As one of one of America’s most iconic and national products, Budweiser beer might not initially seem like the most obvious object of focus for a transnational study. However this beer (or these beers) has a fascinating transnational journey that brings to life issues of conflicting German and Czech nationalism in the 18th and 19th centuries and how these issues connect to the large scale immigration to America of Germans and Czechs in the aftermath of the failed revolutions of 1848. This study will consider how far the issues of Czech-German rivalry survived the journey to America, and look at how in an increasingly globalised world multinational companies try to dominate a global market. By looking at the transnational history of Budweiser, and the rivalry between the original Czech Budweiser, and the American replica which has developed into one of the worlds largest beer brands today we can learn a great deal that would potentially remain inaccessible from a more national approach.
The many court cases between Anheuser-Busch (the owner of the American Budweiser) and the Budvar Budweiser originating in České Budėjovice have been bitter, continuous and increasingly global since the end of the 19th century. The reasons for this are undoubtedly partially rooted in the great successes that both companies have enjoyed in their respective home markets. However this project will try to establish whether there is a further contributor to this dispute in that the founder of the American Budweiser, Adolphus Busch was in fact German. Poor Czech-German relations were of significance in the brewing of beer in Budėjovice from long before the development of the beer in a form we would recognise today, and it seems conceivable that there is a lasting residue of resentment for a product being marketed as being of Czech quality (with Budweiser literally meaning ‘of Budweis’ in German) despite having been created by a German in St Louis, a city with a high proportion of German immigrants.
In terms of sources, this project will use a wide variety. Although some secondary material exists on the Czech brewery, I will be making use of how the beer has been advertised, the court records of the numerous disputes between the two companies and primary evidence from a trip to the brewery in České Budėjovice itself. This project has the potential to illuminate transnational connections across the world, and to highlight globalisation trends. The connections and clashes between Budvar and Budweiser have been made possible by immigration networks, developments in rail travel and the invention of pasteurisation, but have also themselves contributed to the development of new technologies. By following this transnational approach, we can approach issues of Czech and German identity from a new angle, less restricted by an area by area, national analysis of the borderlands between modern day Germany and the Czech Republic, and can achieve a greater understanding of the people who have lived in these areas.
My project will focus on three different aspects of the history of this beer. Firstly it will focus on a fairly microhistoric level upon issues specifically relating to the nationally divided city of České Budėjovice in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the setting up of a Czech brewery in opposition to the German Civic Brewery that already existed in the town, highlighting the complex nature of identities in Bohemia. It will then move on to focus on the beginnings of the American Budweiser, and in particular upon the agency of Adolphus Busch as a transnational actor who emigrated from Germany to America, after having visited České Budėjovice and its brewery. Finally I will look at the global struggle for the Budweiser name, and the many court cases between the two companies, and how these two brands maintain their identity in countries where they are not allowed to describe their beer as Budweiser. I believe that approaching the project on these scales will encourage a loyalty to transnational through moving from local to international to finally a global analysis. I have been inspired by Jan Rüger’s article to the OXO Cube and believe that although this is a project focussing on a fairly long period of time, a keen focus on the product at hand will allow for a close analysis of the transnational space in between several nations, thus illuminating the parallel histories of the nations involved.