page_title: Adolphus Busch
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Adolphus Busch / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Exterior of Hotel Adolphus in Dallas, Texas
context_page_description: Adolphus Busch was the German-born co-founder of Anheuser-Busch with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser. He introduced numerous innovations, building the success of the company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became a philanthropist, using some of his wealth for education and humanitarian needs. His great-great-grandson, August Busch IV, is a former CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev.
context_section_description: Busch's first job in St. Louis was working as a clerk in the commission house. He was also an employee at William Hainrichshofen's wholesale company. During the American Civil War Busch served in the Union Army for six months. During this period, he learned that his father had died and he had inherited a portion of the estate.
  Busch partnered with Ernst Battenberg in St. Louis to found the first of his businesses, a brewing supply company that sold to the three dozen breweries in the city. Eberhard Anheuser was one of Adolphus' customers. Anheuser was a soap manufacturer that lent money to the Bavarian Brewery. When the small brewery went bankrupt, Anheuser bought out the other creditors and renamed the company Anheuser. Adolphus married Eberhard's daughter Lilly in 1861.
  Returning to St. Louis after the Civil War, Busch entered his wife's family's brewery business. He bought out Eberhard's partner, William D'Oench. In 1879, the company was renamed Anheuser-Busch.
  At the death of Eberhard Anheuser in 1880, Busch became president of the business, and became wealthy due to the success of the brewery. He envisioned a national beer with universal appeal. His work was distinguished by his "timely adoption of important scientific and technological innovations, an expansive sales strategy geared largely toward external domestic and international population centers, and a pioneering integrated marketing plan that focused on a single core brand, Budweiser, making it the most successful nationally-distributed beer of the pre-Prohibition era."
  To build Budweiser as a national beer, Busch created a network of rail-side ice-houses and launched the industry's first fleet of refrigerated freight cars. However, throughout his life, he jokingly referred to his beer as "dot schlop" and preferred wine to drink.
  When Busch implemented pasteurization (1878) as a way to keep the beer fresh for longer, his company was able to profit from shipping beer across the country. Busch soon acquired breweries in Texas which allowed his operation to distribute to Mexico and California. Busch was an early adopter of bottled beer and founded the Busch Glass Company to make bottles for his product. In 1901 sales surpassed the one million barrels of beer benchmark.
  In addition to pasteurization and refrigeration, Busch was an early adopter of vertical integration, or buying all components of a business. He bought bottling factories, ice-manufacturing plants, stave makers, timberland, coal mines, and a refrigeration company. He also bought railways and bought the rights from Rudolf Diesel to assemble diesel engines in America, establishing the Diesel Motor Company (later American Diesel Engine Company and Busch-Sulzer Bros. Diesel Engine Company). The Busch family also acquired hop farms in the area near Cooperstown, New York.
  His focus on the business extended to the flavor of the beer itself. Carl Conrad held the trademark for the name Budweiser and had Anheuser-Busch manufacture it for him. Conrad was an importer of wines and champagnes. Busch studied the pilsner process in Europe, which was used for brewing Budweiser. Adolphus bought the rights to Budweiser from Conrad in October 1882 when Conrad went bankrupt.
  In 1895, Busch joined Washington University in St. Louis's Board of Directors. He would continue to serve on the Board until his death in 1913, at which point his son, August Busch, Sr. took over his seat. Busch also served as the president of the South Side Bank and the Manufacturers Railway. He had helped organize the latter as a short-line rail serving local industry. Likewise, he was a director of the Louisiana Purchase Company. Like other business leaders, he served as a director of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, contributing to civic efforts.
  Busch invested in new buildings and businesses in Dallas, Texas, which was growing rapidly in the early 20th century as an industrial city. In 1912, Busch constructed the Adolphus Hotel there as the tallest building in the state. Another was the Busch Building, which has been adapted as the Kirby R
caption: The Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas.
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