Before your eyes is the last major brewery still standing in the city, a sprawling brick complex at Ottakringer Platz in the 16th district. Ottakringer opened in 1837 when this was farmland outside the city walls. A miller named Heinrich Plank built it, went bankrupt within 13 years, and sold to two Jewish cousins from Moravia.
Ignaz and Jakob Kuffner transformed it into something bigger than beer. By 1890, production hit 170,000 hectoliters. But what made them unusual was how they treated workers. The Kuffners built company housing. They opened a factory kitchen selling affordable meals when most laborers went hungry. They created what became the first collective agreement in any brewery.
Kaiser Franz Joseph noticed. In 1878, he granted Ignaz a hereditary title for his social contributions to the district.
Production kept climbing under Moritz, Ignaz's son, reaching over 350,000 hectoliters by World War I. Then came 1938. The Nazi regime forced the family to sell for 14 million schillings, far below value, before fleeing to Switzerland. The brewery survived, and locals still call it the 16er after the 16th district.
Sources. Story: https://www.ottakringer.at/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottakringer_Brauerei, https://www.ottakringer.at/en/ Photos: C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
