The grounds of the former Reininghaus brewery, covering 50 hectares, represent the largest undeveloped area near the center of Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

’s second largest city. They are southwest of the main train station in the district called Eggenberg, 2 kilometers away from Graz’s well-known clocktower. The area includes fields, ponds and in part landmarked industrial architecture from the former brewery. The historically rare basement vaults cover 1.5 hectares and were made to store beer in spaces up to 8 meters high.

History

In 1669, a brewery was built for the first time next to the largest duty building in Graz in the area of the stone field. In 1855, the Westphalian Johann Peter Reininghaus together with his brother Julius founded the company “Brüder Reininghaus” and built the first steam-run brewery in Styria. Around 1900, the brewery was the fifth largest in Austria. The brewery’s area of business spread out far beyond Austria to Greece, Egypt, East India, Zanzibar and South America.

When the Second World War broke out, the Reininghaus family was forced to emigrate. After their return from exile, they transferred the beer production to Puntigam. In spite of having moved production, the family held onto the mostly fallow fields. Peter Reininghaus Sr.’s death in 1973 signaled the beginning of a period of 25 years in which many projects were conceived, but none were actually completed.

Neighborhood

On the property itself one finds a building housing research-oriented companies, a day-care center specializing in integration and an allotment garden facility. The Fachhochschule Joanneum

FH Joanneum

FH Joanneum is one of the largest Universities of Applied Sciences in Austria. It has about 3,500 students and about 530 employees . The main campus is located in Graz, while there are two other locations in Kapfenberg and Bad Gleichenberg...

 and the flagship operation of the Styrian human technology cluster Roche Diagnostics

Hoffmann-La Roche

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. is a Swiss global health-care company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange....

border on the area.

External links

EU- Support Programme für Graz West: http://www.urban-link.at/

Project website of the current development: http://www.reininghaus017.at