Hammstein Rheinischer Aquavit
Emmerich am Rhein, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
- ABV
- 35%
- Base spirit
- Unknown
- Color
- Clear
- Style
- Unaged Aquavit
Hammstein Rheinischer Aquavit was a German aquavit produced in Emmerich am Rhein by Wall-Fleischhauer and bottled at 35% vol. The documented miniature contains 40 ml and carries the wording aus dem Hause Wall-Fleischhauer – Emmerich am Rhein. The label also recommends serving the aquavit well chilled.
The label identifies the product as Rheinischer Aquavit, explicitly linking it with the Rhineland. Beyond this, however, very little product-specific information has survived. No reliable source has yet been found identifying the base spirit, individual botanicals, production method or maturation of Hammstein. The spirit in the surviving miniature is clear and colourless, but this alone does not establish that it was unaged.
Hammstein belonged to the wider spirits range of Wall-Fleischhauer, an established Emmerich producer whose name is documented in the local spirits trade from at least the 1930s and remained associated with production in the city for several decades.
About the producer
Wall-Fleischhauer
Emmerich am Rhein, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Wall-Fleischhauer was a spirits producer based in Emmerich am Rhein, North Rhine-Westphalia. Historical trade-directory material records the firm in 1934 as Wall-Fleischhauer, Inhaber Gebrüder Fleischhauer and later as Wall-Fleischhauer oHG at Großer Wall 15/19. The company continues to appear in directory records for 1951, 1955, 1969 and 1981, documenting a long post-war presence in Emmerich’s spirits industry.
Wall-Fleischhauer produced a broad range of spirits rather than a single speciality. Surviving bottles include herbal bitters, liqueurs and fruit-based products, while Hammstein Rheinischer Aquavit shows that aquavit was also part of the range. A historical photograph of the Wall-Fleischhauer premises survives in the Emmerich city archive and was reproduced by the Niederrhein Chamber of Commerce as part of a retrospective on the city’s industrial history.
The historic Emmerich operation no longer produces spirits there. The Wall-Fleischhauer name nevertheless survives commercially: the present Wall-Fleischhauer Kräuter-Bitter is manufactured by Moosbur Brennerei in Kevelaer-Wetten according to an old Lower Rhine recipe.