Spaten Brewery history
- 1397: A brewer named Hans Welser of the Welser Prew at Neuhausergasse 4 is recorded in the Munich tax records. Several ownership changes of the brewery occurred over the following 125 years.
- 1522: The Welser brewery is bought by the Starnberger family.
- 1622: The brewery is acquired by the Spatt family, who begin to produce a brew by the name Oberspathbräu, eventually changing the name to Spaten, which refers to the spade.
- 1704: The Sießmayr family takes over the brewery while retaining the Spaten brand name.
- 1807: The Königliche Hofbräumeister, the brewmaster for the royal court, Gabriel Sedlmayr acquires the Spaten brewery, which at the time was the smallest brewery in Munich.
- 1817: Spaten purchases the Filserbräukeller in Bayerstrasse, later to became known as the Spaten Keller.
- 1839: Following the death of Gabriel Sedlmayr, his sons Gabriel and Joseph take over the brewery business.
- 1842: Joseph Sedlmayr withdraws his partnership from Spaten Brauerei and buys the Leistbrauerei.
- 1851: Spaten purchases the current property location in Marsstrasse which includes the Silberbauer Keller. Many more acquisitions followed.
- 1854: The move of the entire brewery to Marsstrasse is completed.
- 1861: Joseph Sedlmayr buys the shares of August Deiglmayr, with whom he ran the Franziskaner Brauerei (Franziskaner Leistbräu) since 1858.
- 1867: Spaten Brauerei becomes the largest brewery in Munich and maintains its top position until 1890s. Spaten Brauerei receives a golden medal for their German beer at the World Exposition in Paris.
- 1874: Johann, Carl and Anton Sedlmayr takes the brewery over from their father Gabriel Sedlmayr.
- 1884: The artist Otto Hubb designs the Spaten logo with the familiar spade which symbolise a malt shovel and the initials GS in honor of the elder Gabriel Sedlmayr. A similar version of this logo is still in use today.
- 1891: Spaten Brauerei founded a branch in London selling the “Spaten Munich Lager” brand.
- 1894: Spaten becomes the first Munich brewery to brew lager in Pilsener style, the “Spaten Münchner Hell”, intended for sale in northern Germany.
- 1895: Spaten is the first brewery to introduce the Hell (lager) in Munich. Other Munich breweries follow their example.
- 1909: Spaten begins to export its beer to America on a regular basis.
- 1911: Heinrich and Fritz Sedlmayr, sons of Anton and Carl Sedlmayr, become chairmen of the Spaten Brauerei.
- 1922: Spaten Brauerei and Franziskaner Leistbräu unify into one joint stock company, named Gabriel & Joseph Sedlmayr Spaten-Franziskaner-Leistbräu AG. The same year, a cooperation agreement (interessengemeinschaft) is signed with Löwenbrauerei.
- 1924: The still today used slogan “Lass Dir raten, trinke Spaten” was coined, meaning “Let yourself be advised, drink Spaten”.
- 1926: The Spatenbräu Heilbier was introduced to the market, which from 1941 was named Vollmalz.
- 1943/45: Spaten Brauerei suffers severe damage in bombing raids by allied World War II forces and export is stopped.
- 1950: The export to Europe and overseas resumes.
- 1964 The first Weißbier by the Spaten Brauerei, the Champagner Weiße, is introduced at the Munich Oktoberfest.
- 1992 Spaten Brauerei exceeds the one million hectolitre mark.
- 1997 Spaten Brauerei and Löwenbräu merge into a joint stock company.
- 2004 Spaten is acquired by Interbrew, the German subsidiary of inBev, a Brazilian-Belgium brewery giant which by volume is the world's leading beer producer.