Czechoslovakia Begins Nationalizing Its Brewing Industry

On October 24, 1945, Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš issued Decree No. 101/1945 on the nationalization of selected food-industry enterprises. The decree included breweries whose annual production in 1937 had exceeded 150,000 hectoliters, beginning the transfer of the country’s largest brewing companies into state ownership. Nationalization and centralization continued during the following years. In 1948, the brewing industry was reorganized into 22 national enterprises encompassing 194 active breweries. State planning subsequently determined brewery organization, production, investment, and distribution, shaping Czechoslovak brewing until the political and economic transformations that followed the Velvet Revolution.