HISTORY

Vision

Erhardt and Sophia’s Luther dream becomes a reality, once again

The Luther brewery, which became the Grivita brewery at the end of the 1940s, was founded by Erhardt Luther at a time when the modern Romanian economy was just taking shape, after a period of first Ottoman and then Russian domination: in 1867, one year after the adoption of the 1866 Constitution, imposed by King Carol I, the national monetary system was created, based on the new leu, with 100 subdivisions, bani.

It was in this context that Erhardt Luther founded the brewery that was to bear his name, a business that was taken over and run with an iron fist by his wife Sophia after his death. Who was Erhardt Luther, how did Sophia Luther, the wife of the founder of the second brewery in Bucharest, continue the family business, and what happened to the brewery during the 43 years it was owned by the Czell brothers and then later, during the 41 years of the communist regime?

The Luther brewery was not Erhardt Luther’s first business in the field. He became a brew master at the Zipser brewery, and in 1867 he set up a brewery with a partner, probably Czech, Ciopech, but the venture was unsuccessful.

Luther Brewery, a family business

Luther later went to Oltenita, where he opened another brewery, which this time was somewhat successful and specialized the young German, who returned to Bucharest with some capital and married Sophia Kaltmeyer, also of German origin, from the Protestant community. 
With her support, he opened the Luther (Grivita) factory at the barrier of the Land Bridge, on Rosset’s Field, about across the street from what was to become the North Railway Station, which was then called Targoviste’s Railway Station. 

However, according to Dan Rosca, author of the book „Amintirile Bucureștilor, Povestea Berii”, the year of construction of the factory may not be 1869, although it is engraved on the facade of the building. Dan Roșca writes in the aforementioned book: „Although some authors believe that this factory next to the train station was built in 1869 (…), it does not appear in this part of the city, neither on the map Papazoglu – Bucuresci, Capital of Romania dedicated to His Majesty the Emperor of All Russia, Alexander Nicolaevitz in 1971,

nor on the Plan du Bucharest, by Ulysse de Marsillac (1872), nor even on the Plan of the Commission of the Green Coloured Commission of the Capital of Bucharest, dedicated by Lieutenant-Colonel Papazoglu in 1875 to General Ioan Florescu, while on the same maps the Oppler Factory is clearly represented”. 

Therefore, it can be assumed that 1869 was the year of the construction of the factory in Oltenița, however Nicolae I Angelescu hints in his work „Chamber of Commerce and Industry Bucharest – Catalogue of the Paintings Gallery” that the small factory founded by Erhardt-Luther together with Ciopech (Czizek) continued to operate in Bucharest, but was in fact located at Zahana, one of the old slaughterhouses of the capital, probably in Colentina.

The association between Luther and Ciopech or Czizek most probably ended in 1875, the year in which Romania signed the Commercial and Navigation Convention with Austro-Hungary, and the German started the construction of the Luther brewery.

Luther, THE BEER OF KINGS

Certainly, the factory was already in operation in 1879, probably using some of the equipment of the one in Oltenita, and had its own fiscal agent, named C. Lerescu, paid 100 lei monthly at that time.

At the same time, the agent of the Oppler factory, one of Erhardt Luther’s main competitors, was being paid 150 lei a month, which could indicate that the Oppler factory was larger.
However, it appears that friction between Luther and Oppler, which felt its monopoly threatened, was likely. Luther was instead supported by Petrache Spadonidi, the administrator of the Afumati estate of the Dumba boyars, who supplied him with barley on credit. 
Erhardt Luther and his wife Sophia knew how to promote their business: the Luther factory took part in the May 1881 Coronation celebrations with a float that was, according to Dan Rosca, „beautifully decorated”. A month later, King Charles I received the industrialist at the palace and presented him with an oak barrel commemorating the May 11 procession. In 1883, the Luther brewery became a supplier to the Royal House. 

In April 1881, the Luther Elisee – a restaurant and a large summer garden, was inaugurated next to the brewery. Although it fell short of the success of Oppler’s Colosseum – the establishment of its main competitor, the Luther’s Elise had a considerable clientele, consisting mainly of employees of the North Station and those of workshops and factories in the North Railway Station area, also owned by ethnic Germans, such as the Belvedere Tobacco Factory, the Bucher & Durrer Parquet Factory, Emil Lessel’s Furniture Factory, and the August Zwoelfer Mirror Factory. By 1895, the summer garden, winter salon and factory had electrical lightning, with Luther’s generator putting out 40 kW and powering 500 incandescent lamps, according to Dan Rosca’s paper.

Going back to the 1880s, in 1884 a law was passed requiring companies to register with the court and keep their books of accounts, so Luther was entered in the register of sole proprietorships „with the brewery and shop located in Bucharest, Basarab Road No. 24, no branch, as well as no attorney, married without dowry.” 

