Hofbräuhaus

Court Brewery

The court brewery in Munich was founded on September 27, 1589 by the Bavarian Duke Wilhelm V the Pious , and initially only brewed heavy dark beer from dark Munich malt . Wilhelm's son and heir, Maximilian I did not like this variety, preferring softer wheat beer ( German Weissbier ). In 1602, the duke forbade all private breweries to make a weissbier, securing a monopoly on his court brewery, which allowed him to produce 1,444 hectoliters of wheat beer in 1605 alone.

In 1607, Maximilian I decided to postpone the production of wheat beer and build a new brewery in Munich - the Hofbräuhaus (" court beer house ") on the Platzl street.

Public Beer

In 1610, Maximilian I, by his edict, allowed Munich innkeepers to buy beer at the Hofbräuhaus and serve it not only to courtiers, but also to ordinary citizens. Since 1781, the composer Mozart visited here. For 200 years, in addition to statesmen, many burghers became addicted to royal beers.

In 1828, by decree of King Ludwig I, a public pub and a pub were opened right at the Hofbräuhaus. On October 1, 1844, the king again demonstrated his concern for the people by lowering the price of beer: from now on, a liter mug of Hofbräu beer ( German Hofbräu ) instead of 6.5 cruisers cost only 5 so that, as Ludwig I said, “the working class and soldiers had the opportunity to afford a healthy and affordable drink. ”

To protect against counterfeiting in 1879, the HB brand (Hofbräu) became a registered trademark ; the brewery director assigned the exclusive right to use it to the Royal Court House Beer House in Munich ( German: Königl. Hofbräuhaus in München ). The goods for which this mark is intended, as the patent certificate states, "are self-brewed beer in barrels and bottles."

Construction of a new building

For 289 years, the brewery and beer hall in one building became crowded, the room could not cope with the influx of visitors, nor with the increased demand for products. Then Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria decided to remove the brewery from the Hofbräuhaus building and build a new building for it, the Hofbräuckeller , on the Inner-Wiener street. On May 22, 1896, the last cooking ended on Platzl Street, and on June 2, a relocation to a new fermentation shop began. Beer was brewed at the Hofbroekeller from August 10, 1896 to 1987 .

In 1896, on behalf of the Royal Building Authority, architect Max Littmann was given the task of rebuilding the building on Platzl into a modern gastronomic establishment. On September 2, 1896, the company of Jacob Heilmann, father-in-law of Littmann, began to demolish the southern structure of the old brewery, on the site of which on February 9, 1897 a new brewery was built in its current form. On the same day, work began on the demolition of the administrative building, instead of which a separate restaurant appeared. The opening of the new complex of buildings of the Hofbräuhaus restaurant took place on September 22, 1897 , and from that date it leads its modern history.

Lenin and the Iskra

During his first emigration, Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov , at that time an active member of the RSDLP , who lived illegally in Munich on Kaiser Street, visited the Hofbräuhaus. During this period, the Iskra newspaper editorial staff illegally worked in the city. Apart from Ulyanov-Lenin, the editorial office included Plekhanov , Martov , Axelrod , Zasulich , Parvus and Potresov . Since April 1901, Krupskaya became the secretary of the editorial office ^[1] , who later wrote in German in her diary: “Besonders gern erinnern wir uns an das Hofbräuhaus, wo das gute Bier alle Klassenunterschiede verwischt” (We especially readily recall Hofbräuhaus, where fine beer erases all class differences) .

Founding of the Nazi Party

On February 24, 1920, at 7:30 a.m. , the first large public meeting of the German Workers' Party ( German Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ; DAP) began in Hofbräuhaus's Main Hall, which was attended by over 2,000 people. At this meeting, which lasted four hours, Adolf Hitler announced the 25 Points Program , which became the official program of the Nazi party, and proposed renaming the organization as the National Socialist German Workers Party .

This date is considered the date of the formation of the NSDAP and for 11 years every year, starting in 1933 , after the advent of the National Socialists in power, was celebrated in Hofbräuhaus ^[2] . On February 24, 1941, at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Nazi party in Hofbräuhaus, Hitler announced a plan for the intensive use of submarines in combat ^[3] .

During and after the war

During the Second World War , during the strategic bombing of aircraft of the US Army and the British Air Force, the building was badly damaged. The first air attack on Munich took place on April 25, 1944 ^[4] . After three further bombardments, the building was finally destroyed, with the exception of a small part of the ground floor and cellars, thanks to which several hundred valuable old beer mugs were preserved.

