Anton Dreher
Encyclopedia
Anton Dreher (born May 7, 1810, in Klein-Schwechat (now a part of Schwechat
), near Vienna
(Austria
) - December 27, 1863, Schwechat) was an Austrian brewer
who was an important figure in the development of pale lager
.
In 1840, he introduced a beer that combined the crispness of lager with the paler hues of the English ale; this new style of beer became known as the Viennese style, and was called the Schwechater Lagerbier ("Schwechat Lager Beer").
, a small imperial city north of Überlingen
.
His son, Franz Anton Dreher (a.k.a. "the younger", 1736–1820), studied brewing near Pfullendorf
, but had larger dreams and made the Swabian migration of 1760 to Vienna. After several years of hand-to-mouth living, including a long stint as a waiter in a local beer hall, in 1780, Dreher leased a small brewery in Ober-Lanzendorf; in 1782, he leased another brewery, and acquired some fields. In 1796, he purchased, for 19,000 Thalers, a brewery in Klein Schwechat, outside of Vienna, with 46 acre (19 ha) and the Herberghaus (hostel). Dreher married (i) Maria Anna Huber, daughter of a surveyor, who had learned something of the brewing trade. The couple had no children, and when she died in 1803, he married (ii) Katherine Widter, 1786–1864, a miller's daughter from Speichmühle near Petersdorf. They had four children: Clara, 1806–1885, who married Franz Aich (1803–1870), also from a well known family of brewers in Tyrnau
; a daughter who died circa 1808; another daughter; and Anton Dreher (the elder), born 1810, married (i), Anna Wigrill (1816–1841), the daughter of a shipmaster and land owner from Krems and, after the death of his first wife, (ii) Ann Hersfeld, 1824–1884, daughter of an administrator for the family of Thurn-Taxis, in Regensburg
. From the second marriage, his son and heir, Anton (1849–1921) was born.
Anton Dreher (the younger) married Katherina, daughter of the master brewer Meichl of Simmering
, to whom he had been apprenticed. They had 3 sons, Anton Eugen, Jenő, and Theodore. Theodore was a racing and auto enthusiast, and died in 1914.
Anton Eugen, the oldest son, inherited the Austrian concern in 1923, upon his father's death, but he himself died in 1925; his own son, Anton, had died in World War I
, and his grandson, Oscar, died at the age of 10 years the following year. Anton Dreher also had an illegitimate son, the writer and editor Anton Breitner (March 18, 1858, in Vienna - May 30, 1928, in Mattsee
).
Jenő Dreher, the youngest son of Anton Dreher, inherited the family's Hungarian concerns. Jenő's daughter, Elizabeth died at the age of 17 from tuberculosis
; Lilly Haggenmacher mourned for her daughter until her own death.
in 1820, his ten year old son was too young to manage the brewing business. Dreher was apprenticed to the brewer Meichel, in Simmering and later undertook a study tour, a journeyman's tour, through Germany, where he studied at the Sedlmayr brewery in Munich, England, where he studied at Barclay and Perkins in London, and Scotland. In 1836, he partnered with his mother, and with the help of his wife's marriage portion, he experimented with the English malting process, which produced a caramelized, crystal malt; he was able to buy his mother out by 1839. Here he was the first brewer in the European continent to use the English malting process. He owned acres of land throughout Austria and Bohemia, and grew his own hops and barley, which allowed him to save on costs. When he died suddenly in 1863, he was worth 10 million guilden.
The Danube
river provided the water needed for unlimited beer and malt making. The attention turned to Kőbánya because of a beer made by Peter Schmidt, a brewer master from Pest who studied in Munich. Schmidt stored beer in his rock cellar in Kőbánya
. The water in the wells, made by deep drilling technology, is perfectly suited for beer making; the cellars of Schmidt's brewery provided the steady cool temperature needed for maturation and storage. It was the ideal warehouse, or, in German Lage, for storing the beer.
The surge of the Kőbánya beer production attracted Dreher's attention, in part because Schmidt's beer was competition for him. He visited Pest-Buda
on several occasions between 1856 and 1860; by 1862 he was able to buy the Kőbánya Brewery Company. He purchased further plots of land and prepared for expansion, but died suddenly in 1863, leaving his 14-year-old son to implement the plans.