The factory was not completed until 1885, and by 1887 Luther beer was already being sold in other parts of the country. By 1888 Erhardt Luther opened a small hotel in Sinaia, which also served beer produced in Bucharest. The same year in July, the beer also appeared in the offer of a restaurant opened by A. Farcas in Campulung, which sold Luther beer for 25 bani a liter and 45 bani a pint. In the following years, the beer produced in the brewery at Basarab Road No. 24 appeared in Calarasi, Busteni, Iasi and Galati and gradually filled the Bucharest beer halls. 

In 1888, the factory obtained tax exemption from the State and the Municipality, the right to import the necessary machinery without customs duties and the right to use the services of the CFR and the Romanian Post Office at minimal rates, all for 15 years.
These advantages allowed Erhardt Luther to begin the expansion and modernization of the factory in the spring of 1890, works which included the construction start for the art-deco styled “Maltarie” that still exists today, with defining architectural elements that will be restored as part of the Fosta Fabrică project.

Erhardt Luther did not live to see these works completed, as he died on June 15, 1890.

The expansion of the ’80s of the 19th century

Sophie E. Luther, the iron lady of the Romanian beer industry

At the time of Erhardt Luther’s death, the factory he founded had 100 employees. His wife, Sophia Luther, did not hesitate to take over the factory and run it efficiently, and the success of the factory continued. The Villager’s Gazette wrote in 1893: „The excellent beer produced at Mrs. Sophia Luther’s large brewery had to compete abroad with the most renowned products from everywhere, winning the gold medal at these exhibitions, so this beer could take its rightful place. Only after foreigners opened our eyes did we become convinced…”

A year later, in 1894, Sophia Luther remarried. The groom, Dumitru Marinescu Bragadiru, another future great brewer, was building what was to become the Bragadiru Brewery.

In November 1899 the Official Gazette noted the creation of the joint-stock company Industria Berii (Beer Industry), which included the two factories, Luther and Bragadiru, with their line of business defined as „the production and trade of beer, as well as its distribution among the working classes and the rural population”. 

The shareholders were Sophia Luther, Dumitru Marinescu Bragadiru, Banca de Scont of Bucharest, Banca Populara in Pitesti, the engineer N. Zanne, the merchant Eraclie Duro and George Boamba. 

Around 1900, the Luther brewery produced the Pilsner, Dortmund and Bavarian varieties and had a capacity of four million litres per year, according to the work „Amintirile Bucurestilor. Povestea Berii” by Dan Rosca. The beers produced by Luther were delivered in 25 or 50-liter barrels or in boxes of 50 bottles. In Bucharest, distribution was ensured by a network of freight wagons, while in the province, the beer was transported by „high-speed trains”.

Luther beer was also exported, as only four brewers out of the 19 existing in Romania at that time were foreign markets sellers. According to Dan Rosca, a major Bucharest newspaper wrote in 1898: „A success of our national industry. An officer in the English army made a proposal to the Luther brewery, ordering an annual supply of 100,000 hectolitres of beer for the troops in the Indies. The brewery owner however, Mrs. Sophia Luther

Bragadiru, is only willing to commit herself to an annual supply of 50,000 hectolitres for the time being (…). The negotiations are to follow.”

The success of Luther beer was not only reflected in sales, but also in important awards: in 1900, at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, Luther beer was awarded the gold medal. By 1902, the Luther brewery, which produced four million litres of beer a year, was the largest brewer in the country.

In 1904, Sophia Luther divorced D. Marinescu Bragadiru, after ten years of marriage, and announced her divorce in a large-circulation gazette: „ANNOUNCEMENT – I have the honour to bring to general knowledge that, following the dissolution of the marriage between myself and Mr. D. Marinescu Bragadiru, I have changed the name of my brewery to SOPHIE E. LUTHER, that is to say, the OLD COMPANY; having thus taken my commercial freedom, I am continuing the brewing and trading of beer, which I have been doing for over 30 years”. 
Only a year later, in 1905, Sophia Luther died and in 1906 her heirs sold the brewery to other Germans, the brothers Eugen and Rudolf Czell from Brasov, who had several businesses in Transylvania, including four breweries, four spirits factories and several distilleries. It was the beginning of the last stage of the Luther brewery’s period of glory, which lasted until 1948, when, like all private enterprises, was nationalized.

It is worth mentioning that Sophia, while she was still alive and the issue of selling was already being considered, even refused to sell the pink hue brick facades buildings, where the factory workers lived. She was called ‘Mother Sophia’ because she took great care of the employees and donated money to girls’ schools. Sophia is also credited with having a great flair for promoting the business, being the one who introduced the payment of percentages of beer sales to restaurants and breweries that sold Luther labels, the introduction of the beer mug in Romania, participation in fairs and exhibitions in Romania and abroad, minting anniversary coins, medals, publishing series of illustrations, posters and storefront signs.

