Brauerei Schwechat

Where Vienna Lager was invented, and it is still brewing. Franz Anton Dreher bought the brewery and farmstead at Klein-Schwechat in 1796 — the site had been making beer since 1632 — and when he died in 1820 the business passed to his son. Anton Dreher took control in 1836, and in 1841 introduced Schwechater Lagerbier: the first pale bottom-fermented lager on the European continent, cold-lagered in ice-filled cellars, first tapped at the Kohlkreunze tavern in Fünfhaus. It became one of the three great nineteenth-century lager styles. In 1913 Schwechat absorbed the St. Marx and Simmering breweries to form United Breweries Schwechat, St. Marx, Simmering — which is where a common confusion starts, because St. Marx is often given credit for a beer created seventy-two years before it joined. The brewery is now part of Brau Union Österreich, Heineken-owned since 2003, and makes around 1.2 million hectolitres a year. It lost its independence. It did not close.

1. 1632
   Brewing on the site

   The Klein-Schwechat brewery is in operation.

2. 1796
   Franz Anton Dreher buys it

   Brewery and farmstead.

3. 1836
   Anton Dreher takes control

   Sixteen years after his father's death.

4. 1841
   Vienna Lager

   Schwechater Lagerbier — the first pale bottom-fermented lager on the European continent, first tapped at the Kohlkreunze tavern in Fünfhaus.

5. 1913
   Absorbs St. Marx and Simmering

   Forms United Breweries Schwechat, St. Marx, Simmering.

6. 2003
   Heineken

   Brau Union Österreich passes to Heineken; the site continues to brew.

1. 1632Founded
2. 1796Franz Anton Dreher buys it

   Brewery and farmstead.

3. 1913Absorbs St. Marx and Simmering

   Forms United Breweries Schwechat, St. Marx, Simmering.

Sources

1. historyConfirmed

   Vienna Lager was created at Klein-Schwechat by Anton Dreher in 1841, not at the St. Marx brewery. St. Marx merged into Schwechat in 1913, seventy-two years later; the two are frequently conflated because they eventually became one company.

   Anton Dreher and the origin of Vienna Lager · Wikipedia and brewing-history sources, cross-checked · 2026

   ReferenceMedium reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-20Reviewed 2026-08-20
2. statusConfirmed

   Actively brewing, around 1.2 million hectolitres a year, as part of Brau Union Österreich under Heineken ownership since 2003. Recorded explicitly because AI-generated research described the brewery as closed — it lost independence, which is a different thing.

   Brauerei Schwechat, Brau Union Österreich — current operations · Brau Union Österreich and Austrian trade press · 2025

   BreweryHigh reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-20Reviewed 2026-08-20

Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.