HISTORY OF THE STEAM BREWERY AND THE WALKING GARDEN

The traditions of Zduńska Wola brewing are much older than the history of the town, which was granted municipal rights in 1825. The mention estate of a brewery in the Zduńska Wola dates back to the end of the 17th century. In the courtyard 1699 ..” the brewery is sewn with sheaves sewn into the old sheathing, the door is on wooden covers, an iron bar. In this brewery there is a brick chimney, a copper boiler, three tubers, a large ladle, one bad, the other a little better, the windows in this room are bad with wood, the stove is bad, the chimney is toppled ”… The described condition of the building and brewing equipment may prove that they have been in use for many years. In the next inventory of the Zduńska Wola estate, this time from 1788, the brewery looked much better: “From the kitchen, go to the brewery, where there are two rooms, with a chamber, brick stoves with staples and new windows, six in the entire building , large from the foundation built up. In the second half, there are two rooms: one for making beer, in which a basin is built into the cauldron, the other is for burning booze with two bricked basins for pots, with a new hinged door. The building is beaten up with shingles… ”. On the other hand, a slightly earlier, dating from 1780, “Register of all movable and immovable things” prepared by Feliks Złotnicki, Stefan’s father – the founder of Zduńska Wola, lists as many as 3 breweries in the family estates. The brewery at the manor house in Zduńska Wola was nothing special. Similar ones existed in the Old Polish era at almost every farm. Beer was a drink consumed every day by all strata of society. It supplemented meals, just like tea and coffee today. The beers produced in such court breweries were not of high quality, and most of them had a strength of 2 or 3%. Stronger beers were produced less often.

The goods of the Złotnicki family, after being put up for auction in 1874, passed into the hands of Leon Walewski, who sold them less than three months after their purchase to Izrael Tykociner, a Kalisz entrepreneur and beer tycoon. Initially, the brewery was not located in the city of Zduńska Wola, but within Jurydyka Zduńskowolska. This jurydyka covered the area between today’s Złotnickiego, Piwna, Dolna and Kościelna Streets. So it was an area located in the very center of Zduńska Wola, which, however, under the foundation act, was not under municipal jurisdiction, but was the exclusive property of Stefan Złotnicki, his heirs or those who acquired it. The people who lived there were not citizens of the city of Zduńska Wola. They became them only in 1899, when Jurydyka was incorporated into the town. Izrael Tykociner, when buying a juridic, probably had to pay attention to the propination brewery existing within it, which at that time constituted a certain investment potential. In 1892, Tykociner invested in a modern steam brewery and in 1898 he sold the entire property to Abram Warszawski.The brewery was already equipped with steam-powered devices. In 1899, it produced 72,000 buckets, ie less than 9,000 hectoliters of beer. In 1899, the brewery and the jurydyka were incorporated into the town area. It happened after many years of efforts on the part of the authorities of Zduńska Wola, which were concerned about the fact that a large area located almost in the town center is economically independent, at the same time blocking many important infrastructure investments and constituting economic competition for the handicraftsmen living in Zduńska Wola.

The real boom in Zduńska Wola brewing began in 1902, when Zenon Anstadt became the owner of the brewery. He was a part of well-known family of industrialists from Łódź. Zenon’s father, Karol Gottlob Anstadt, came to Poland from Saxony in the 1830s. Initially in Turek, and then in Łódź, he ran a textile printing house. However, the crisis in the textile industry of the 1860s forced him to change the direction of his activity and in the years 1866-1867 he built a brewery in Łódź at today’s Pomorskastreet, which today is owned by the company Browary Łódzkie S A After the death of his father in 1874, the company was taken over by his sons: Karol Ludwik, Fryderyk and Zenon. In 1900, Karol Ludwik Anstadt built a brewery in Radogoszcz, and two years later Zenon decided to invest his money, experience and organizational skills in the Zduńska Wola brewery. He did it so effectively that to this day he is considered its true creator, and stove fitters, and not only amateurs of golden liquid topped with white foam, have a lot to owe him. The new owner employed about 35 employees. He supervised the matters of trade and promotion himself, and his younger son, Oskar Anstadt, became the technical manager. In the years 1903-1904, he additionally purchased parts of the land adjacent to the Pichna river and ponds in the present town park, in order to have access to water, so necessary in production processes. He expanded the assortment of beers with new, more expensive than average brands. In 1903, the following beers were on offer: Bavarian, Juniper, Munich, Plzeň and Porter – priced from 1.25 to 3 rubles per bucket, i.e. 12.3 liters. In the same year, Bock beer was launched, and at the Hygienic and Food Exhibition in Łódź, the brewery was awarded a silver medal for Munich beer. From the very beginning, Anstadt also tried to promote its beer on the regional market, at least. He purchased real estate in Sieradz, Warta and Łask in order to set up warehouses for his products there. He also opened such depots in Łódź, Kalisz, Pabianice, Błaszki and Wieluń.

