Holst Blanker Hans Aquavit
Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
- ABV
- 40%
- Base spirit
- Unknown
- Color
- Clear
- Style
- Unaged Aquavit
Blanker Hans Aquavit was a German aquavit marketed by the Flensburg spirits house Andreas M. C. Holst. The label presents it as “Flensburger Blanker Hans – Aquavit von Holst”, bottled at 40% ABV, and carries the designation Deutsches Erzeugnis. It also instructs that the aquavit should be served “eiskalt” — ice-cold.
The maritime presentation is closely connected with the product name. Blanker Hans is a traditional North German figurative name for the North Sea when driven by storms and storm surges. The expression has a long association with the coastal history of Schleswig-Holstein. The bottle illustrates this theme with a sailing ship in rough water.
Blanker Hans was an established Holst aquavit brand by around 1960. A model based on a Kleinbahn Niebüll–Dagebüll freight wagon in an operating condition around 1960 reproduces the advertising inscription “Moin Moin – Korn-Genever, Holst Rum, Blanker Hans – Ihr Aquavit.” The reproduced wagon carries an inspection date of 1 June 1959. BRAWA later reproduced another KND freight wagon with the same Moin Moin Blanker Hans advertising in an Era III configuration.
The label identifies the responsible house as Andreas M. C. Holst, Flensburg and carries the claim “Stammhaus seit 1748.” The older date reflects the historical lineage associated with Thomas Nissen, a Flensburg spirits business traced to 1748 that was later combined with the Holst concern.
Bottle gallery
About the producer
Andreas M. C. Holst
Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Andreas M. C. Holst, also known as Flensburger Rum-Haus Holst, was a wine and spirits house in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein. Andreas Magnus Cäsar Holst, born in Flensburg in 1878, had trained in the business of rum producer Thomas Nissen before establishing his own company. Historical accounts date Holst’s wine and spirits business to 1913 and its merger with the Thomas Nissen business in 1926.
By 1929, contemporary commercial directories list Flensburger Rum-Haus, Andreas M. C. Holst at Südermarkt 1 in Flensburg. The same business continues to appear there through the 1930s and early 1940s. By 1951–1955, trade-directory records use the combined name Flensburger Rum-Haus Andreas M. C. Holst & Tho. Nissen GmbH, with an address at Hafermarkt 4.
Archival records document several corporate forms of the Holst business over the following decades. A commercial-register file for Flensburger Rum-Haus Andreas M. C. Holst & Tho. Nissen covers the period 1925–1971, while records for Flensburger Rum-Haus Andreas M. C. Holst KG run from 1957 to 1974. From 1974, the business is documented as Flensburger Rum-Haus Andreas M. C. Holst GmbH.
The company’s use of 1748 as its historical starting point derived from the older Thomas Nissen business. Surviving Holst labels continued to carry “Stammhaus seit 1748,” while collector records identify Thomas Nissen as the older company that was subsequently merged into the Holst business.
In 1969, the Wiesbaden sparkling-wine group Henkell & Co. acquired Andreas C. M. Holst KG and announced that Holst products would thereafter be marketed throughout West Germany. A later European Commission study continued to list Andreas M. C. Holst KG among Henkell’s principal subsidiaries and specifically identified rum from Holst as part of the Henkell group’s spirits production.