The UERIGE history
Unfortunately, it cannot be settled anymore when exactly the highly traditional patrician town house on Berger Strasse was built.
However, documents prove that from 1658 to 1783 it was owned by the Pfeilstricker family. We also know that in the mid-18th century a certain Heinrich Lichtschlag ran an imperial coach station here, offering accommodation and food for travelers. Around this time, the name ‘Zum Heydelberger Fass’ (the Heidelberg keg) appeared for the first time.
The next owners of the house, a couple called Juppen and their son, Leonhard, were wine merchants and also served wine on the premises. After the death of Leonhard, the ‘Heidelberger Fass’ or ‘Große Fass’ was bought by Johann Lambert Gruben in 1790. When the French Revolutionary troops occupied the city in 1795, he sold the plot to Bertram Mertens, a master baker, who in turn sold the house to grain merchant Johann Anton Joseph Bender in 1802.
Bender lived and worked here until 1826. After his death, his widow leased the house to various landlords – we know of Heinrich Wilms and Caspar Bosselmann, who named the place ‘Berliner Hof’.
The house was refurbished in 1837/38, after which the Bender widow ran the business herself and called it ‘Bergischer Hof’. It was now a wine tavern with guest rooms, food and occasional entertainment.
In 1890, historian Heinrich Ferber described it as follows: ‘We remember from our childhood days paying a few pennies in order to see elephants, dromedaries and other such animals in a stall in the backyard building.’
The building was finally turned into a brewery in 1862: on January 4, the Bender widow sold the ‘Bergische Hof’ to landlord and brewmaster Wilhelm Cürten, the UERIGE himself.