The enterprising Zduńska Wola brewer did not stop at endeavors to increase production and sales markets. He wanted to do more for the city and its inhabitants. He decided to redevelop the area around his brewery and create a public park there, or rather a walking garden, i.e. a place for rest and entertainment. The Helenow park in Łódź, which was established in 1885 in the area around the family brewery of Anstadtów, has become a model. Its founders were the Anstadt brothers: Ludwik, Zenon, Fryderyk and Karol junior. Zenon decided to make a similar park available to the inhabitants of Zduńska Wola. The idea came into force. The park was available for a fee, offered a variety of activities. New trees and shrubs were planted along symmetrically delineated walking paths, including low-growing lilacs that had not been seen before in the city. Between the alleys there were lawns, green poles and flower carpets, and on the pond there were swans and a fountain.

Visitors could swim in the pond or rent a boat moored in the marina and row. In winter, the pond turned into a slide for skaters. The gazebo has appeared on the island. There was also a concert shell. It was possible to visit a small zoo with exotic animals. The garden also had a stable for horses and sleds. This place was eagerly and frequently visited. There were dancing parties, open-air concerts and performances of artists, fire and circus shows, and fireworks. One of the most exciting events was the balloon take-off show, organized on October 21st 1909, which accompanied the concert of the fire brigade band from Sieradz. The balloon was filled with hot air, and its driver was Aleksander Alfredi: “having risen several hundred cubits up, he happily descended three words from the city and then returned to the garden with horses,” Gazeta Kaliska” reported.

Zduńskowolski brewery was the first such large industrial, non-textile facility erected in Zduńska Wola. The huge demand for beer and the profitability of its production allowed the owner to generate considerable income.

Visitors could swim in the pond or rent a boat moored in the marina and row. In winter, the pond turned into a slide for skaters. A gazebo has appeared on the island. There was also a concert shell. It was possible to visit a small zoo with exotic animals. The garden also had a stable for horses and sleds. This place was eagerly and frequently visited. There were dancing games, open-air concerts and performances of artists, fire and circus shows, and fireworks. One of the most exciting events was the balloon take-off show, organized on October 21, 1909, which accompanied the concert of the fire brigade band from Sieradz. The balloon was filled with hot air, and its driver was Aleksander Alfredi: “having risen several hundred cubits up, he happily descended three words from the city and then returned to the garden with horses,” Gazeta Kaliska reported.

Zenon Anstadt died on April 15th, 1913 in Berlin. He was buried on April 19th this year at the Evangelical cemetery in Zduńska Wola. After the death of Zenon Anstadt in 1913, his wife Helena and children Karol Gustaw, Oskar and Ella Małgorzata became the heirs of the plant. The entrepreneur left behind not only considerable fortune, but also considerable debts. The difficult financial situation and raw material difficulties during World War I made it extremely difficult to get the brewery out of trouble.
The descendants of Zeno apparently failed to cope with this task and in August 1919 the company was purchased by Józef Unger and Szymon Firstenberg.

The new owners bought them for a total of 550,000 marks. The circumstances of the sale of “Przedsiębiorstwo Browar w Zduńskiej Wola” as well as the amount for which it was bought by Fürstenberg and Unger were the grounds for a lawsuit against the former owner, Helena Joanna Anstadt, accusing the buyers of breaching the terms of the contract and of fraud. The court dismissed these allegations. Apart from the steam brewery, the partners also bought a textile factory of Rudolf Wolmann located nearby. Fürstenberg quite quickly, around 1921, decided to withdraw from the business and sold his shares on January 22nd, 1921 to the couple Chana and Lejbusi Krakowski. In the same year, the next partner was Chan Gołębiowski and Berek Lejb Magierkiewicz, who moved with his family to the house at 11 Belwederska Street in March 1922.

