Whoever says Karlsruhe today does hardly think that this word, which was spoken 250 years ago by Markgraf Carl Wilhelm von Baden-Durlach, meant that he really wanted his (Carl) peace (ruhe) at this place from many things and people. That's when he established Carols-Ruhe. His first intention was to just build a living tower with 32 avenues spread out in all directions.
A Prince Builds A Hunting Castle -
And It Turns Into A City
Soon Carl Wilhelm moved his residence from Durlach to the still very simple hunting castle - which had the result that little houses were built at the end of the avenues. Carl Wilhelm did even more. He sent out letters far past his borders (today we would call it advertisement) to convince farmers to move to his new place of residency and promised them free land and cheap house building, all kinds of freedom from obligations and even some rights which farmers in those days usually did not have.
Among The First Settlers - Two Beer Brewers
Among those that came in the first couple of years after the dedication in June 1715 of Carolsruhe were two beer brewers. It is interesting to note that both came from far away: the first one, Johann Helferich came from Sulzbach by Eylenberg; the other one was called Anton Heinrich Ziervogel and was from Hilsen by Hannover. Both were accepted as residence and built their homes in the Kronenstrasse which was then called Guenzerische Strasse.
It is not recorded if both brewers worked in Carolsruhe in their line of business or even opened a pub; it may also be possible that both found work with the already, four years earlier established, owners of four pubs. It was certainly not difficult to quench your thirst in this fast developing town because already ten years later a couple of the streets were renamed after the pubs. That was how the previously mentioned Guenzerische Strasse was changed to Kronenstrasse, and that was how the streets in the city got their names, which every Karlsruher of today knows: Waldhorn-, Kronen-, Adler-, Kreuz-, Lamm- and Ritterstrasse. The pubs were mainly located on the corners of the streets that ran to the south and the Langen Strasse, the old Durlach-Muehlburg way, which since 1879 is called Kaiserstrasse.
Still Karlsruhe was considered a small residence and only a few hundred meters south was the border to the residence of Baden-Baden; which meant one was living in a wine area. The consumption of wine was far greater than that of beer even in the 18th century.
At the time Karlsruhe was established there were already hundreds of years old breweries. And the oldest brewing right belonged to one of these, it was written in 1470. There were also several monasteries close by. In cities and villages there was also the custom of home brewing.
The Town Council Thinks People Drink Too Much
When one compares the population in Karlsruhe to other cities in those days,Karlsruhe grew much faster. In the year 1750 there were 2500 residents in the 35 year old Karlsruhe - which was in those days a large number. And it seemed that they also were very thirsty; because in the same year there were 57 pubs - which means one pub for every 44 people. One is not surprised that the town council thought that was a bit too much. That's why there had to be some high taxes in order to lower the consumption of the people. It was said that 20 good established pubs would be enough. And it was not necessary to have a party every blue Monday and to consume large amounts of alcohol on every possible occasion.
And so it happened in the years 1754, 1755, 1780 and 1783 that many rules and laws were written, which prohibited the large consumption of alcohol that was very common before.
The Prince Establishes A Brewery
The new ruler Karl Friedrich, who was a nephew of the founder of Karlsruhe, was not at all conservative: he was a very open person towards all fields of industry and art; he even wrote a book about the political economy. And with a little humor one could say that he had the perfect conclusion to the thirst of his people - in 1758 he reopened the brewery in the little castle Gottesaue at the gate to Durlach which used to be a monastery and was therefore already connected with the tradition of brewing.
With the opening of the Gottesauer brewery starts the recorded Karlsruher brewery industry, even though one can assume that the landlords brew their own home beer in their pubs. The Gottesauer brewery was open until 1818; then the evil mars drove away the good natured god of beers, and the castle was made to barracks.
With One Ohm Beer Came A Tax Of 15 Kreuzer
Already in the 1800's people knew about the beverage or consumption tax. As soon as the city of Karlsruhe was established and had it's rulers and councils, the consumption of beer, wine and schnapps was a perfect opportunity for taxes.
Later we hear of a even bigger brewery in the city of Karlsruhe. It is not known for sure but one can assume that in 1771 such a company was formed outside the city in Muehlburg.
