The s were a time of intense activity for Paulaner. The latter had taken the step to brew lighter beers, such as pilseners, a bold move in Bavaria where heavier beers were traditional, and northern German pilseners were looked down on. The merger gave Paulaner two brewing facilities in Munich. Between and , Paulaner acquired five other breweries and brewing related firms. However, by the end of the war, the Allied bombing raids on Germany had destroyed more than 70 percent of Paulaner's production facilities.
In the first years after the war, Paulaner's annual beer production dropped to , hectoliters 2. Paulaner concentrated on rebuilding its brewery in Munich. Reconstruction lasted from until about By then, the company's annual beer production had climbed to over , hl It topped one million hl The s were a period of consolidation for the Bavarian brewing industry as a whole. Paulaner, however, expanded, acquiring various smaller breweries throughout the region.
In , Paulaner was itself acquired when Josef Schorghuber purchased more than 96 percent of the company's stock for DM million. Just months before, Schorghuber, an extremely successful airline, construction, and real estate tycoon and one of the most remarkable entrepreneurs in German history, had spent DM 80 million for another major Bavarian brewery, the Hacker-Pschorr brewery.
The two acquisitions gave Schorghuber control of more than half of the total beer production in Munich. In the s Schorghuber committed Paulaner to transforming itself from a regional beer, the bulk of whose sales were concentrated in Bavaria, to a brand with a strong market presence throughout Germany.
The events that contributed to this decision were the unexpected opening of the borders with the German Democratic Republic GDR in late , the monetary union of the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR in July , and the unification of Germany in October Suddenly opportunities were abounding: a huge market of new German consumers was open to West German companies, while the privatization of the East German economy made it possible to gain a foothold in eastern Germany by acquiring breweries that had previously been state-owned.
Paulaner entered the East German market aggressively. In it sold , hl 4. The company struck a short-lived operating agreement with Sachsenbrau, a brewery in Leipzig. Subsequently it founded a brand new company in the east, Leipzig Brau, which became part of the Paulaner group of breweries; during the same period Paulaner also opened 11 distribution points in eastern Germany.
The company later admitted that its jump into eastern Germany had been taken without enough careful planning. As a result, the company reported losses of DM 14 million in Losses would continue to plague Paulaner until Making matters worse, Paulaner sales in eastern German sales dropped significantly in and as the first blush of unification faded and harsher economic realities set in for the residents of the new German states.
Paulaner's acquisition and subsequent modernization of a brewery in the city of Dessau also contributed to the company's losses. It sank another DM 13 million in it in , and DM 15 million in , with the plan of developing the brand as a successful regional beer in the state of Sachsen-Anhalt.
Despite the introduction of Dessator, Germany's first Starkbier in a can, Brauhaus Dessau was unable to perform as hoped. In the Dessau brewery was closed down for good. In the early s, Paulaner took steps to make its production and products more environmentally friendly. The changes were a response to the enormous amounts of water being used by Munich breweries in the production of beer; in approximately three million cubic meters of water were used, nearly half of which was accounted for by Paulaner.
The company invested DM 50 million, introducing state-of-the-art production technologies which reduced water consumption to six liters of water used for every liter of beer brewed.
At the same time Paulaner stopped selling its ounce bottles of beer in traditional six packs wrapped in cardboard packaging. Instead, it sold them in returnable plastic packs, which the company hoped would encourage consumers to return the bottles for a deposit.
Schorghuber completely reorganized its brewing interests in May The other company, Paulaner-Salvator-Beteiligungs PSB , was a holding company which took care of the old company's properties and domestic shareholdings.
The purpose of the reorganization was to bring greater efficiency to company operations and to make them more easily manageable.
The reorganization affected the company's stock. PSB continued to be publicly traded on the Munich stock exchange, while Paulaner Brauerei became that company's fully-owned subsidiary. The announcement of the reorganization had an immediate impact on the price of the company's stock: on consecutive days it jumped first DM 70, then DM in value.
In May year old Josef Schorghuber died of a stroke. Paulaner bottles five varieties of weissbier, six hellbiers or light lagers, an Oktoberfest available July—October , and a pilsner brewed exclusively with Hallertau hops.
Paulaner produces a portfolio of more than 25 beers, but the Paulaner Salvator doppelbock still takes a special place of honor in that portfolio, especially during an annual 2-week-long Lenten celebration in the hallowed halls of the Paulaner brewery beer hall—built in and completely renovated after a fire—at Hochstrasse in the Nockherberg district of Munich.
In Paulaner sold more than 1. Guided tours of the Munich brewery are offered year round. Bayerischen Brauerbund. Paulaner Service Portal. Horst Dornbusch and Ben Keene. More information about Paulaner Brewery can be found at www.
Since , Paulaner has represented the finest brewing tradition for top quality crafted beer specialties in Germany and world-wide.
Founded and still being brewed in Munich, Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr are two of the six brands allowed to be served at the world-famous Oktoberfest.
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