. In the middle of the 19th century, Anton Dreher senior had purchased two small, adjacent restaurants and combined them into one Gasthaus with a big garden. Drehers Etablissement opened on 25 December 1859 and was an immediate hit as a hot Beer Hall. It had not only the garden and the tavern, but also a restaurant and a dance hall. Between 1918 and 1933, it became the unofficial meeting place of Landstrasser Social Democrats of Vienna.
brewery, which became a corporation in 1907 under the name "Dreher Antal Kőbányai Serfőzdéje," and was a market leader until World War I
. The Dreher family business became a corporation in 1905 and the Hungarian company
became independent of the mother company in 1907. Jenő Dreher continued to buy shares of his competitors, Haggenmacher Kőbánya and Budafoki Rt., Barber and Klusemann Brewery and the First Hungarian Brewery Corporation (founded in 1867).
When Anton Dreher died in 1921, his oldest son, Anton Eugen (b. 1871) took over the brewery business, but he died in 1925. The 10-year-old Oskar died in 1926, and with him the line of brewers. The Dreher Combine, which was merged from these two companies in 1923, also bought up the Royal Brewery Corporation of Kanizsa
in 1928. As the result of the grand scale expansion, Dreher-Haggenmacher First Hungarian Brewery Corporation was launched in 1933, and acquired 70 percent of the market. The two other Kőbánya Breweries - Polgár and the Municipal Brewery – were left with only a quarter stake of the market. Dreher beer was exported to North and South America, western Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, where ever Germans, Austrians and Hungarians migrated, and became a worldwide brand name. After the death of his elder brother and his great nephew, Jenő Dreher sold off the Austrian portion of the family business.
, and for the first time in over a century, no beer was produced by the company; eight months later, the brewery reopened, and production began again. Twenty years later, it joined with the Austrian Brewery, AG, and the Steirer brewery AG, to create the Brewery Union of Austria, AG.
On the Hungarian side, the Dreher family fortune and business was nationalized by the new communist state; the Drehers left Hungary. In 1992, Kőbányai Sörgyár was converted into a shareholding company; in 1993, it became a member of the South African Breweries (SAB). In 1997 the company acquired rights to the name Dreher, and became Dreher Sörgyárak Ltd. The brewery exists today, and still produces Lager.
In 2002, the South African Breweries merged with the Miller Brewing Company to create the SABMiller
group, which is the second largest brewing company of the world, with brewing interests or distribution agreements in over 60 countries across six continents. SABMiller PLC is listed in the London stock exchange and the Johannesburg stock exchange, and its international brand portfolio includes such historical brands as Pilsner Urquell
, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft, and Castle Lager.
Schwechat
Schwechat is a city south-east of Vienna known for the Vienna International Airport and Schwechater beer. It is also home to the refineries belonging to the Austrian national oil company OMV.- Geography :...
), near Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
(Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
) - December 27, 1863, Schwechat) was an Austrian brewer
Brewing
Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...
who was an important figure in the development of pale lager
Pale lager
Pale lager is a very pale to golden-coloured beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid 19th century when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brewing techniques back to the Spaten Brewery in Germany and applied it...
.
In 1840, he introduced a beer that combined the crispness of lager with the paler hues of the English ale; this new style of beer became known as the Viennese style, and was called the Schwechater Lagerbier ("Schwechat Lager Beer").
Family of brewers
Franz Anton Dreher (1689–1743), was the Kronenwirt (innkeeper at the Crown Inn) in PfullendorfPfullendorf
Pfullendorf is a small historic city in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.-Geography:Its location is in the district of Sigmaringen, 25 km north of Lake Constance and south of the Danube valley and therefore on the continental divide between the watersheds of the...
, a small imperial city north of Überlingen
Überlingen
Überlingen is a city on the northern shore of Lake Constance . After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second largest city in the Bodenseekreis , and a central point for the outlying communities...
.
His son, Franz Anton Dreher (a.k.a. "the younger", 1736–1820), studied brewing near Pfullendorf
Pfullendorf
Pfullendorf is a small historic city in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.-Geography:Its location is in the district of Sigmaringen, 25 km north of Lake Constance and south of the Danube valley and therefore on the continental divide between the watersheds of the...
