Popular Beer in Nazi Germany

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ManfredV
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#76

Post by ManfredV » 10 Oct 2006, 15:59

Today we have about 1200 breweries in Germany. About 800 of them are in Bavaria, but there are much more in Franconia than in Old Bavaria. In North, West and East Germany market is controlled by some big breweries, but in South Germany a lot of smaller regional and local breweries exist. During the last decades a lot of smaller breweries, esp. "Brauereigasthoefe" closed. But for some years, new "Brauhaeuser" came up in bigger towns: small breweries with a restaurant.
Germany has a lot of varieties of beer: most popular are Pils (in North, West and East Germany), Hell (Lager) and Dunkel (dark) in South Germany and Weizen (wheat beer) which is originally from Bavaria but now they drink it everywhere.
Most German beer drinkers prefere their special brewery. (For Bavarians and Franconians in other parts of Germany this can be very hard - because they don´t like Pils and those varieties like Maerzen, Kellerbier or Dunkel are often not available in "Prussia").
WW II brought the end for many breweries - they went bancrupt or were destroyed. After war, many closed since the 1970s.
But a lot of Breweries that were popular in Nazi Germany still exist today. Some breweries existed for centuries!

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Annelie
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#77

Post by Annelie » 29 Oct 2006, 19:36

I have tried numerous biers when in Germany but I can
say my favorite of all is

" http://www.berchtesgadener-bier.de/brauerei.html "

The brewery gets its water from the mountains there which give it
an wonderful taste and right across from the brewery is their
restaurent which has wonderful food.

I am sure there must have been an brewery in Berchtesgaden during
the dritte reich period? I wonder what it was and if it still
exists?


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Annelie
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#78

Post by Annelie » 29 Oct 2006, 19:39

They have a great photo

" http://www.berchtesgadener-bier.de/brauerei.html " one can see that
even the women enjoyed.

:P

ManfredV
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#79

Post by ManfredV » 29 Oct 2006, 23:49

I think Berchtesgaden brewery is old, maybe it exists for centuries. "Hofbraeuhaus" means, that in the old Reich a brewery was owned by the local princes, dukes etc. "Fuerstpropstei Berchtesgaden" was one of these little states that were part of the old Reich federation (before 1806). It was territory of a catholic monastery. You know, german monks and their beer...
I never tasted Berchtesgaden beer, but I´m shure its one of these wonderful bavarian kinds.Today this brewery belongs to Spaten Bier Munich, one of Germany´s great beer compagnies.

Kaiser Krebs 13
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#80

Post by Kaiser Krebs 13 » 18 Sep 2007, 22:05

If anyone has seen the recent program on the History Channel " Cities of the Underworld" : Hitler's Underground. They visited an abandoned brewery, in the former east Berlin.. The Betzel brewery. Founded in 1864, the brewery won several Gold Medals for beer during the Nazi era. It was commandeered by the Reich mid war to convert factory space to munitions production, to utilize the deep cellars for protection from allied bombs.

After the war, the East German government did not allow private enterprise to exist so the brewery languished where it sits today. It seems a real shame, the building itself is really beautiful built of red and yellow brick. I have tried to find more information about it, but there seems to be little out there, even on line. I would imagine that somewhere out there in Germany there are some artifacts, relatives of the Betzel family, or maybe even some recipies for their beer floating around.

I'd love to be able to sample some of that beer! the idea of ressurrecting history in that manner is absolutely fascinating. I'd heard a story of some fellows in England doing just that, with a bottle of beer recovered intact from an 18th century English shipwreck.

Schultze
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Beer

#81

Post by Schultze » 18 Sep 2007, 22:29

There is a brewery near Hackisher Markt (off Schoenhauser Allee) which is now a big complex of pubs clubs and (I think) an art gallery. This is also made out from a very distinctive yellow brick. It really stands out. The places inside are pretty ordinary but the building is impressive. This is in Berlin as well I should mention. The actual name of the place escapes me right now. Sorry

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Re: Beer

#82

Post by nondescript handle » 18 Sep 2007, 23:21

Schultze wrote:[...]The actual name of the place escapes me right now. Sorry
That's the former Schultheiss compound, today the Kulturbrauerei:
link to the English homepage

Regards/ Mark

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#83

Post by Martin B » 05 Oct 2007, 15:58

OMK wrote:dwseiple,

I don't know how many breweries were lost (as you say). Probably not that many (the Germnas like their beer, be they "ossies" or "wessies"). But as I pointed out above, some breweries did run as pure export breweries (to get some hard cash in to the coffers). Wernesgruener and Radeberger are the two I know of. If you have time, a determined googling should land you with some answers.

OMK
I think what he was referring to were breweries in German territories lost such as Ostpreussen, Schlesien, and Pommern. They certainly had breweries there. Curious to know if they've been started up "under new management" as the former Sudeten/Bohemian German Breweries are now considered "Czech" beers--Budweiser, Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, etc.