At the end, the share split was as follows: Józef Unger owned 40% of the shares, and the marriages of the Krakow and Magierkiewicz families 30% each. The value of the shares acquired by the new co-owners was 1,900,000.00 MKpol. (Polish marks), of which 1,147,887.00 were to be transferred immediately to satisfy the claims of creditors inherited from the Anstadt. The majority shareholder Józef Unger undertook to cover the sum of 9,209,327.42 Mkp, being a debt to the State Treasury and Genendla Rozenblumowa, from his own funds. The new buyers undertook to abide by the agreements concluded by Fürstenberg with the gardeners Iwański and Tosik, and the brewer Leopold Adamiec.

After Józef Unger’s death, his shares in the Brewery went to his wife Gustawa-Gitla Ungerowa Gutmann and their children.

The hard times and the fact that both Krakowski and Magierkiewicz ran textile companies in Łódź made both the Brewery and the factory at Piwna Street a subject of security measures several times, including for the well-known company on the Lodz market “Compagnie General des Industries Textiles Societe Anonyme des Etablissement Allart, Rousseau et C-ie” and also as a court deposit in the amount of PLN 160,000.00 for the arrested Berka-Lajbuś, Icek-Fajbuś and Alter Magierkiewicz.

During this period, a public elementary school was established in one of the brewery’s facilities, taking into account the religious needs of Jewish children, the so-called “School in the park”.

During World War II, the brewery was taken over by the Third Reich and handed over to the German trustee Buholtz.

After the end of the II World War, the brewery, which produced 6,000 hectoliters of beer and employed 15 people, was illegally nationalized, as it was considered a former German facility. Józef Urbański was appointed the manager and the company was under the management of the State Association of Brewers and Malts. At that time, it had a set of machines for the production of beer and lemonade in an average condition. The production capacity was calculated at 18,000 hl of beer and 1,000 hl of lemonade. Complex fermentation took place in 15 oak vats with a total capacity of 477.55 hl, which allowed for the production of 14 543.76 hl of beer per year. The lounging cellars consisted of 26 oak barrels with a total capacity of 723.64 hl. On July 27th, 1946, a specially appointed commission estimated that the annual production capacity of the brewery was only 3,334.64 hl. Therefore, the decision to nationalize the enterprise was appealed by representatives of the pre-war owners: Gitla vel Gustawa Unger, Frania Krakowska and Icyk Lejbuś Magierkiewicz, the only ones who survived the tragedy of the Holocaust. The expropriated argued that only the breweries with a production capacity of over 15,000 hl of beer per year were subject to nationalization, hence the brewery should be handed over to them as rightful owners. Moreover, they demanded the return of the machinery which had been taken from the brewery by the State Association of the Brewing and Malting Industry. At least, in 1947, they managed to regain the property, which they sold in the same year to Władysław Blusiewicz, previously co-owner of the brewery in Wyszków. He gave the company the name of Browar Staropolski, which he is wearing today. Four years later, the plant was forcibly taken over by the state, and in 1961 it was fully nationalized and incorporated into the structures of the Zduńskowolski Przedsiębiorstwo Przemysłu Terenowego.

Production still did not exceed 15,000 hectoliters. As a result of subsequent organizational changes, the brewery was handed over in 1971 to Łódzkie Zakład Piwowarsko-Słodownicze.

Despite the investments , only draft beer was produced in Zduńska Wola. At the beginning of the 90s only light full beer was prodused. 45,000 hectoliters of beer were produced, although the possibilities were greater in 1993

The heirs of Władysław Blusiewicz: Teresa Strzelińska née Blusiewicz and Marian Strzeliński applied for the return of the Brewery in 1989. After many years of court battles with the Polish state ,they regain the Brewery in 1996 and immediately restore the name of the Staropolski Brewery. They buy old used bottling machines, which they renovate and start producing beers in both keg-type packaging and returnable bottles.

After the death of Marian Strzeliński, the heirs decided to sell the Brewery. The worst period in the history of the brewery began in 2008. The new owners focused mainly on selling very low-quality beer, mainly in cans, which they sold at a very low price. After 4 years of such a policy, the Brewery went bankrupt, leaving about PLN 25 million behind. debts.