, but had larger dreams and made the Swabian migration of 1760 to Vienna. After several years of hand-to-mouth living, including a long stint as a waiter in a local beer hall, in 1780, Dreher leased a small brewery in Ober-Lanzendorf; in 1782, he leased another brewery, and acquired some fields. In 1796, he purchased, for 19,000 Thalers, a brewery in Klein Schwechat, outside of Vienna, with 46 acre (19 ha) and the Herberghaus (hostel). Dreher married (i) Maria Anna Huber, daughter of a surveyor, who had learned something of the brewing trade. The couple had no children, and when she died in 1803, he married (ii) Katherine Widter, 1786–1864, a miller's daughter from Speichmühle near Petersdorf. They had four children: Clara, 1806–1885, who married Franz Aich (1803–1870), also from a well known family of brewers in Tyrnau
Tyrnau
Tyrnau is a town in the district of Graz-Umgebung in Styria in Austria....
; a daughter who died circa 1808; another daughter; and Anton Dreher (the elder), born 1810, married (i), Anna Wigrill (1816–1841), the daughter of a shipmaster and land owner from Krems and, after the death of his first wife, (ii) Ann Hersfeld, 1824–1884, daughter of an administrator for the family of Thurn-Taxis, in Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
. From the second marriage, his son and heir, Anton (1849–1921) was born.
Anton Dreher (the younger) married Katherina, daughter of the master brewer Meichl of Simmering
Simmering
Simmering is a food preparation technique in which foods are cooked in hot liquids kept at or just below the boiling point of water , but higher than poaching temperature...
, to whom he had been apprenticed. They had 3 sons, Anton Eugen, Jenő, and Theodore. Theodore was a racing and auto enthusiast, and died in 1914.
Anton Eugen, the oldest son, inherited the Austrian concern in 1923, upon his father's death, but he himself died in 1925; his own son, Anton, had died in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and his grandson, Oscar, died at the age of 10 years the following year. Anton Dreher also had an illegitimate son, the writer and editor Anton Breitner (March 18, 1858, in Vienna - May 30, 1928, in Mattsee
Mattsee
Mattsee is a market town at the eponymous lake in the district of Salzburg-Umgebung in the Austrian state of Salzburg.-History:About 765 Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria established the Mattsee Benedictine Abbey, that became a part of the Diocese of Passau in 993 and was transformed into a college of...
).
Jenő Dreher, the youngest son of Anton Dreher, inherited the family's Hungarian concerns. Jenő's daughter, Elizabeth died at the age of 17 from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
; Lilly Haggenmacher mourned for her daughter until her own death.
Education and career
When Franz Anton Dreher (the younger) died of marasmusMarasmus
Marasmus is a form of severe protein-energy malnutrition characterized by energy deficiency.A child with marasmus looks emaciated. Body weight may be reduced to less than 80% of the average weight that corresponds to the height . Marasmus occurrence increases prior to age 1, whereas kwashiorkor...
in 1820, his ten year old son was too young to manage the brewing business. Dreher was apprenticed to the brewer Meichel, in Simmering and later undertook a study tour, a journeyman's tour, through Germany, where he studied at the Sedlmayr brewery in Munich, England, where he studied at Barclay and Perkins in London, and Scotland. In 1836, he partnered with his mother, and with the help of his wife's marriage portion, he experimented with the English malting process, which produced a caramelized, crystal malt; he was able to buy his mother out by 1839. Here he was the first brewer in the European continent to use the English malting process. He owned acres of land throughout Austria and Bohemia, and grew his own hops and barley, which allowed him to save on costs. When he died suddenly in 1863, he was worth 10 million guilden.
