Bolesławiec beer enjoyed a good reputation. It was barley beer, one of the light, pale malt beers, and was produced exclusively for the local market.
The Kühnel family brewery was located in Bolesławiec at Gnadenbergestraße 5 (today’s Adama Asnyka Street). Its ten-person crew produced as much as 5,000 litres of beer per week. The brewery prided itself on a tradition dating back to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The brewery’s last owner was Selma Kühnel, who did not remain in the city after Bolesławiec was captured.
The brewery’s two buildings survived the war and were still undamaged in May 1945. They consisted of two brick buildings containing a 4,000-litre brewing kettle, a bottle-washing machine, bottle-filling and capping equipment, and a grain mill (a device for grinding or crushing cereal grains and malt – ed.).
The smaller building of Paul Tielsch’s Brewery and Malt House was located in Bolesławiec at Baderstraße 5 (today’s Zacisze Street). Six people worked there, producing 4,000 litres of beer per week. This brewery also suffered no damage during the hostilities. Its owner still lived there and watched over his property. The facility was equipped with a 2,690-litre brewing kettle, a 30,000-litre tank, a 4,800-litre cooling tank, an electric refrigeration unit, bottling and bottle-washing machines, a steam pasteurizer, and an electric motor.
Information provided to the district governor indicated that the brewery was operational in June 1945, but lacked the raw materials needed to begin beer production. Unfortunately, it was also a tempting target for Red Army soldiers, looters, and the arriving Polish population.
All information about the Bolesławiec breweries disappeared from official documents after 15 September 1945, when their management was transferred to the Department of Food Supply and Trade, established by the young post-war Polish administration.
As surviving intervention reports show, the Polish authorities tried to protect the breweries and prevent the destruction of their property. Unfortunately, the breweries were devastated by the Red Army and looters, as well as by arriving Polish settlers.
This happened when their previous owners were expelled and replaced by people unable to continue the brewing tradition. The lack of supervision not only exposed the businesses to looting but also led to the natural deterioration of idle machinery and abandoned buildings.
Moreover, in view of problems with the population’s basic supplies, especially grain products, which persisted throughout 1945 and 1946, restarting beer production was not an urgent priority for the food-supply authorities.
The Bolesławiec breweries were also not large enough to interest the Lower Silesian authorities in their further use. The order issued by the Provincial Commission for the Nationalization of Enterprises in Wrocław on 31 March 1947, transferring ownership of 37 breweries in the Wrocław Voivodeship to the state, did not mention any of the Bolesławiec breweries.
The text was based on an entry in the 2014 Bolesławiec Yearbook by Adam Baniecki.