Andresen Flensburger Aquavit
Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
- ABV
- 38%
- Base spirit
- Unknown
- Color
- Clear
- Style
- Unaged Aquavit
Flensburger Aquavit was a German aquavit produced by Hermann C. Andresen in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein. The clear spirit was bottled at 38% ABV and formed part of the company’s broader range of spirits alongside its better-known rum products.
Hermann C. Andresen maintained its own spirits production in Flensburg, and former distiller Walter Braasch recalled learning the trade there in the 1970s. Production included rum, liqueurs and other spirits, with aquavit also forming part of the company’s range. The surviving bottles present Flensburger Aquavit as a distinctive house recipe whose composition was carefully guarded and intended to remain consistent from batch to batch.
Flensburger Aquavit is now a historical, discontinued expression from the former Andresen spirits range.
About the producer
Hermann C. Andresen
Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Hermann C. Andresen was a Flensburg spirits producer and rum house whose range included rum, liqueurs, aquavit and other distilled spirits. The business was associated with Hermann Cornils Andresen, whose initials were represented by the house mark “831”: H, C and A are the eighth, third and first letters of the alphabet. Former employee Walter Braasch recalled Hermann Cornils Andresen as the senior head of the company and described the 831 mark as a familiar feature of Andresen products.
Historical directory records place the business at Norderstraße 74 in the mid-1950s and later at Engelsbyer Straße 57, documenting a relocation within Flensburg during the post-war period.
By the early 1970s, Andresen was still operating as a genuine spirits-production business. Walter Braasch began his professional training there as a distiller and later recalled producing rum, liqueurs and other spirits under master distiller Alfred Ritter.
The company later became part of the consolidation of Flensburg’s once extensive rum and spirits industry. By the late 1990s, the Andresen brand formed part of the spirits portfolio of Hermann G. Dethleffsen. In 1998, Dethleffsen sold its spirits business, including the Andresen brand, to the Berentzen Group; the takeover was completed around the turn of 1998/99. This marked the end of large-scale industrial rum production in Flensburg.