Development of pale lager
Starting in 1836, Anton Dreher took over the brewery and developed the bottom-fermented beer — Schwechater Lagerbier — which he presented in 1840/1841. It was a new style of beer, methodically bottom fermented to produce a brew that was coppery reddish-brown in color. It required steady, cool temperature for maturation and storage, and this requirement gives the beer its name: lager (in German, Lager means storehouse or warehouse). Originally, he called the beer Märtzen, or March beer, because it was brewed in March, when the water was cold, and ice was still available. Eventually the name lager became the accepted name; it was also called Vienna Typ, or Vienna Style beer. In 1858, Dreher's lager won the gold metal for excellence at the Beer Exhibit in Vienna. The greater honor occurred on 26 November 1861 when Emperor Franz Joseph I visited the brewery and awarded Dreher with the Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order. In 1862, he received the Gold medal with Diploma from the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1869, his Lager beer won the High First Prize.The Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
river provided the water needed for unlimited beer and malt making. The attention turned to Kőbánya because of a beer made by Peter Schmidt, a brewer master from Pest who studied in Munich. Schmidt stored beer in his rock cellar in Kőbánya
Kobánya
Kőbánya is the 10th district of Budapest and one of the largest by territory. It is located in southeast Pest, easily accessible from the downtown by Metro 3, whose terminus is named Kőbánya-Kispest....
. The water in the wells, made by deep drilling technology, is perfectly suited for beer making; the cellars of Schmidt's brewery provided the steady cool temperature needed for maturation and storage. It was the ideal warehouse, or, in German Lage, for storing the beer.
The surge of the Kőbánya beer production attracted Dreher's attention, in part because Schmidt's beer was competition for him. He visited Pest-Buda
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
on several occasions between 1856 and 1860; by 1862 he was able to buy the Kőbánya Brewery Company. He purchased further plots of land and prepared for expansion, but died suddenly in 1863, leaving his 14-year-old son to implement the plans.
The brewery under the son's leadership
After his father's death in 1863, Anton Dreher continued the work on the brewing process. He started to export this beer first to Holland, then to Triest, where it was known as Birra Dreher, and then to Germany. In 1871, known as the winter without ice, Dreher constructed a cooling machine to process the beer. He continued to develop the brewery, the mechanization, and the fields, and by 1897 the brewery was producing 739.639 Hectoliters of beer, which was more than double the amount produced under his father in the company's most productive year. The following year, the brewery produced 1.25 million Hectoliters, making it the most productive brewery in the world. By 1913, the brewery in Schwechat was united with brewery in Simmering, and the brewery in another suburb of Vienna, St. Marx, and known as The United Breweries of Schwechat, Simmering, and St. Marx: Dreher, Mautner, Meichle Incorporated. Production declined shrank during World War I, when over half of its employees were needed for military service. The Brewery facility in Schwechat was converted to a hospital, and the other breweries produced Kriegsbier (war beer), for distribution to the troops.Awards
In 1873, the beer won another Gold medal at the World Exhibit in Vienna, and in 1878, again in Paris, 1879, again in Sydney, 1878, in Melbourne, and 1882, in Triest. On June 4, 1883, Emperor Franz Joseph visited the brewery for the second time, and honored Anton Dreher, Junior with the Knights Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph. In 1897 Dreher received the Kerhielt Dreher the Commander's Cross, and later the Great Cross of the Order, and, in 1902, the Order of Iron Cross, Second Class.Brauhaus Dreher
The Dreher Brewery and Tavern played an important role in the Social Democrat movement of Vienna following World War I, also known as Red ViennaRed Vienna
Red Vienna was the nickname of the capital of Austria between 1918 and 1934, when the Social Democrats had the majority and the city was democratically governed for the first time.-Social situation after World War I:...
. In the middle of the 19th century, Anton Dreher senior had purchased two small, adjacent restaurants and combined them into one Gasthaus with a big garden. Drehers Etablissement opened on 25 December 1859 and was an immediate hit as a hot Beer Hall. It had not only the garden and the tavern, but also a restaurant and a dance hall. Between 1918 and 1933, it became the unofficial meeting place of Landstrasser Social Democrats of Vienna.
Expansion to Hungary
Among his three sons, Anton Dreher Jr. entrusted Jenő with the management of the KőbányaKobánya
Kőbánya is the 10th district of Budapest and one of the largest by territory. It is located in southeast Pest, easily accessible from the downtown by Metro 3, whose terminus is named Kőbánya-Kispest....
brewery, which became a corporation in 1907 under the name "Dreher Antal Kőbányai Serfőzdéje," and was a market leader until World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The Dreher family business became a corporation in 1905 and the Hungarian company
Dreher Brewery
Dreher Brewery in Budapest is owned by SABMiller. Its main products are the Dreher Classic, Arany Ászok and Kőbányai Világos pilsener-style lagers but it also brews Dreher Bak . Kanizsa Brewery also belonged to the group...
became independent of the mother company in 1907. Jenő Dreher continued to buy shares of his competitors, Haggenmacher Kőbánya and Budafoki Rt., Barber and Klusemann Brewery and the First Hungarian Brewery Corporation (founded in 1867).
