Julius Lenck ( hu, Gyula Lenck, 1845, ? – 14 October 1901,

Sopron Sopron (; german: Ödenburg, ; sl, Šopron) is a city in Hungary on the Austrian border, near Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő. History Ancient times-13th century When the area that is today Western Hungary was a province of the Roman Empire, a ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

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) was a Hungarian-

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brewer, wholesaler and the founder of the Sopron Brewery (''Soproni Sörgyár'').

Life

Lenck was a successful entrepreneur and managed chemical and soap works in

. There was a great

phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs ...

epidemy in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

in the 1890s which destroyed most of the grapefields in the country. So people could not produce enough wine which made an impact on the economy of that region, because Sopron was even then famous for its wine. Lenck looked for other options and started a dialogue with beer producers from

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

. They wanted to import

Czech beer Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech ...

into

because they also recognised the growing demand for beer. Lenck wanted to produce beer in Sopron so he offered his chemical plant for the beer manufacture and established a common company with the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

beer producers. As a result of that in 1895 the ''Első Soproni Serfőzde és Malátagyár Rt.'' (''First Brewery and Maltmanufacture Co.'') was founded. The owners were mainly Lenck and the Czech investors, but ordinary citizens of

could also buy shares in the company above 400 000 Forints. The first beer they produced got the name ''Arany Ászok'' which exists today also. The initiative was despite the nearly

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n market at the beginning really successful. They made traditional beers, like ''Export Márciusi'', ''Polgári'' and ''Udvari'', and brown beers with the name ''Milleniumi''. At the end of the century the production reached 20 000 hectolitres. In 1899 the company opened its own beer garten which had live music and social activities which made it very popular among the citizens of Sopron.

Personal life

He was a member of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church. He had one daughter, Elsa and two sons, Oskar and Richard.

References

Sources

* 1961. XV. 1–4 – Soproni Szemle (local historical journal; in Hungarian)

Notices

People from Sopron People from Austria-Hungary Hungarian investors Hungarian industrialists Hungarian chief executives Hungarian people of German descent 19th-century Hungarian businesspeople 1845 births 1901 deaths Hungarian Lutherans 19th-century Lutherans {{Hungary-bio-stub