The claim
A brewery inn halfway between Bamberg station and the old town, and one of the last of the twenty-two brewhouses its own history counts along the Obere Königstraße around 1800. The Merz family have brewed here since 1898, drying the malt over beechwood fires for the smoked beer poured in the panelled Wirtsstube from nine in the morning, and in the yard in summer.
What the records show
The house dates itself from a document of 1536 that names the cooper Linhard Großkopf as the founder of the brewing house, and the German Wikipedia article says the same; the name Spezial arrives later, with Nikolas Delscher, called Spicial, who was a brewer and a cooper too. What 1536 dates is brewing, not a counter, so on its own it is no evidence of a drinking house in that year. The earliest account traced of drink actually being served here is in the same house history: Delscher held the brewery tavern from 1631 until his death in 1664. The fabric is what carries the claim. The Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, in its own published list for the city of Bamberg, enters Obere Königstraße 10 under D-4-61-000-1065 as Brauereigasthaus Spezial and dates the broad two-storey eaves-fronted house, with its decorated half-timbered upper storey and steep roof, to the sixteenth or seventeenth century, while the brewery puts the core of the front range at about 1450 and reads 1742 on the brewhouse behind. So the building is of the claimed age and the serving is first recorded a century later, which is grade B. Anyone may drink here without eating: the rooms open at nine in the morning, the kitchen not until half past eleven, and the house says it keeps places for people who walk in.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1536 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| 1631 | First record of a drinking house here | Bayerische Denkmalliste |
What to look for inside
- Rauchbier from the brewery's own malting floor, the malt dried over beechwood
- In the Merz family since 1898; Christian Merz is the fourth generation
- The Spezial-Keller beer garden on the Stephansberg, bought in 1830 to cool the beer
- A half-timbered house on the Bavarian list of monuments, entered as Brauereigasthaus Spezial
Visiting
Brauerei Spezial is in Bamberg, Germany, at Obere Königstraße 10, 96052 Bamberg. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- brauerei-spezial.de/geschichte/
- brauerei-spezial.de/gasthof/
- de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brauerei_Spezial
- www.bamberg.info/poi/brauerei_spezial-5202/
- de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Baudenkm%C3%A4ler_in_Bamberg/Untere_G%C3%A4rtnerei
- geodaten.bayern.de/denkmal_static_data/externe_denkmalliste/pdf/denkmalliste_merge_461000.pdf
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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