When Anton Dreher died in 1921, his oldest son, Anton Eugen (b. 1871) took over the brewery business, but he died in 1925. The 10-year-old Oskar died in 1926, and with him the line of brewers. The Dreher Combine, which was merged from these two companies in 1923, also bought up the Royal Brewery Corporation of Kanizsa
Kanizsa
Kanizsa may refer to:* Nagykanizsa, Nagy-Kanizsa** Kanije Province, Ottoman Empire* Kaniža, Slovenia* Kanizsamonostor, Kanizsa-Monostor * Magyarkanizsa, Magyar-Kanizsa* Törökkanizsa, Török-Kanizsa- Family names :...
in 1928. As the result of the grand scale expansion, Dreher-Haggenmacher First Hungarian Brewery Corporation was launched in 1933, and acquired 70 percent of the market. The two other Kőbánya Breweries - Polgár and the Municipal Brewery – were left with only a quarter stake of the market. Dreher beer was exported to North and South America, western Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, where ever Germans, Austrians and Hungarians migrated, and became a worldwide brand name. After the death of his elder brother and his great nephew, Jenő Dreher sold off the Austrian portion of the family business.
The Brewery after the Drehers
After the deaths of the Drehers, the Austrian side of the business was transformed into a consortium; the family Mautner-Markhof, which had been associated with the Drehers since the development of the crystallized malt, assumed direction of the consortium. In 1945, the main brewery was destroyed in World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and for the first time in over a century, no beer was produced by the company; eight months later, the brewery reopened, and production began again. Twenty years later, it joined with the Austrian Brewery, AG, and the Steirer brewery AG, to create the Brewery Union of Austria, AG.
On the Hungarian side, the Dreher family fortune and business was nationalized by the new communist state; the Drehers left Hungary. In 1992, Kőbányai Sörgyár was converted into a shareholding company; in 1993, it became a member of the South African Breweries (SAB). In 1997 the company acquired rights to the name Dreher, and became Dreher Sörgyárak Ltd. The brewery exists today, and still produces Lager.
In 2002, the South African Breweries merged with the Miller Brewing Company to create the SABMiller
SABMiller
SABMiller plc is a global brewing and bottling company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's second-largest brewing company measured by revenues and is also a major bottler of Coca-Cola. Its brands include Grolsch, Miller Genuine Draft, Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Pilsner Urquell...
group, which is the second largest brewing company of the world, with brewing interests or distribution agreements in over 60 countries across six continents. SABMiller PLC is listed in the London stock exchange and the Johannesburg stock exchange, and its international brand portfolio includes such historical brands as Pilsner Urquell
Pilsner Urquell
Plzeňský Prazdroj , known better by its German name Pilsner Urquell , is a bottom-fermented beer produced since 1842 in Pilsen, part of today's Czech Republic. Pilsner Urquell was the first pilsner beer in the world...
, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft, and Castle Lager.
Literature
- Article "Dreher, Anton" in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, herausgegeben von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayrischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Band 5 (1877), ab Seite 391.Wikisourc.
- Allerlei. Österreich. Die österreichische Linie der Familie Dreher ausgestorben. Badener Zeitung, 3. März 1926http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?apm=0&aid=bzt&datum=19260303&seite=4&zoom=2
- Dreher Family history, Accessed 30 July 2009, Here.
- History of Schwechater Beer, p. 1. Accessed 29 July 2009. Here (in German).
- Lees, GrahamGraham LeesGraham Vaughan Lees is a publisher and founding editor-in-chief of The ScientificWorldJournal, which he edited until the summer of 2011. He is the owner of Corpus Alienum Oy, a Finnish publisher.- Education :...
, “All About Beer,” excerpted in Beer Barons Beer Styles. - Red Vienna, WebLexicon of Viennese Social Democracy Online, Accessed 30 July 2009, here