KOPPITZ – MELCHERS:
A History by Peter Blum

1125 Gratiot Avenue,
Detroit Michigan
1890  - 1918

DuBois at the River,
Detroit Michigan
1935  - 1947

Konrad Koppitz was born in Schlesinger, Austria and immigrated to Chicago in 1869 at age 14. The background of his parents, Benjamin and Johanna, has not been recorded. He attended the Wahl-Henius Brewing Institute and found employment at the Schoenhofen and Conrad Seipp breweries in Chicago. In 1884 he moved to Detroit with his wife Emilie and their two year-old son Benjamin Albert. Konrad was employed at the B. Stroh Brewery, where he was a foreman, then brewmaster and later superintendent. It is likely that Stroh was looking for a new brewmaster and that Koppitz was offered the position and brought to Detroit. He certainly was the brewmaster in 1887 when he represented Stroh at the first brewmasters convention. At Stroh’s he met Arthur Melchers, who was the cashier and a relative of Julius Stroh by marriage. Together they founded the Koppitz-Melchers Brewing Company. The other partners were his brothers-in-law Herman Sachse, who had been associated with the National Brewery in Saginaw, and Charles F. Zielke.

John A. Preston, who was secretary & treasurer of the Howard-Northwood Malting Company in Detroit, acquired an interest in Koppitz-Melchers when the American Malting Company bought out that malting firm in 1899. Preston must have been a major investor because he was listed as president in 1904.

The partners seemed to have no difficulty obtaining financing for a 60,000 barrel brewery on a block-long frontage on Gratiot Avenue. The plant’s exterior design only lacked a moat and drawbridge in its effort to imitate a castle. The four story brewhouse combined the Romanesque arches of the past decades with a massive crenellated tower. This housed grain storage and the malt mill. Below was a 180 barrel kettle, and the brewhouse could turn out three brews per day. The main brand was Pale Select Lager; other brands were Silver Brew, Porter, a Malt Tonic, as well as Bock in season.

Members of Detroit’s German brewing fraternity knew each other well and met frequently, and thus it came about that Konrad Koppitz’s daughter Rose Caroline was married to Herman Albert Rosenbusch, the son of Konrad’s successor as Stroh’s brewmaster, Otto Rosenbusch. The marriage of Herman and Rose was to last 50 years. It was to be an even smaller world; the May 1911 wedding was performed by pastor Otto C. Haass, one of whose sons was an attorney named Walter. Later he was a senior law partner in Race, Haass & Allen. A group led by Walter Haass had bought the closed Goebel Brewery as an investment, and he ended up as president of the new Goebel Brewing Company. And whom would Haass select as Goebel’s first brewmaster in 1934 but 65 year-old retired Otto Rosenbusch I

The Koppitz plant did not remain open during prohibition, and the firm was liquidated in 1920, one year after Konrad’s death at age 64. The plant was razed long ago. Two colleagues of the old Koppitz-Melchers, Ben Koppitz and Fred Goettman organized a new corporation in 1935. Ben had entered the family business in 1898 at age 16, and was superintendent when the brewery closed. He then spent the prohibition years in Detroit as president of the Brake Equipment Company. As a young man of 25, Fred was hired by the brewery in 1894 to be cashier. He was soon promoted to secretary, and in 1899 became treasurer. With Ben Koppitz’s brewing background and his respected name, and Fred Goettman’ experience in financial management, and both having a deep interest in reviving Koppitz, raising capital proved relatively easy.

A 2.25 acre property was acquired in 1935 on the Detroit River at the foot of Dubois from the Michigan Central Railroad for the construction of a new 200,000 barrel brewery. Aided by a stock issue, construction was started the same year. Detroit architects Mildner & Eisen designed a modernistic plant with strong vertical lines softened by some art deco touches. The centerpiece was a 110 ft brewhouse of six floors and capable of four brews per day of 300 barrels each. The brewery was furnished with then state-of-the-art equipment, and construction was completed in October 1936.

Gustav Goob, an experienced brewmaster, was placed in charge of brewing. He had started with the Wahl-Henius Institute in Chicago, Konrad’s old brewing alma mater, then gained experience at Thieme & Wagner’s brewery in Lafayette, Indiana and as brewmaster in Walkerville across the Detroit River. His tenure at Koppitz was very short; the reason for his departure could not be learned. In October 1936 John A. W. Hartung, who had laboratory and brewing experience at the Jacob Ruppert Brewery in New York, accepted the position of brewmaster and chemist.

Koppitz “Pale Select”, the brand name before Prohibition, was placed on the market early in 1937. Sales that year were 86,000 barrels and decreased to 70,000 barrels in 1938. The brand was facing strongly established competition and failed to meet the company’s expectation. It was replaced by Koppitz Silver Star, the preprohibition symbol that the advertising agency McCann-Erickson had advised them to keep. Early in 1941 Ben Koppitz could announce that sales in 1940 were 97,500 barrels, a significant improvement over 1939, and that a strong newspaper campaign was planned through the Livingston Porter Hicks advertising agency. Little did Ben Koppitz realize then that L. P. Hicks, chief executive of that agency, would replace him within 18 months.

L. P. Hicks made such a good impression that he was brought in as sales manager. Unlike the conservative Ben Koppitz, Hicks was an enthusiastic promoter who wanted Koppitz beer to be noted and remembered. The onset of the war provided Hicks with opportunities to show his flair for marketing. He heard about a supply of 20,000 large crocks, which were glazed on the inside, and launched the “Little Brown Jug” beer package for home use. The crocks did not require scarce materials, and he found manufacturers for them. A Bavarian brand was also added to the product line.

