The traditional Wolters brewery in Braunschweig is closing at the end of the year

The next traditional German brewery is closing its doors forever: beer will only be brewed at Wolters in Braunschweig until the end of the year. This was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the Eckert law firm responsible for the insolvency proceedings. Accordingly, the approximately 90 employees were informed about the closure of the location on Monday afternoon.

In the summer, the brewery, founded in 1627, filed for insolvency under self-administration, citing, among other things, declining sales on the German beer market. In the meantime, Wolters had also been looking for new capital. “However, a corresponding investor process for the production site was unsuccessful,” the insolvency law firm said. The “Braunschweiger Zeitung” previously reported.

The German beer market shrank more sharply last year than ever since reunification, as the Federal Statistical Office reported at the beginning of February. In the summer, the company's goal was to fundamentally restructure its business operations and reposition itself economically. The insolvency proceedings over the brewery were opened on September 1st.

The NGG union criticized the short period of time between the opening of insolvency proceedings and the decision. “From the outside, this process looks less like an orderly restructuring process and more like an emergency stop.”

However, the end of the brewery does not necessarily mean the end of the beer brewed there. “Efforts to preserve the Wolters brand continue,” the law firm says. “Constructive discussions are currently being held with various interested parties”.

Brewery managing director Nils Handke regretted what he saw as an “inevitable” step. “With the closure of the production site in Braunschweig, an era is coming to an end,” he said. However, the Hofbrauhaus is by no means alone in this. In recent years and months, brewery locations in Germany have repeatedly been closed due to the sales crisis on the beer market. Most recently in Herford in North Rhine-Westphalia. At the beginning of the year, the Oettinger brewery location in Braunschweig was also closed.

Braunschweig's mayor Thorsten Kornblum (SPD) called the closure of the Wolters brewery "extremely painful". A letter from the Braunschweig CDU council group said: "The brewery has been part of the city's identity for generations and is an important part of Braunschweig's economic history."

“It is particularly bitter that there were investors who were interested in the Wolters brand, but probably did not want to take over the brewery as a production site because the facilities are outdated and urgently needed to be modernized,” said the parliamentary group leader of the Braunschweig Greens, Leonore Köhler, without giving further details.