Carl Ferdinand

Born in Smiřice/North Bohemia, he moved to Vienna in 1841 with his parents Adolf Ignaz and Julie Marceline and his five siblings, who had been born until then, in a large carriage pulled by strong horses. The father had taken over the operation of the old brewery in the Citizen Hospital St. Marx from the following year with a lease concluded in 1839. Carl was seven years old at that time and had to fetch milk for his little siblings at the service areas. From St. Marx, he went to the local school in the suburb of Landstraße, in winter skating along the frozen Wiener Neustädter Canal. Moreover, his father introduced him to the family practice of brewing beer and distilling alcohol, including all commercial matters, which had been practised for generations. At the age of 14, at the beginning of the memorable revolutionary year 1848, he was sent to the English brewery Guinness for training.

In 1851, after Adolf Ignaz had been granted the state authority to produce pressed yeast and spirit under the company name “Ad. Ig. Mautner” in 1856, he applied for the power of attorney granted to his eldest son and soon thereafter registered the articles of association concluded on April 15, 1858 with the new company signature Ad. lg. Mautner & Sohn with the commercial court. At that time, Carl Ferdinand joined the company as a partner. After his parents moved to the newly purchased family house on Franziskanerplatz in 1871, the management of the St. Marxer Brewery, which now grew into a large industrial enterprise, was transferred to Carl Ferdinand in the following years. There were many innovations there: For example, black water buffaloes were purchased to pull the heavy wagons loaded with beer barrels. This also included a newly equipped pool for bathing the animals. In contrast to the Hungarian oxen of the Dreher brewery, they were supposed to draw attention to the Mautner beer with their twisted and protruding horns. In 1876, he took over the management of the breweries in St. Marx and Simmering (brewery, spirit and compressed yeast factories).