Walsheim brewery
| Walsheim brewery | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | September 2, 1848 |
| resolution | 1945 |
| Reason for dissolution | Destruction from air strikes |
| Seat | Walsheim |
| Branch | brewery |
The brewery Walsheim-AG was a brewery from the Saar Palatinate Walsheim that today has become Gersheim belongs.
history
Foundation by Friedrich Christian Schmidt
After his waltz as a brewery trade in France from 1830 to 1840, the founder of the brewery Friedrich Christian Schmidt married in Walsheim - he married Elisabeth Maria Lugenbiel in 1840 - and created the conditions for his company with the dowry in the form of corresponding land. At first he ran a cooperage in Zweibrücken before he started brewing beer in Walsheim. Years later, September 2, 1848 was accepted as the official founding date of the Walsheim brewery, as can be seen from an old photo taken on the occasion of an anniversary in 1888.
Under the direction of Otto Guttenberger and Karl Schmidt
When Otto Guttenberger, who came from Waldmohr , married a daughter of Schmidt in 1867 and became a partner in the brewery together with his brother-in-law Karl Schmidt, the company was still a family business. It was only when major investments were required to keep pace with technical developments that the decision was made to convert the company into a stock corporation . From around the turn of the century, the brewery used the official company name Bayerische Brauereigesellschaft vorm. Schmidt and Guttenberger .
With the beginning of industrialization in rural areas and a number of new developments in the field of biochemistry and technology (e.g. Louis Pasteur's bacteriological findings, first cultivation of pure yeast in Denmark, Carl Linde's development of the refrigeration machine ), the company adopted the latest technologies Use.
Despite some setbacks, which one experienced with the newly built power plant in Gersheim, for example, the investments paid off: The beer deliveries soon went beyond the lower Bliestal . Towards the end of the 19th century, the entire Alsatian-Lorraine region was supplied, and from 1870 Walsheim beer was served in Paris. The beer output at the turn of the century was an annual volume of 50,000 hectoliters.
In addition, there were favorable natural conditions: the calcareous water from the Walsheim shell limestone region provided the best conditions for the production of high-quality dark beers .
At that time, the Saar-Palatinate region was mainly supplied by breweries from Zweibrücken, but this changed after the First World War . As a result of the Versailles contract , the Walsheim brewery lost its previous customer base in Alsace-Lorraine and was able to take over a large part of the Saar-Palatinate customers as compensation; because the Palatinate breweries, up to now the main suppliers, had lost their interest in the Saar area due to the high import duties. In a contract from 1922, what was then Park- und Bürgerbräu Zweibrücken assigned a delivery volume of 72,000 hl to the Walsheim brewery. This ensured the continued existence of the company.
In majority ownership by Hans Kanter
In the times of economic uncertainty around 1922, the Schmidt and Guttenberger families had sold a large part of the shares to a financially strong investor, the chemist Hans Kanter from Berlin. The brewery has now been renamed "Walsheim Brauerei AG". By purchasing additional securities, Kanter secured the majority of shares, determined the future fate of the Walsheim brewery and expanded the company into a large brewery. This was followed in the 1920s by a series of renovations and the construction of larger, more modern buildings, which completely changed the external appearance of the brewery. From 1924 to 1928 a new malt house , a larger brewhouse and the tower-like construction of the fermentation cellar (Rostock building) were built, which shaped the townscape of Walsheim until the early 1980s.
With the expansion of the Walsheim brewery into the largest brewery in Saarland, the prerequisites for an expansion of beer exports were created: With an annual beer output of around 300,000 hl in the early thirties, they supplied not only many parts of Europe, but also those of that time French colonies , e.g. B. in Algiers , Beirut , Madagascar and in some large cities in South America.
According to a statistical survey of the Saarland brewing industry on May 19, 1934, the Walsheim brewery - along with the Neufang-Jänisch and Becker breweries - was still one of the leading breweries in Saarland after Hitler came to power . But just a year later, the year of the Saar referendum , Kanter, the company's main shareholder, was replaced as a member of the brewery's board of directors through machinations carried out by the Nazis.
Expropriation in the Third Reich
A new board appointed by the National Socialists seems to have purposefully driven the brewery into bankruptcy. Further personnel changes and internal changes also accelerated the brewery's decline. After the evacuation of Walsheim in September 1939, the brewery facilities were shelled by French troops. The damage remained relatively minor: the inner courtyards of the brewery in particular were hit; In addition, the roofs of the brewery's own houses and stables were destroyed. The extent of this destruction was, however, increased by the severe winter of 1939/40. Nevertheless, nothing seemed to stand in the way of an early reconstruction and restarting of the brewery. The approval for this was already available, but was then surprisingly withdrawn by the then Gauleiter Bürkel. While the majority of the Walsheim population still expected the brewery to be restarted quickly, such hopes were dashed by a decision of the Cologne Brewery Association on June 20, 1942, when the customers of the Walsheim brewery were transferred to other Saar-Palatinate breweries.
This Cologne measure was based on a dubious report on the condition of the brewery facilities, as a result of which the company had its concession to brew beer withdrawn. Although this decision was not accepted without contradiction in the population of Walsheim, the removal of the machines began soon afterwards - some of them were later seen by soldiers in the Minsk soldiers' brewery in Russia - and the sale of the building systems. What was left was looted and destroyed. The devastating bomb attack in 1945, which completely destroyed the most important parts of the brewery such as the malt house and the storage facilities, brought the final blow, but the fate of the Walsheim brewery was sealed beforehand.
The end after World War II
In the post-war period, the old parts of the building - partially renovated - served a number of different companies as production or storage facilities until they were bought up by the municipality of Gersheim and demolished in the winter of 1981/82. The brewery tower, a Rostock tank tower in the Bauhaus style, was also destroyed.
Only part of the old vaulted cellar, with 16 domes, which belong to the oldest core of the brewery, was left standing.
Transfer of trademark rights to Karlsberg
After the war in 1946, the managing partner of the Karlsberg Brewery in Homburg , Paul Weber , recognized the value of the “Walsheim” brand as an export brand. The main shareholder of Walsheim-Brauerei AG, which is in liquidation, was the French bank " Credit Commercial de France ". A contract was signed with her, according to which Karlsberg received the order for the sales company " Sobibo ", later "Union Financière de la Brasserie" based in Paris, beer in barrel, in bottles and cans under the name "Walsheim" for the Manufacture export to France. This beer was drunk in France for a long time.
The French brewery "Saverne Brasserie SA" of the Karlsberg Association has been brewing a pilsner called "Walsheim" again for some time. However, it is only available in France.
literature
- Walsheim and his story , Homburg 1988, p. 224ff, revised by Martin Wolter 2005
- Claudia Schoch Zeller: Upswing and decline of the Walsheim brewery, in the yearbook of the Society for the History of Brewing, Berlin 2010, p. 124 ff.
- Claudia Schoch Zeller: Destruction of a Lifetime Achievement , The Fate of the Walsheim Brewery by Hans Kanter in the 1930s, in the journal for the history of the Saar region, 52nd year 2004, Saarbrücken 2005, p. 125 ff.