Löwenbräu Brewery

History:

Löwenbräu is one of Munich’s oldest breweries with some sources dating it back to 1383. The Löwen brewery was created in the middle ages and definitive proof of its existence can be traced back to 1524. The brewery really didn’t gain its footing until the 19th century. The brewery moved to its present-day site on Nymphenburger Straβe in 1851. In 1872, Löwenbräu was Munich’s first brewery to become a public company. Around the turn of the century, Löwenbräu was Germany’s largest brewery, as well as the leading exporter of beer. Unfortunately, two world wars reaped havoc on the brewery. In 1921, Löwenbräu merged with Uiniosbräu Schülein & Cie and Munich Bürgerbräu. The supervisory board of the new corporation included Wilhelm von Finck and Joseph Schülean, who was Jewish. Schülean’s later tenure as the company’s owner led the Nazis to deride Löwenbräu beer. To add insult to injury, an Allied air raid destroyed the brewery in 1945. After the war, an agreement was made with the Schülean heirs, who had fled to the United States, to ensure the survival of the brewery and beer exports resumed in 1948.

In the 1970’s, the first licensing agreements with the United States and Great Britain were formed and the brewery’s international presence steadily expanded. In 1997, Löwenbrau merged with Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu to create Spaten-Löwenbräu-Gruppe which was then sold to Interbrew in 2003 which soon became InBev in 2004. Today Löwenbrau is part of the world’s largest beer conglomerate: Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Löwenbrau is represented at Oktoberfest by two big tents. At the entrance to Löwenbrau’s festival tent, a mechanical lion lures visitors in with its legendary roar – “Lööööwenbräu”: the Schützenfestzelt tent can be found near the foot of the Bavaria.