Pivovar Samson a.s., formerly known as Bürgerliches Brauhaus Budweis is a brewery founded by mostly German-speaking burghers of the city ofČeské Budějovice in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Holy Roman Empire in 1795. Its beer was known as Budweiser Bier or Budweiser Bürgerbräu since 1802 and as trademark officially since 1899. In 1894, the official company name was "Die Budweiser Bräuberechtigten - Bürgerliches Bräuhaus-Gegründet 1795 - Budweis".
History
As early as 1875, beer was being exported to the United States. In 1876 Anheuser-Busch started selling beer named Budweiser inspired by the original Budweiser beer from Budějovice. In 1895, when Budweiser Bürgerbräu became official court supplier to the King of Württemberg, the growing Czech population founded local competition as a joint stock company, today called Budějovický Budvar. In the Budweiser trademark dispute, the three companies divided the rights to use the name, with the Europe-based companies giving up the Northern American rights to Budweiser. Shortly before World War I Budějovický Budvar exceeded production of Bürgerliches Brauhaus. During the World War II 237 out of 387 owners were Germans, 150 were Czechs. After the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia only 7° plato beer was allowed. In January 1945 Bürgerliches Brauhaus stopped brewing and in March 1945 the brewery was damaged during US bombing of Budějovice. After the WWII most Germans were expelled and both Budějovice breweries were nationalized in 1948 by the communist government. The German-sounding names of the Bürgerbräu company and its products were renamed "Crystal" or "Samson". Accordingly in 1960 and 1989 the company was renamed "První budějovický pivovar Samson". After the fall of communism, the company owned rights to "Crystal", "Czech Beer Crystal", "Biere Tcheque Crystal" and "Samson", but soon reacquired national naming rights and international Protected Geographical Indication, in 1991 to "Budějovický měšťanský pivovar" and "Budweiser Bürgerbräu", and in 1993 to "Budějovické pivo", "Budweiser Bier", "Biere de Budweis" and "Budweis Beer". Since July 2001, the company was called Budějovický měšťanský pivovar a.s. , which corresponded with the original German name. The company used German naming like "Budweiser Bier" also in Czech and English context, also stating that the hops comes from the "Czech city of Saaz " despite this city also has an old Czech name. Since 2005, due to the legal situation, the brewery offered its beer in the USA as "B.B. Burgerbräu", described as "Budweis City Bier" rather than "Budweiser beer". In 2014 Anheuser-Busch InBev bought the brewery and renamed it to Samson.