Beside this there were always the landlords which sold their own brewed beer in their pubs. From two out of the eight that come in consideration we do know that one was called Rueppelin and was known as a farmer and landlord, the other was called Naegelin.
At The Beginning Of The 18th Century There Were Six Breweries In Karlsruhe
After Karlsruhe grew immensely in the years 1803, 1805 and 1806 so did its meaning in politics, industry and culture, and the city tried to feed the hungry and quench the thirst of the thirsty. In the year 1809 one can count 54 inns/pubs and 5 beer breweries, in 1810 there are 6. Altogether there were ten beer and wine pubs and 31 inns registered in 1810, ten landlords and nine restaurants and cafes. They all provided the 12,000 Karlsruher with beer and wine: the total sales were 3860 ohm wine and 2560 ohm beer. With these numbers one can tell that at the beginning of this century the consumption of wine was still higher than that of beer.
Karlsruhe Is The Center Of A New Territory
In the first twenty years of the 1900's the number of beer brewers continued rising. This can be connected with the rising power of the city. It was in those days when Weinbrenner as the big architect of Baden controlled the face of the city, when his Via triumpalis, the Karl-Friedrich-Strasse, was established, which in its perfect classical form ran from the Schlossplatz to the Ettlinger Tor. In the meantime the years of war passed, in which so much blood was shed from the people in Baden. Karl-Friedrich died at an advanced age. Karlsruhe was a city with structure. The first constitution of Baden in 1818 was the foundation of the developments in industry and art.
The Guild Of The Karlsruher Brewers And Coopers
In these big connections one also has to see the little things. And the economic development of the city was part of it and also the development of the Karlsruher industry. Also part of it was the desire to economically connect the brewers more closely together - at first in the shape of the guild. So they decided to merge with the already existing guild of the coopers since both groups had a lot in common. On May 13, 1817 a new guild was established. The minutes list nine beer brewers: Friedrich Naegele - Jacob Clauss - August Rueppele - Heinrich Hemberle - Heinrich Weiss - J. B. Bansa - L. Kaufmann - Schwab - Jakob Eypper.
On May 28, 1817 the authorities allowed the merger of the beer brewers and the coopers. Certainly the next few years were not very harmonic. In the year 1820 new laws of the guild were passed. But they did not get approved. It actually took several years for them to get through; the date was September 20, 1862 when the new statutes and articles replaced the half a century old guild of the Karlsruher brewers and coopers.
Half A Century Later: Three Times More Breweries In Karlsruhe
In the meantime many things had happened. Between 1817 and 1850 the number of breweries in Karlsruhe tripled. But the number of citizens did not rise as quickly; in 1850 there were
25,000 citizens and 27 breweries. When twelve years later the guild was gone, 20 brewers formed a "cooperative organization of brewers in Karlsruhe" to represent the common interests of the members. That happened in the year 1863. One of the 20 brewers was Stephan Moninger.
In the next following decades one will have to look upon the development of the breweries under the view point of the more and more strong growing industrialization. Now longer depending on the weather, breweries become an industry.
The Industrialization Of The Breweries In Karlsruhe
In the same decades one can also see the already mentioned change of structure in the industry as well as in the brewery business. From human controlled power to coal, water, steam, gas, and electricity was used in more and more complicated machines which also revolutionized the development of the breweries. In the year 1872 there were 22 breweries in Karlsruhe, a city with ten thousands of citizens. In 1907 there were only 12 left. But the production rose to about five times as much - in 1872 the 22 breweries produced about 128 000 hectoliter and the 12 breweries in 1907 produced almost 700 000 hectoliter.
Living Tradition
Not only books have a history - breweries do too. On the following pages you will be able to read the history of 100 years of Moninger which will show the development of the brewery enclosed in the history of the city. And if the company, like in our case, was so very much connected with the people and the area in which they lived, worked, ate and drank - then we will remember this history with dignity.
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But not only were there changes in the production part of the business, also the transportation had major changes in this time. Until then the beer was brought to each landlord that was close by with horse carriages which was done with 60 horses. Train supplied the ones further away with brewery owned cooling wagons. Then the automobile took over the transportation more and more. A truck for the first time transported the Moninger beer in 1906. But still to this day there are a few horse carriages left which will drive through the streets of the city for a tradition.
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