Hofbräuhaus Traunstein

Hofbräuhaus Traunstein is a beer brewery in Traunstein, southeastern Bavaria, Germany.HistoryThe Bavarian duke and sovereign elect, Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, in response to demand for beer, set up a 'Weißes Bräuhaus' (White Brewery), with completion in 1612. Opened initially with a public bar. The Wittelsbach sovereign Maximilian I who had laid claim to the monopoly on wheat beer, used the brewery in order to balance the budget and repay the burden of debt which had been accrued by way of inheritance from his father. However due to the puritanical nature of Maximilian, he enacted laws against opulent guesthouses and against excessive wine and beer consumption despite the financial benefit that was had from the brewery.Between 1705 and 1851 the brewery was a victim of fire, such as 1704 initially when Pandurs pillaged Traunstein, and in 1851 when arsonists razed the town to the ground, also destroying over 100 houses, the Town Hall, the County Court, the Main Salt Office, the Pension Office, the Church, and several towers (apart from the Upper Tower). The brewery was saved by its workers who extinguished the flames with the very beer it produced.In 1799 with the death of sovereign elect Karl-Theodor the brewery was passed to his widow, Archduchess Maria Leopoldine of Austria-Este, in the last electoral leadership. Following the secularisation, the new kingdom of Bavaria accrued many ecclesiastical breweries.