It was obvious that Koppitz and Hicks were too far apart in temperament to make a good team. In July 1942 Ben Koppitz resigned, no doubt under pressure, and Hicks was elected president. This also terminated the positions of treasurer Auch and secretary Graef. Although Ben Koppitz, Auch and Graef were reelected to the board, Hicks brought in E.A. Houvener from Millenbach Motor sales as treasurer and A.W. Taylor from Packard as secretary to create a Hicks-oriented management. That year John Hartung tragically fell to his death from a plant roof, and was replaced by John S. Merkt. Hartung’s brewmaster colleagues felt that personal and problems were responsible for his death.

A major shakeup occurred in 1943 when dissident stockholders, led by L. P. Hicks, ousted Ben Koppitz. Hicks sued Koppitz for fraud, which was supported on May 2, 1944 by Judge Guy A. Miller. He ruled that Ben Koppitz had received 5,000 shares in 1934 as secret profit for negotiating the brewery site. Judge Miller also determined that his ten year contract set to expire in 1947 had been terminated legally already in 1942. Goettman was not implicated in any questionable dealings and remained with the new management.

The flamboyant Hicks continued to make news and an occasional wave for the brewery. He launched Victory Beer and the dark Black-Out during 1943 and 1944. There were 100 different labels for Victory Beer, featuring combat planes, ships and armament, a fairly blatant effort to “piggy back” on the war effort. A 50-50 blend of Victory and Black-Out beers was also promoted. This was an early attempt to market what is now called an amberz or “red” beer.

With the war over in 1945, a new Koppitz Beer was introduced with a Hick-sian gimmick. Bottles of the new beer were packed in red tubes with a make-believe fuse, a pretend giant firecracker, and delivered to tavern and liquor stores. Although there were announcements that a new beer was coming which was “hotter ‘n a firecracker”, police were inundated with calls about dynamite. Hicks had outdone himself, and sales of Koppitz beer rose 4.5 percent that year to 162,000 barrels, the highest level in the history of the company. But 1946 was another story, as sales fell 10 percent. The era of gimmicks may have been over. The new brand also had a tiny label, which only a minimalist could appreciate. A Black Velvet Porter was tried to no avail. Koppitz was now in eighth and last place among city breweries, and when the opportunity arose in 1947 to sell the plant to Goebel for its Plant #2, Hicks grabbed it and returned full time to his advertising agency. Goebel operated the brewery for 16 years with brewmaster John Merkt until Goebel’s fortunes turned. Stroh bought the failing Goebel Brewing Company in 1964, and both it and the 29-year old Koppitz plants were razed. The brewhouse equipment was sold to Israel; it survives as a bit of Detroit history far from home.

Koppitz-Melchers had a very good name before prohibition, but that did not go very far in the late 1930’s. The brewery hung on until the war years, when staffing and materials were the problem, but not sales. The future for Koppitz was questionable once the war was over, given its second tier position before the war and the management dispute involving Ben Koppitz. The stock-holders were able to sell the plant because it was the only major new brewery in the area.

Memorabilia: Koppitz-Melchers distributed very attractive trays before prohibition, notably a horizontal oval tray showing dwarves cooking brew around a kettle, and a round tray divided into four seasonal scenes. Gnomes or dwarves were often shown in print ads. Attractively etched small glasses ("shells") are in many collections. Point-of-purchase ads for saloons and stores of the 1930’s are infrequently seen and largely uninspired. It was not until the wartime Hicks phase that labels and ads became interesting.

Officers 1890-1899: Arthur C. Melchers, President and Business Manager; Konrad E. Koppitz, Vice-President and Superintendent; B.H. Rothwell, Secretary; F. P. Goettman, Treasurer.

Officers in 1904: J. A. Preston, President; Konrad E. Koppitz, Vice-President; F. P. Goettman, Secretary-Treasurer.

Officers in 1917: Arthur C. Melchers, President; Konrad E. Koppitz, Vice-President and Superintendent; Hermann Sachse, Asst. Superintendent.

Officers in 1937: Ben A. Koppitz, President (to 1942); Fred P. Goettman, Vice-President & General Sales Manager; J. Arthur Hoffman, Secretary-Treasur-er; John A.W. Hartung, Master Brewer & Chemist (1936-1943)

Officers 1942-1947: Livingstone P. Hicks, President, Manager & Purchasing Agent; Fred P. Goettman, Vice-President; Albert W. Taylor, Secretary; E. A. Houvener, Treasurer; John S. Merkt, Master Brewer.

Acknowledgement:  The recollections, photographs and memorabilia of William A. Barber, a descendant of Fred Goettman, were extremely helpful in compiling the Koppitz story. Herman Konrad Rosenbusch provided important detail regarding the family relationship between the Koppitz and Rosenbusch families.

Sources:  1887 Convention of U.S. Brewmasters Association (Koppitz attended, Sachse with National in Saginaw); 1897 Master Brewers Convention Book; 100 Years of Brewing; Brewers Journal, Vol. 23, pp.274 (officers), 534, 1899 (Preston repurchases stock and resumes being secretary); Vol. 28, p. 213, 1904 (investments by Rothwell and Preston, officers); The Book of Detroiters, Albert Nelson Marquis, ed., 1908 (biography); Modern Brewer, May 1936, pp.30-33 (history and new officers); April 1937, pp.37-64 (detailed description of new brewery; Investment Statistics Company, Detroit, March 25, 1938; Modern Brewery Age Blue Books 1941-1947; Brewers Digest, Feb. 1941, p.50 (Hicks appointed, 1940 sales); Modern Brewer, Aug. 1942 p. 57 (new officers); Modern Brewery Age, Aug.1947 p.88 (Hicks returned to agency); collection of William A. Barber (photographs); Rosenbusch family records.