after
- ↑ Architectural monument brewery building in Richard-Sorge-Strasse / Landsberger Allee 54, Aktienbrauerei Friedrichshöhe, in front of Patzenhofer, 1877-96 by A. Rohmer and Alterthum & Zadek
- ↑ Karin Schmidl: The ruins of the former Patzenhofer brewery are to become a place for art and culture. Party in the beer cellar , Berliner Zeitung from April 13, 2007
- ↑ Monument bottle cellar of the Engelhardt brewery