Nov. 2025
I incorporated The Saint Louis Brewery, Inc. on August 22, 1989. Two and a half months later, on November 9, The Berlin Wall came down. At the time the neighborhood around 21st and Locust Streets on the western edge of Downtown St. Louis was as desolate as East Berlin had become after 44 years of Soviet occupation.
Less than a year later, East and West Germany were united on October 3, 1990. This day is now celebrated as a national holiday in Germany and at German embassies in capital cities around the world, including Washington, DC.
Ever since 2013 Schlafly Kölsch has been the only American beer served at the annual German Unity Day celebration at the Embassy in Washington. We began our sponsorship after my wife Ulrike, who had grown up in Cologne, attended an event at the Embassy. She suggested that our Kölsch, which had recently won the Gold Medal at The World Beer Cup, would be well received by the 3,000 guests at the Unity Day celebration. She was right.
One of the regular attendees at Unity Day celebrations at the Embassy has been Bob Kimmitt, who was in my class at Georgetown Law School. We have often noted how our career paths diverged since our graduation in 1977. His commitment to public service led to his serving as the first U.S. Ambassador to a newly united Germany under President George H. W. Bush, while mine led me to start Schlafly Beer. His term as ambassador began in 1991, the same year The Schlafly Tap Room opened for business at 2100 Locust Street.
Neither Bob nor Ulrike was at the most recent Unity Day celebration on September 30th. I’m not sure why Bob missed it. Ulrike was unable to attend because she was at the 80th birthday party for a friend in Cologne. While she was there she had the opportunity to visit Käthe Haas, who had been her nanny when she was growing up and had come to St. Louis for our wedding in 1995.
Law school classmates enjoying Kölsch at the German Embassy.
Shortly after Ulrike returned to St. Louis from Cologne she got a message from Käthe, who at the age of 92 is as energetic and alert as some alert readers (ARs) half her age. Käthe was excited to report that she had just seen me on TV in Germany. I am not making this up. ARs who want to see for themselves can watch this broadcast on SWR (a German regional TV channel) and look for the segment with me about ten minutes in.
ARs who don’t want to watch a 30 minute broadcast in German will have to take my word for it.
Wines from the region Rheinland-Pfalz, like Schlafly Beer, were served to guests at this year’s embassy party and were among the sponsors of the celebration. While I was standing near the tent where the wines were being poured a reporter from SWR approached me and asked how I felt about 15% tariffs on these and other German wines. I replied without hesitation that I was opposed to the tariffs.
I noted that thousands of guests at the party, both German and American, were enjoying German beer, like Bitburger; American beer, like Schlafly; as well as German wines, both red and white, from Rheinland-Pfalz. As the owner of an American brewery I didn’t want penalize American consumers who, like lots of ARs and me, also appreciate good wines and beers from other countries.
I attended the party at The German Embassy with my cousin David Schlafly, the CEO of the brewery, my niece Adelaide Barrett and her sister Katherine Coleman, who was also interviewed by SWR and agreed with what I had said about tariffs on German wine. We all came away from the celebration with a good feeling about how we had helped promote transatlantic relations between Germany and the United States.
Thirty-six years after the incorporation of The Saint Louis Brewery, Inc. and the fall of The Berlin Wall, neighborhoods in what was once East Berlin are thriving. So is the neighborhood around The Schlafly Tap Room, which now includes Energizer Park.
Both of these immensely positive developments are worth celebrating with the only American beer served at The German Embassy on German Unity Day.
Tom Schlafly
Chairman
Schlafly | The Saint Louis Brewery