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Jiri
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#84

Post by Jiri » 05 Oct 2007, 16:49

Martin B wrote: Curious to know if they've been started up "under new management" as the former Sudeten/Bohemian German Breweries are now considered "Czech" beers--Budweiser, Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, etc.
It's quite surpsising to find so much nationalistic nonsense and false informations in one short sentence about beer... :roll: . None of the above-mentioned beers was produced in Sudetengau (see map, if you don't believe me), Pilsener, Gambrinus(also from Plzeň, today only brand of Pilsen Brewery) and Budweiser beer can hardly be described as Czech German beers - they were simply produced by (although they used some German-originated brewing methods) Czech based companies - Plzeňské akciové pivovary ( Pilsner breweries, joint stock company) and Český akciový pivovar České Budějovice (Czech Brewery Budweis, Joint stock company) respectively.

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#85

Post by Martin B » 05 Oct 2007, 17:01

Jiri wrote:
Martin B wrote: Curious to know if they've been started up "under new management" as the former Sudeten/Bohemian German Breweries are now considered "Czech" beers--Budweiser, Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, etc.
It's quite surpsising to find so much nationalistic nonsense and false informations in one short sentence about beer... :roll: . None of the above-mentioned beers was produced in Sudetengau (see map, if you don't believe me), Pilsener, Gambrinus(also from Plzeň, today only brand of Pilsen Brewery) and Budweiser beer can hardly be described as Czech German beers - they were simply produced by (although they used some German-originated brewing methods) Czech based companies - Plzeňské akciové pivovary ( Pilsner breweries, joint stock company) and Český akciový pivovar České Budějovice (Czech Brewery Budweis, Joint stock company) respectively.

wow! I dont think I was being "nationalistic"or providing "false informations" (sic) by merely stating that those breweries were in fact ethnically German (or technically Austrian) in origin. While Pilsen may not have been in the "Sudetengau", it certainly was in Bohemia, which had a mixed German/Czech population. Moreover, these beers predate the founding of the Czechoslovak state and were no doubt managed by and employed numbers of ethnic Germans.

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Plavá bestie
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#86

Post by Plavá bestie » 05 Oct 2007, 17:09

Debating about ordering in the Eastern Europe with Czech beer.
Plavá bestie.
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Martin B
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#87

Post by Martin B » 05 Oct 2007, 17:13

it would seem that we are both partially right: http://www.budvar.cz/en/web/Znacka-Budv ... dvaru.html
http://www.pilsner-urquell.com/flash/in ... =structure

(although the Urquell site does make reference that Kepler and Kafka were Czech...)

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Jiri
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#88

Post by Jiri » 05 Oct 2007, 19:12

Martin B wrote:
Jiri wrote:
Martin B wrote: Curious to know if they've been started up "under new management" as the former Sudeten/Bohemian German Breweries are now considered "Czech" beers--Budweiser, Pilsner Urquell, Gambrinus, etc.
It's quite surpsising to find so much nationalistic nonsense and false informations in one short sentence about beer... :roll: . None of the above-mentioned beers was produced in Sudetengau (see map, if you don't believe me), Pilsener, Gambrinus(also from Plzeň, today only brand of Pilsen Brewery) and Budweiser beer can hardly be described as Czech German beers - they were simply produced by (although they used some German-originated brewing methods) Czech based companies - Plzeňské akciové pivovary ( Pilsner breweries, joint stock company) and Český akciový pivovar České Budějovice (Czech Brewery Budweis, Joint stock company) respectively.

wow! I dont think I was being "nationalistic"or providing "false informations" (sic) by merely stating that those breweries were in fact ethnically German (or technically Austrian) in origin. While Pilsen may not have been in the "Sudetengau", it certainly was in Bohemia, which had a mixed German/Czech population. Moreover, these beers predate the founding of the Czechoslovak state and were no doubt managed by and employed numbers of ethnic Germans.
Well I think, that labeling any Czech-area beer as "ethnically German"or Czech quite difficult - for instance Pilsner originated from interference of Czech traditions (or better local Pilsner, mixed of old Czech's and German's) traditions of beer brewery, and Czech and German inventions - the creator of Pilsner Joseph Groll owed a lot to researches of Czech brewer František Ondřej Poupě and his book on brewing, and I can hardly call Pilsner only German (or Czech German) beer. Budvar, as you probably marked, originated as Czech company first http://www.budvar.cz/en/web/Znacka-Budv ... dvaru.html.
Original statement "German beer under new management" made me a bit angry, I'm sorry now.
Jiri

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#89

Post by Reichenberg 40 » 12 Dec 2007, 18:46

I read in one book that a brewery in Usti nad Labem (Aussig) supplied beer to the the famous Afrikorps. Would anyone know if that is the same brewery that produces Zlatopramen? Zlatopramen is one of my favorite beers.

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Jiri
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#90

Post by Jiri » 12 Dec 2007, 20:50

http://www.pivovary.info/prehled/up/up_e.htm
It seems that today's Zlatopramen covers former breweries Zlatopramen and Breznak (in Czech: Březňák, sorry if Czech fonts not displayed properly) of Velké Březno (in German Groß Priesen, I don't know German name of the brewery) - today both breweries are operated by the same owner - Union Drinks, a.s - and supplier for Afrikakorps was Breznak, which still operates the same machinery as since 1937.

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