In May 2014, the bankruptcy trustee sold Browar Staropolski to the Słupsk company „Dystrybucja Pomorze”. After refurbishing old machines at the end of 2014, Browar Staropolski started producing beer again. The new owners focused on the production of high-quality beers. They restored a forgotten bottle with a so-called swing stopper. In 2017, they changed the company’s name to Kultowy Browar Staropolski sp.z o.o. The word” Kultowy” was included in the name to distinguish it from its predecessors, while leaving it in the name of Browar Staropolski, as they decided that in the long term it is worth building the future of the brewery on the basis of Old Polish traditions and values. After the first very hard years of fighting to change the very bad reputation they had inherited from their predecessors, just like Z. Anstadt. They started to modernize the brewery. In the years 2019 – 2021 they started a great modernization of the Brewery. With the support of EU funds, the brewery has been equipped with the most modern laboratory in Poland, which includes, among others, a mini-brewery. A new bottling line with a capacity of 12,000 bottles and 12,000 cans per hour was also installed. A new high-bay warehouse was built and the brewery’s buildings were partially renovated. Renovation works will also continue in the coming years.

Brewing traditions in Zduńska Wola

1699 -The first information and a brief description of the brewery at the farm in Zduńska Wola.
1780 – There are 3 breweries in the Zduńska Wola estate of the Złotnicki family.
1788 – Another piece of information with the description of the Złotnicki manor brewery.
1892 – Izrael Tykociner, the then owner of Jurydyka Zduńskowolska, former family property of the Złotnicki family excluded from municipal jurisdiction, established a brewery on its territory.
1898 – I. Tykociner sells Jurydyka and the brewery to Abram Warszawski.
1899 – Jurydyka is incorporated into the town of Zduńska Wola.
1902 – A. Warszawski sells the brewery that already has a steam engine to Zenon Anstadt,
representative of a well-known family of Łódź brewers.
1903 -1904 – Z. Anstadt buys land adjacent to the Pichna river and the pond in the present park
urban. It creates a network of company depots in Sieradz, Warta, Łask, Łódź, Kalisz, Pabianice, Błaszki and Wieluń, and modernises production.
Until 1913 – Further development of the brewery. A public walking garden is being built next to the brewery
April 15, 1913 – Zenon Anstadt dies in Berlin. He is buried four days later at the Evangelical cemetery in Zduńska Wola.
1919 – Józef Unger and Szymon Fürstenberg buy the brewery from the widow of Zenon Anstadt.
1921 – Izrael Lejbuś and Chana Krakowscy become co-owners of the brewery in place of S. Fürstenberg, who together with J. Unger also run a brewery in Łódź. In Zduńska Wola, they also produce non-alcoholic cooling drinks. In the same year, the place of S. Fürstenberg was taken by Izrael Lejbuś and Chana Krakowscy as well as Berek Lejbuś and Chana Magierkiewicz.
1929 – The brewery garden is leased to the magistrate of Zduńska Wola, but its current character is retained.
1939 – After the town is occupied by the German occupiers, the brewery is taken away from the owners and most of their families are killed in the Holocaust. Edgar Buchholz becomes the manager of the brewery by the occupation authorities.
1945 – After the end of the war, the brewery is illegally taken over by the new state authorities as post-German property.
1947 – The heirs of the pre-war owners, after regaining the brewery, sell it to Władysław Blusiewicz, who modernizes the plant and names the Old Polish Brewery.
1951 – The brewery is forcibly taken over by the state.
1961 – The brewery is fully nationalized and incorporated into the structures of Zduńska Wola Przedsiębiorstwo Przemysłu Terenowego.
1971 – The brewery was handed over to the Łódzkie Zakład Piwowarsko-Słodownicze (today’s Browary Łódzkie SA).
1989 – Teresa Strzelińska Blusiewicz and Marian Strzeliński, the heirs of Władysław Blusiewicz, submited an application for the return of the brewery.
1996 – Teresa and Marian Strzeliński regain the Zduńskowolski brewery. They restore the name of the company Browar Staropolski.
2008 – The brewery is sold. It changes its name to Browar Staropolski Jaruga
2009 – The name and form of ownership are changed to Browar Staropolski sp. z o. o. The range of products is extended. Apart from beer, carbonated drinks called „Klik” are produced. Przemysław Bernard Sroczyński was the President of the company’s management board, and Mariusz Jaruga was the Vice-president, and the Director of the brewery was Ireneusz Jaruga.
From 2013-