The Berlin brewing industry in 1944

Getting numbers for brewing in Germany in WW II isn't an easy task. I only have very incomplete information. Mostly, for the  early war years.

It may well be that there is no accurate information for the final chaotic months of the war. When people had lots of other things to worry about. And brewing statistics weren't much of a priority. If brewing was taking place at all.

That's why I was so happy to find these numbers for brewing in Berlin in 1944.

I'm fairly gobsmacked at the total quantity produced: almost 4 million hl. Though that does include drinks other than beer. And I imagine that most of the beer was so weak as to be barely recognisable as beer.

There are 21 breweries in total. Of which, 11 were in East Berlin. Interesting, that. As West Berlin was double the size of East Berlin. However, the two largest breweries, Kindl Neuköln and Schulthess Kreuzberg, were both in the West.

Several companies operated multiple breweries: Schulthess 6, Engelhardt 3, Kindl 2 and Löwenbrauerei 2. With these spread across the East and West sections of the city. Which made things complicated. In the 1980s, there were beers branded Schultheiss and Kindl in both the East and West. Using exactly the same logos, even though they were completely separate enterprises. 

Key operational data of Berlin breweries 1944
Brewery	Production of beer and beverages in hl	Total employees	Special production/headcount in hl/a	Special production/Total workforce in hl/a	Energy consumption in kg/hl 2)
Berliner Bürgerbräu	201,915	211	1309	914	13.62
Böhmisches Brauhaus-Löwenbrauerei	268,628	354	1226	783	16.25
Bergschloß-Brauerei	104,821	107	1442	957	22.7
Bötzow-Brauerei	113,311	218	776	513	18.15
Engelhardt-Brauerei, Abt. Stralau	161,607	203	1468	817	17.44
Engelhardt-Brauerei, Abt. Pankow	155,730	183	1426	874	20.07
Engelhardt-Brauerei, Abt. Charlottenb.	55,215	78	1222	689	13.25
Groterjan-Brauerei	276,270	420	1083	622	7.45
Hochschul-Brauerei 1)	30,503	57	824	535	21.98
Monopol-Brauerei	97,724	99	1396	1303	18.28
Kindl-Brauerei. Abt, Neukölln	392,522	508	1570	837	20.76
Kindl-Brauerei. Abt, Weißensee	272,657	321	1855	931	22.17
Schloß-Brauerei 2)	150,972	185	1399	851	17.58
Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. Kreuzberg	421,659	511	1310	872	14.42
Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. NO	304,497	524	675	563	18.25
Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. Schönh. Al.	245,648	326	1150	802	11.46
Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. Spandau	233,024	351	938	693	16.88
Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. Nd.-Schw.	220,137	254	1121	899	16.15
Schultheiss-Brauerei, Abt. Stromstr.	193,899	335	830	604	14.08
Willner Brauerei	14,167	41	616	383	26.44
Total	3,914,906	5,286
1) Already bomb damaged
2) In kilograms of hard coal at 6600 heat units/kg
Source:
Die Brau- und Malzindustrie in Deutschland-Ost zwischen 1945 und 1989, VLB, 2016, page 111.