History of the New Malthouse - from the brewery to the event location

A hundred years ago there was a lot going on between Friedenstraße and Landsberger Allee in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain. In the days when the brewery's production was at its peak, most of Berlin's beer was brewed on the 3000m² Böhmisches Brauhaus Brewery grounds. Nowadays, all that is left of the brewery is the New Malthouse, a perfectly restored example of Berlin's industrial history, where the ground and fifth floors are used as event venues.

This listed historic building of the mechanical-pneumatic Malthouse belonged to the Böhmisches Brauhaus Brewery. It was built in 1898/99 and designed by architect Athur Rohmer. As with the Aktienbrauerei Friedrichshöhe, Rohmer utilised Neo-Romanesque forms on the walls and windows of the building.

By 1868 Armand Knoblauch founded the Böhmische Brauhaus to model the Bohemian ideal with the goal of producing a light and noble malt beer. The upward sloping grounds between Landsberger Allee and Friedenstraße with a height difference of up to 10m enabled the building of three, joined, two- and three-story storage cellars. Also belonging to the Brewery was the Restoration "Elysium" with festive halls and beer garden for around 2000 guests.

The Böhmische Brauhaus experienced unprecedented success: Until 1874 it was able to increase its turnover by 136,000 hectorlitres. With that, the Böhmische Brauhaus became the number one Berliner brewery. In 1883 the first ice machine was constructed by Linde and in 1898, the first Daimler beer car was brought into Berlin. In the following year the construction of the New Malthouse began. In 1908, thanks to an open competition, the product name "Pilsator" was born.

1910 saw the company's transformation into a public limited company and, after WWI, its fusion with the Löwenbrauerei to become the Löwenbrauerei-Böhmisches Brauhaus AG. In 1938 production rose to 420,000 hectorlitres.

By the end of WWII in 1945 the brewery building had been largely destroyed or damaged. The production of beer was not resumed on this site. From 1952 to 1992 the grounds served as Berlin wine cellars and were the largest wine storage depots in the East German State. The buildings of the former Malthouse were, amongst other things, mainly used as a wholesale storage site for shoes, while the old brew house was used as a gymnasium up until 2001. Besides various workrooms and storage facilities, in the early 1970s the grounds also housed a voltage transformation substation.

The history of the Böhmisches Brauhaus was continued on the West side of Berlin some three decades further: Following the expropriation of the brewery in East Berlin, the company was transferred to the Bergschloss-Brauerei AG, which had been acquired in 1926, and was thus moved into West Berlin. In 1978, Schultheiss Brewing Company acquired the Löwenbrauerei-Böhmisches Brewing Company. This then became the Dortmund Union-Schultheiss Brewing Company in 1980.

Following the fall of the wall, the New Malthouse building was restored in 1999 until 2001 and exclusively renovated. Since 2004, the 5th floor and parts of the ground floor have been used as an event venue. The domed halls that were originally used to dry malt are now used to house conventions, congresses, seminars and other events.