Joseph Schlitz (May 15, 1831 – May 7, 1875) was a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

entrepreneur who made his fortune in the brewing industry.

Early life

Joseph Schlitz was born on May 15, 1831 in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

Hesse-Darmstadt The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse betwee ...

. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1850.

Career

In 1856 he assumed management of the Krug Brewery in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

. In 1858 when he married Krug's widow, he changed the name of the company to the

Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company The Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and once the largest producer of beer in the United States. Its namesake beer, Schlitz (), was known as "The beer that made Milwaukee famous" and was adve ...

. He became more successful after the

Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...

of 1871. Many of Chicago's breweries that had burned never reopened. Schlitz established a distribution point there and acquired a large part of the Chicago market.

Death

Schlitz perished with 340 others in the wreck of the SS ''Schiller'' in thick fog off the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...

on May 7, 1875. The islands lie 26 miles west of Cornwall,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Schlitz was returning via New York and Hamburg, visiting Germany. His body was never recovered. He was 43 years old. There is a

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

Forest Home Cemetery Forest Home Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in the Lincoln Village neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is the final resting place of many of the city's famed beer barons, politicians and social elite. Both the cemetery and ...

, Milwaukee.

Personal life

Schlitz was a

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

and was affiliated with Aurora Lodge No. 30.

Literature

Uwe Spiekermann
"Political Revolution, Emigration, and Establishing a Regional Player in Brewing: August Krug and Joseph Schlitz."
In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 2, edited by William J. Hausman and the German Historical Institute. Last modified September 19, 2016.

Gallery

File:Schlitztomb 01.jpg, Cenotaph of Joseph Schlitz in

File:Schlitztomb 02.jpg, Memorial on the cenotaph of Joseph Schlitz File:Joseph Schlitz.jpg, Cenotaph in Forest Home Cemetery

References

External links

* 1831 births 1875 deaths American drink industry businesspeople German emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from Milwaukee Deaths due to shipwreck at sea American brewers 19th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1830s-stub