140 th anniversary of the founding of VLB Berlin

“Three leading gentlemen in the Berlin brewing industry, Friedrich Goldschmidt, Armand Knoblauch and Richard Roesicke, were the ones who, together with Prof. Dr. Max Delbrück, signed the founding protocol of the Versuchsund Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin (VLB) on December 19, 1882, in Goldschmidt’s apartment in the headquarters of Patzenhofer-Brauerei A.-G.”

(oh) The foundation was supported politically at the time, in particular by the Ministerial Director in the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture and member of the German Reichs tag, Privy Councillor Hugo Thiel (a contemporary bust of him now stands in the atrium of the new VLB building). The founding minutes of that time have unfortunately been lost, but this is how it was reported in the publications of the VLB. According to the descriptions, the VLB started its work on January 1, 1883. Initially in the laboratories of its sister institute, the Verein der Spiritusfabrikanten (later VLSF), which had been founded in 1874, in the Landwirtschaftli - ches Institut (Agricultural Institute) on Dorotheenstrasse. On March 11, 1883, the first general meeting was held (for invitation, see illustration). There, Richard Roesicke, General Manager of the Berlin Schultheiss brewery, was elected the first chairman of the association.

The VLB expanded rapidly: by the end of its first founding year, it already had 150 members. Space became scarce, so that in 1884, together with the spirit manufacturers and the Verein der Stärkeinteressenten, it moved into a new laboratory building on the grounds of the Kgl. Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule (Royal Agricultural College) on Invalidenstrasse in Berlin-Mitte. In the same year, the first issue of the “Wochenschrift für Brauerei” was published.

The VLB began planning its own experimental and training brewery. The foundation stone was laid on September 20, 1889, on the present site at Seestrasse 13 in BerlinWedding. It was commissioned in May 1891, after which all the experimental facilities of the Institute of Fermentation moved there.