The building was completely restored after the destruction of World War II only in 1958 ^[5] .

In 1980, Hofbräuhaus was led by the family of Michael and Gerda Sperger. On April 29, 2004, the board was officially handed over to their sons Wolfgang and Michael Sperger.

In 1935, a song was composed: “In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus: Eins, zwei, g'suffa!” (“Hofbräuhaus stands in Munich: One, two, drink!”) . The music was written by composer Vig Gabriel, and the words to this music were composed by his friend K.Z. Richter. His other friend, V. Gebauer, recorded this song in his studio and provided notes to the Bavarian Brass Band. The song was first publicly heard in 1936 in the Palatinate , at the sausage and meat market. Since then, the song has been a huge success and has become the Hofbräuhaus anthem ^[5] .

The total number of seats in the restaurant is about 4,000. There are several rooms and rooms in the Hofbräuhaus:

• Schwemme Hall ( German Schwemme , cellar) - the main hall on the ground floor, in the center of which there is a podium for the Hofbräuhaus orchestra, which plays Bavarian music for guests every day. 120 tables in this room are reserved for regulars ( German: Stammtisch ). In the same hall safes for personal beer mugs of regular visitors are established;
• Broystuberl’s office ( German Bräustüberl , beer room) - a cozy retro-style room with antique handmade furniture on the second floor. It is decorated with a portrait of Mozart , one of the most famous visitors to the Hofbräuhaus, made by the famous Munich artist Rezeller;
• the main hall ( German: Festsaal ) is the largest hall on the third floor with an oval ceiling decorated with pink and blue frescoes of the Bavarian emblems and flags of the districts. There is also a stage for an orchestra. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, dance evenings are held here for the elderly Munich. On the upper tier of the hall is the Hofbräuhaus Museum with exhibits on the history of the brewery and restaurant;
• beer garden - under the open sky and under the crowns of old chestnuts, surrounded by a brick wall can accommodate almost 400 people.

The restaurant has a kiosk and an online store where you can buy mugs, souvenirs, clothes and accessories with the signature attributes of “NV” (Hofbroy).

The restaurant offers three varieties of German beer : the oldest Hofbräu Dunkel (Munich dark fermented beer of 5.5% strength), Hofbräu Original helium (Munich bright fermented beer of 5.1% strength), Münchner Weiße ( 5.1% top-fermented wheat beer ) - all produced by the Hofbräu München brewery ( German Hofbräu München ), as well as cocktails made from beer with lemonade. Beer is served both in traditional liter beer mugs ( masses , German. Maß ), and in half-liter mugs and glasses. For starters, Bavarian specialties such as pork roast, pork knuckle and Munich white sausages are served .

• The music for the most famous song about the Munich beer hall “Hofbräuhaus stands in Munich” was composed by a resident of Berlin, Vig Gabriel, sitting in a Berlin cafe.
• On September 8, 1908, the “Lemonade scandal” took place in the Hofbräuhaus: one of the guests ordered lemonade instead of beer. The restaurant manager was forced to serve an unusual client himself, as the waiters categorically refused this.
• The wife of the Soviet leader Nadezhda Krupskaya recalled how he and Ilyich decidively deciphered the sign “NV” (Hofbroy) as “ Narodnaya Volya ” ( terrorist organization of the Narodniks who committed an attempt on the assassination of Emperor Alexander II ).
• A meeting of future leaders of ideologically hostile and warring states - Lenin and Hitler , who visited the Hofbräuhaus in different years at the beginning of the 20th century ^{[6] [7] [8] [9]} could hypothetically happen in this beer house .
• At the request of regular customers, in 1970 a large safe was forged from iron with lockable lockers in which patrons store their personal clay beer mugs . Cells in this safe are inherited .

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  Main entrance

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  Inside the Hofbräuhaus

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  Repository of private circles of regular customers

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  Painting the ceilings of the main hall

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  Hofbräuhaus in a painting by Adolf Hitler

• Burgerbroekeller
• Lowenbroekeller
• Hofbroekeller
• Sternekerbroy

• Official website of the Hofbräuhaus restaurant
• Hofbroy Munich Brewery Official Website
• About Hofbräuhaus - in Russian (Russian)
• Deutsche Welle of Hofbräuhaus (German)
• Traces of Evil: Hofbräuhaus