page_title: Żywiec Brewery
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Żywiec Brewery / History
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Piwo Żywiec Bock - butelka 0,5 L z 2011 r.English: Żywiec Bock beer - 0,5 L bottle from 2011Deutsch: Żywiec Bock bier
context_page_description: Żywiec Brewery is a brewery founded in 1856, in Żywiec, Poland, then part of Austria-Hungary. It was nationalised after the Second World War. Grupa Żywiec S.A. consists of five main breweries: Żywiec Brewery, Elbrewery, Leżajsk, Warka Brewery and Cieszyn Brewery. Currently the Dutch Heineken Group, with a 61% shareholding, has control over major operations. The brewery has the capacity of producing 5 million hls a year, making it the largest brewery in Grupa Żywiec.
context_section_description: The brewery started operating in 1856. It was owned by the Habsburgs until it was confiscated by the post-WWII Communist government of Poland. At the beginning of the 1990s a court case was started by the descendants of the original owners, who sued the Polish government demanding $77 million compensation for the nationalisation  and the use of the Habsburg family name and coat of arms for marketing purposes. The case was settled out of court on undisclosed terms in December 2005.
  Żywiec Brewery began distribution to other towns of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1913. In the 1990s, the brewery was acquired and modernized by Heineken International.
caption: Żywiec Bock
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