where kema from and where gäds hi?
For 100,000 years, the land that will later become Grafing has been frozen under 500 meters of ice. Until 10,000 years ago the temperatures finally rose and the Inn glacier was thawing. What remains are the Inn, the Rosenheim lake basin and the beautiful, hilly moraine landscape around Grafing.
When the descendants of modern humans reach the foothills of the Alps, they penetrate into the Rosenheim basin, which becomes the home of the Bavarians. There they develop their very special Bavarian life and language culture.
When Duke Heinrich II built the Gisling estate for his wife Gisela in 960, he laid an important foundation stone for the development of Grafing. Because when he loses a struggle for domination within the family with his uncle Otto I, Duke of Saxony and King of the East Franconian Empire, the property is withdrawn from him and passed on to the opposing Count, who renames it “Landgut Grafing”. This is how the ducal founding place Grafing and the birthplace of today’s Wildbräus come into being. 1060 – our founding date. The priest Konrad assigns a property in Sulding to the Benedictine Abbey of Ebersberg and receives annual donations in kind from the Gisling / Grafing estate, including a fixed quota of full beer (“cervesia plena”) that was already brewed there at the time.
As early as 1205, the aristocratic Grafing estate received the “Ius Tavernae”, the licensing right as a tavern. An inn has been operating there for 816 years now. Today it is called the “Bräustüberl” of the Wildbräu.
Meanwhile, the struggle for rule continues. Wittelsbachers and Habsburgs went to war against each other for centuries. When the Grafingers victoriously supported their Ludwig IV of Bavaria in the decisive battle near Mühldorf in 1322, they received a special honor, according to legend.
After the battle, Ludwig thanks the Grafinger Fähnlein: “You fought as strong and brave as the bears.” In addition to great gratitude, the people from Grafing will benefit from a generous tax exemption in the following years. And when Duke Ludwig IV fully asserted himself, first becoming king and emperor five years later, the Grafingers proudly incorporated the bear into the city’s coat of arms in 1430.
Hildebrand von Kitscher, the owner of the Grafing estate, had the brewery and the adjoining tavern repaired after a fire in 1536. This is where the proven brewing history begins – so beer has been brewed in Grafing for 485 years.
At the end of the century, more private breweries settled around the market square. Jörg Grandauer’s family from the Leitzach Valley has been there since 1590. Jakob Reiter and Hans Dosch also join. The breweries not only shape the town center and public life – some brewers are real benefactors for the city, even mayors are among them. They promote the places of social life and allow Grafing to flourish.
In 1619, Duke Maximilian I finally had the manorial brewery entered in the brewery register. After all, from now on all breweries are in good shape. Finally, in the 19th century, there were very big changes. In just 100 years, four breweries will be merged step by step into one.
One of the Grafinger breweries, the “Reiterbräu”, was bought in 1857 by an ancestor of today’s Bräus Gregor Schlederer. The manorial brewery, later also called Kasperlbräu, is renamed Wildbräu by the family. In addition, the upright, courageous Grafings bear became the trademark of this first large Grafinger brewery. This makes Wildbräu Grafing, and Grafing is Wildbräu. When Heckerbräu 1901 and Grandauerbräu 1993 were also integrated into the thick, strong line of venison, the experience of 500 years of traditional Grafinger brewing families was combined.
When the First World War came to an end in 1918, Bavaria was in danger of sinking into chaos, and courageous citizens of Grafingen intervened again. In doing so, you support the establishment of the Free State of Bavaria and thus save the young democracy.
In 1953, the brave 700 year old Markt Grafing was elevated to the status of town. Where previously 200 people lived, there are now 12,000. The city of Grafing is booming and growing. And today? Is the young, courageous Gregor Max Schlederer responsible for the fate of the Wildbräu as a direct descendant. Today Gregor Max Schlederer carries the wild brew and the legendary Grafinger brewing tradition from 1536 into the future. It unites the strength and history of many generations of Grafinger brewing families.
It is brewed at home in Grafing near Munich with the local ingredients barley, hops and yeast – according to the purity law of 1516. The water comes as young, fresh and sustainable water from the Grafingen basin. It is enriched with the minerals of the Alps, Africa and Europe – and the stories from the Ice Age.
Even the upright, battle-ready bear shines in full splendor again today. It not only embodies the courage of the city, but also adorns bottles, carriers and advertising space in the Grafinger area, in the greater Munich area and in all the places in the world where people love this wild, traditional Bavarian lifestyle.
The Wildbräu logo shows the bear standing upright with the Maischschait over his shoulder. The bear is borrowed from the coat of arms of the city of Grafing.
The Wildbräu logo pays tribute to two things:
The courage of the Grafingen soldiers who helped the Bavarian ruler to defeat the Austrian ruler in the Battle of Mühldorf in 1322.
The “Maischeschait” over the bear’s shoulder refers to the history of manorial and middle-class brewer families in Grafing.
