Beer in Birnbach
Author: Viktor Gröll & Verena Hanner
More than 300 years ago it was Caspar von Schmid who, as lord of the Hofmark and Bavarian secret council chancellor, prompted Elector Ferdinand Maria to endow the place with special privileges
Would Bad Birnbach have grown into a successful spa resort if Caspar von Schmid had not existed? Well, there must at least be a doubt about that. Besides the trademark law, which can certainly be attributed to his influence, the place should also thank him for creating the closed Hofmark with all its positive effects up to the liberation from the feudal system. Caspar von Schmid ensured a long period of peace on the great political stage and led "his" Birnbach to its first great economic heyday at regional level. He managed this in a special way, because he succeeded in transferring the brewing right, which was actually an entitlement of the dominion in the neighbouring Baumgarten, to Birnbach in 1673. Consequently, large hop gardens were created in Birnbach for the new brewery. The Bad Birnbach local history circle has now succeeded in determining the location of the former hop gardens. One of the sources for locating the hop gardens is a painting from the year 1700 (even if a restorer erroneously gave the year as 1705). The von Schmid family had it made at that time. It shows the Birnbach of those days - with three large hop gardens in the foreground.
The painting, which always hung in the vicarage, was lost during the inflation period around 1923. However, there was a signed version by a certain Eduard Mayer, a man from a very simple background, who left many artistic traces, among other things in the form of sketches, which are still extremely important for research into local history. These pictures were sent to Kaufmann Hölzl and the vicarage and also served as a model for another copy by the then head teacher Pfeiffer, which he made on 24 November 1928, as a note on the side of the picture indicates.
The hop gardens once reached as far as the New Market Square, today the urban link between the historically developed Hofmark and the spa area around the Rottal Terme, as research by local researchers has shown. In 1845 there were even field names such as "Hopfengarten", "Hopfengartenwies" or "Hopfengartenackerl". The New Market Square was inaugurated on 7 May 2016 after a general renovation. A footpath leading to the market square was also named "An den Hopfengärten".