Today is the birthday of Johann ‘John’ Baier (February 23, 1823-June 26, 1866). He was born in Gopfersgrun, Bavaria, Germany and emigrated to the U.S. sometime before 1850, settling in Baltimore, Maryland. There ee established the Johann Baier Brewery (sometimes referred to as the Johann John Baier Brewery) in 1850. He married Anna Maria Hartmann, who was born in Oberfullbach, Bavaria, and when Johan passed away in 1866, she took over the running of the brewery, and it was renamed the Anna Baier Brewery. Three years later, she brought on a partner and it was then called the Anna & Frederick Wunder Brewery. Two more name changes occurred between 1872 and 1885 — Frederick Wunder Brewery and then Mrs. Anna M. Wunder Brewery (after she remarried Frederick Wunder in 1869) — before finally becoming the brewery by which it was famously known in Baltimore for the rest of its existence: National Brewery in 1885.
This brief account is from Baltimore Magazine:
It was around this time that the original iteration of the National Brewing Company was born. It’s said that, in 1850, a Fells Point brewer by the name of Johann Baier leased the northeast corner of Conkling and O’Donnell streets, expanding up to Dillon within the next decade, on the city’s eastern hinterlands then known as Lager Beer Hill. Hand-dug cellars were the foundation of what would eventually become the largest brewery in Baltimore, a few of their brick remnants still at the current building’s base. After Baier’s death, his widow and her second husband took over operations, adding a beer garden, tavern, and stables, with barrels delivered locally by horse-drawn cart.
But by 1885, they went bankrupt, ultimately selling the business to their malt suppliers, who renamed it the National Brewing Company. Within a few years, they expanded east to Eaton Street, then merged with more than two dozen other breweries to create the Maryland Brewing Company, hoping that shared resources would help them create more affordable beer at a higher profit—an early economy of scale. Which is exactly what they did. Until Prohibition kicked the keg in 1919.
And this is from German Marylanders:
The brewery was built in 1872 at the corner of Conkling and O’Donnell Street. They were considered one of the smaller breweries in Baltimore. The brewery was started there by Frederick and Anna Wunder (actually Anna and her first husband, Johann Baier). When they couldn’t keep up any longer, the brewery was purchased in 1885 by Joseph and William Straus. They named it the National Brewing Company. National Bohemian beer was originally brewed in 1885. In the 1888 Baltimore Business Directory, it is stated as owned by J.L. Straus & Bro. proprietors and located at O’Donnell near Third in Canton. It, primarily because of its size, it was forced to shut down during prohibition. Many of the larger breweries remained in business by producing ‘near beer’. After prohibition National returned with their famous mascot, the one eyed Mr. Boh.
