Ottakringer Leiterstuhl (katarina Noever 1978)
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Ottakringer () is the last large
brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...
remaining in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
,
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, and is located in
Ottakring Ottakring () is the 16th Districts of Vienna, District in the city of Vienna, Austria (). It is located west of the central districts, north of Penzing (Vienna), Penzing and south of Hernals. Ottakring has some heavily populated urban areas with m ...
, the 16th district of Vienna.


History

The Ottakringer brewery was opened in 1837 by the master miller Heinrich Plank under the name of ''Planksche Brauerei'', after the ruling diocese of
Klosterneuburg Klosterneuburg () is a town in the Tulln District of the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Frequently abbreviated to Kloburg by locals, it has a population of about 27,500. The Stift Klosterneuburg ( Klosterneuburg Monastery), which was establish ...
had granted approval for brewing. In 1850, it was taken over and expanded into a large brewery by the cousins, Ignaz and Jakob Kuffner from Lundenburg. Within ten years, the production increased from 18,318 hl to 64,183 hl. When Kaiser
Franz Joseph Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I ( ; ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the Grand title of the emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 1848 until his death ...
ordered that the city walls be pulled down and a large number of residential buildings began to be built, Ottakringer grew as well. A new fermentation cellar and a larger warehouse went into operation. Around 1890, the production was already at about 170,000 hl.
Moriz von Kuffner Moriz von Kuffner (30 January 1854 – 5 March 1939) was a Jewish-Austrians, Austrian industrialist, art collector, mountaineer and philanthropist. From the 1880s to the early 1910s he made a fortune in the brewery business, and became a significa ...
, the son of Ignaz von Kuffner, took over the brewery in 1882 and increased the production to over 350,000 hl in the last year before the
war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
, a quantity which was not again reached between the World Wars. In 1905, Kuffner converted the brewery into a joint-stock company. Even before the
annexation of Austria The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany") arose after the 1871 unifica ...
by
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
Germany, Moriz von Kuffner was forced to sell his business because of his
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
background. It was sold for a rather low price of 14 million
Austrian schilling The schilling (German language, German: ''Schilling''; ) is a former currency of Austria from 1925 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1999, and the circulating currency until 2002. The euro was introduced at a fixed parity of €1 = 13.7603 schilling t ...
s (about 36 million euros at today's values) to Gustav Harmer, who was also forced out of the business for two years after the war. After the liberation by the Allies, the brewery was temporarily managed by the Russians, before the Harmer family managed to legally prove their purchase and again manufactured 150,000 hl as of 1955. The heirs of Moriz von Kuffner, who had died in
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
in the meantime, were compensated because of their expulsion and the threats of the Nazi regime, which had led to the sale of the business to the Harmer family. In 1977, the brewery considerably contributed to the breaking up of the beer
cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...
by withdrawing from it. From that time on, any restaurant could choose whichever
beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...
brewery it wanted as a supplier, independently of its location. In 1986, Ottakringer was listed on the stock exchange. In 1989, bottling in the brown bottles usually used in Austria was stopped and Ottakringer was the first brewery in Austria to introduce the well-known green "shoulder bottles". In 2007, the company initiated a joint partnership with an
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
ian company to build a factory in
Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...
for producing non-alcoholic beer.BBCPersian.com
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Structure of the company

The parent company, Ottakringer Holding AG, which is owned by families Wenckheim, Menz, Trauttenberg and Pfusterschmid, hold 88% shares of Ottakringer Getränke AG, the Ottakringer Getränke AG owns 6% of the shares, the rest of the shares are held in free float. The parent company also owns the mineral water manufacturer,
Vöslauer Vöslauer Mineralwasser GmbH is an Austrian mineral water company located in Bad Vöslau and is a subsidiary of Ottakringer brewing company. Vöslauer is also responsible for bottling of Almdudler, a popular Austrian soft drink. Up until the end ...
, which is located in
Bad Vöslau Bad Vöslau (; Central Bavarian: ''Bod Vöslau'') is a spa town and Municipality (Austria), municipality in the state of Lower Austria. It is also known as the cradle of the Austrian red wine cultivation. The population, as of 2022, is 12,424. G ...
.


Products

The most popular brand is ''Ottakringer Helles'', a beer with an alcohol content of 5.2% and a
wort Wort () is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. Wort contains the sugars, the most important being maltose and maltotriose, that will be Ethanol fermentation, fermented by the brewing yeast to prod ...
of 11.8° Plato. Other brands are the ''Goldfassl'' special beer or ''Goldfassl Pils'', a light,
pilsner Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Brewery. History ...
-style beer, as well as the ''Ottakringer
Radler Shandy is beer or cider mixed with a lemon flavoured beverage, usually half lemonade and half beer or cider, resulting in a lower ABV for the finished drink. Shandies are popular in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Caribbean, ...
'', which is a mixture of 50% Helles and 50% lemonade. Also in the range of products is the nearly alcohol-free beer, ''Null Komma Josef'', whose brandname is an allusion to its alcohol content of under 0.5%. In contrast, the brewery's strongest beer (7.6% alcohol) is the ''Ottakringer
Bock Bock () is a strong German beer, usually a dark lager. History The style now known as ''Bock'' was first brewed in the 14th century in the Hanseatic town of Einbeck in Lower Saxony. The style was later adopted in Bavaria by Munich brewers ...
'', which is only produced for special occasions (Christmas and Easter). The company also produces ''Ottakringer Dunkles'', a dark beer, ''Ottakringer G'mischtes'', a mixture of light and dark beer, ''Ottakringer Zwickl'', an unfiltered light beer, and ''Ottakringer Zwickl Rot'', a darker unfiltered beer brewed with melanoidin malt.


Trivia

The Viennese have a special expression for the canned beer, ''16er-Blech'' (16-tin sheet), mainly for the ''Ottakringer Helles''. The expression, ''16er-Hüs'n'', is also used for both the bottled and the canned beer. These are references to the origin of the beer in the 16th district of Vienna and the can that contains it. At the beginning of 2007, the brewery took advantage of this and marketed a new kind of canned beer under the name of ''16er Blech''. Various rooms of the brewery can also be used as an event location. The brewery has sponsored the Austrian football champions
SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English language, English, is an Football in Austria, Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian cham ...
for many years.


References


External links

* {{Authority control Manufacturing companies based in Vienna Food and drink companies based in Vienna Beer in Austria 1837 establishments in the Austrian Empire Buildings and structures in Ottakring Companies acquired from Jews under Nazi rule 19th-century architecture in Austria