Briess malting plant – Zbrojovka

In the courtyard between Dukelská and Garguláková streets, a distinctive brick tower-like structure can be seen. This multi-storey building combines plastered walls with brick details in a typical industrial style of the late 19th century to the early 20th century. The site also includes an extant chimney. From the end of the 19th century, a malt house founded by Rudolf Briess, a Jewish entrepreneur born in Prostějov in 1869, operated here.

In 1900, the company had Jakob Feiwell entered in the commercial register as a public shareholder and continued to operate under the name Feiwell & Briess, until in 1906, Rudolf Briess left for Olomouc to establish a new malting plant, making the Husovice plant a branch of the Olomouc company. Following the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, the company split up. The Husovice branch became independent, with Rudolf Briess relocating to Brno permanently. In 1931, Rudolf’s son Erich joined the company as a proxy holder. At the end of the 1930s, the Briess family had to deal with the growing Nazi threat. Erich, for one, managed to leave Czechoslovakia for the United States in 1938.

After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Briess malting plant, being a Jewish property, was placed under forced administration, and in 1942 Rudolf Briess was transported to Terezín, where he later met his demise. During the Second World War, the Briess malting plant was attached to Zbrojovka (Czechoslovak Armory) to manufacture weapons for the Wehrmacht. After the Second World War, Erich Briess tried to reclaim the family property in order to resume the malt production. However, his plan failed and the malting plant, together with the rest of the facilities, was nationalized. The Briess family descendants still live in the USA to this day, and just like their Brno ancestors, run a malting business.

After the Second World War, the former malting plant remained as asset of Zbrojovka, subsequently being transferred to Zetor Engine Plant. In the 1980s, a new Zetor engine plant was built nearby, leaving the old malthouse buildings to be gradually abandoned.

In 1999, when the engine plant ceased its production, the former malthouse building was purchased by the hot air balloon company Kubíček, later housing art studios and workshops for a while. As of now, the whole neighborhood awaits a series of changes related to the construction of the outer city ring road together with its accompanying roads. However, as an interesting part of Brno’s industrial heritage, the Briess Maltings building would certainly deserve to be renovated and put to meaningful use.