Sophia asks to be buried next to her first husband, Edhardt, in the Lutheran cemetery. During her lifetime, she generated numerous gags, celebrity gossip and was even mentioned in epigrams written by Caragiale.

Luther Brewery in the Czell brothers’ time

The Czell brothers, who also had other businesses in Bucharest (a marmalade factory and a coal and firewood warehouse), introduced other types of beer to the market between 1911 and 1912: the „sweet black Bock” beer and the special beer.

In 1920, the Luther Factory was already a joint-stock company, with Marmorosch-Blank Bank as one of the main shareholders. By the mid-1920s, the business was thriving: it had a share capital of 28 million lei and shareholder dividends amounted to 12% of the nominal value of the stock.

The Luther brewery, run directly by brothers Eugen and Rudolf Czell, produced beer in the mid-1930s for the Wagons Lit restaurants that equipped luxury trains. In 1935, the Luther brewery’s beer was still distributed by wagons, although trucks were available. However, they were easier to maintain, and the factory had 72 horses. The distribution service involved delivery „at the factory’s cost, in the original 650 gr. and 300 gr. filled directly from the factory’s tanks”. According to Dan Rosca’s work, the same service also delivered to consumers ‘clean and natural table and dessert wines’ from the factory’s large cellars. The wines could also be bought directly from the shop at 46 Basarab Road.

We find evidence that the brothers had at one time paid the employees of the factory with tokens instead of cash money – that looked like coins, inscribed „Doi Capitani” (Two Captains), with which they could buy food and anything else within the factory premises at discretionary prices (one such coin is in the possession of Fosta Fabrica).

The Luther Brewery was part of a group of companies, and in 1942, when the world was shaken to its foundations by World War II, Dr. Rudolf Czell became the main shareholder in the other enterprises of the group: the Transaction and the First Mechanical Barrel Factory. During said war, is important to mention that the bombing raids in April and May 1944 on the North Station and the marshalling yard also affected the Luther Factory (according to some writings a total of 17 bombs).

From Luther to Grivita to Gambrinus

The end of the war should have meant great joy for the Romanians, but it brought the communist regime to Romania instead, while workers were incited against the owners of the businesses they worked for. Private property was brutally abolished, with businesses being confiscated by the new authorities and transferred to state ownership.

Here is what the Scanteia newspaper wrote on 4th of October 1944, according to the work „Aminitirile Bucurestilor. Povestea Berii”: „The general assembly of all the committees and delegates of the food industry in Bucharest (…) notes that, although the change of 23 August, with the expulsion of the traitorous Antonescu government and the Hitlerite hordes and the introduction of the 1923 Constitution, gives the right to organize, there are still a number of Legionary bosses and axe-tails, still in Hitler’s service today, who prevent the workers from organizing in a union, by threats and abusive dismissals, such as, for example, the following. (…) the Luther Factory, the Central Restaurant and others who, in so doing, are sabotaging the very introduction of the democratic regime (…) The Assembly unanimously demands immediate and drastic measures against all these enemies from within”.

Ironically, the Luther factory had a Staff Hostel and Relief House, but many of the workers were already Bolshevized. And the new director of the factory was a certain „comrade” Tarsolea. In May 1948, „in view of the provisions of Law no. 351 for the repression of illicit speculation and economic sabotage”, the Ministry of Industry took over the management of all private alcoholic beverage companies. The Official Gazette of 24 July 1948 announced the nationalization of private enterprises, including the Luther and Friederich Czell & Sons factories in Brasov. These factories came under the management and control of the Central Industrial Center for Spirits and Fermentation Products. A month later, the North Railway Station plant was renamed the Bucharest Brewery and later the Grivita factory.

In September 1948, the Ministry of Agriculture decided that „10 ha of land, as well as the mansion formerly owned by Rudolf Czell (Luther)”, in the Poienarii Burchii commune area, should be transferred to the Prahova Agricultural Service.

Fosta Fabrica,
a dream COME TRUE

The factory was renamed Gambrinus, for unknown reasons, in the mid-1970s. After 1990, the factory founded by Erhardt Luther in the 19th century was sold to foreign investors, operated for a while, then ceased its activity in 2005.

After more than a decade of abandonment, the remains of Fosta Fabrica were bought, namely: more than one hectare of land, part of it free of construction, historical monuments class B Malting Plant (Maltarie), Barley Barn (Orzarie), Luther House and the remaining wall of the Administrative Building.

The design and authorization phase begins for a group of four monuments, plus a new building, restoring multiple functions that existed in the heyday of the factory. Historical studies begin, revealing architectural and economic details and the fact that the Luther Factory was one of the first mixed-use projects in Europe at the time as well as the first metal-structured factory.

The dream of Erhardt Luther and his wife Sophia is thus partially rekindled in modern times, previously continued by the Czell brothers, interrupted by the regime established at the end of the 1940s and which seemed to have been forgotten altogether.