In Anaheim, Local Politics Meet German History
By Shannon Cudd
Modern Anaheim was founded in 1857, when two German entrepreneurs, Charles Kohler and John Frohling, saw the opportunity to expand their San Francisco winery. They needed more grapes and decided to create their own supply. Photo by Derek Liang on Unsplash.
For some, Anaheim, California, may call to mind a certain cartoon mouse and his land, but a sign at La Palma Park stating “Willkommen in Anaheim 1857” hints at a different sort of character: Anaheim’s German roots.
Off the 57 freeway and the eastern gateway to the city sits a beloved German restaurant, the Jagerhaus, and the Phoenix Club, an active social club with a restaurant and banquet halls offering further proof of this history. The former recently closed and will be replaced with a 7-Eleven and a car wash. The Phoenix Club remains open for now, but because of financial struggles due to the pandemic, the members decided to sell to a developer and downgrade to a smaller location in nearby Brea. This leads one to question how a city can preserve its history and while still fostering growth.
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The Tongva people were the first residents of the area that would become known as Anaheim. Most had been forced to relocate by the time modern Anaheim was founded in 1857, when two German entrepreneurs, Charles Kohler and John Frohling, saw the opportunity to expand their San Francisco winery. They needed more grapes and decided to create their own supply.
Kohler and Frohling’s main clientele was other German immigrants, so that’s who they turned to as shareholders in their new wine colony. Kohler and Frohling hired George Hansen to oversee this venture, which would be named The Los Angeles Vineyard Society.
Fifty German families started the wine colony in Anaheim, bringing with them their culture and their culinary preferences. These settlers voted on the name Anaheim, which means “home by the river.”
The vineyard society’s first harvest in 1860 yielded 2,000 gallons of wine. By 1880 wine production was up to 1.25 million gallons of wine and 100,000 gallons of brandy. Anaheim wine was widely spread across the state to great acclaim. Charles Brace, an eastern traveler, said Anaheim wine was "unusually pleasant and light. I found it even in the Sierras, where it was sold at $1.00 a bottle.”
Unfortunately a disease on the vines that began in 1883 would spread and end this success. The original German founders would go on to farm citrus but their cultural heritage remained.
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A 1990 Los Angeles Times article reported that Orange County “has roughly 140,000 residents of direct German ancestry. Another 320,000 Orange County residents are believed to be of part-German ancestry.”
In 2017 KCET reported that the second largest ancestral group in California is German. Anaheim and Orange Country’s German heritage and history would lead Sandy Schwaiger and her then-husband, chef Anton Schwaiger, to purchase the Jagerhaus German restaurant in 1990.
Today, the empty Jagerhaus German restaurant sits in the Sunkist Plaza strip mall, which housed seven other immigrant-owned small businesses. Before its closure in 2021, it had served schnitzel and German beers. It was the meeting place for many local groups, German or not, such as Anaheim High School Alumni and Los Amigos. The neighborhood and its patrons fought valiantly for it to remain open. Schwaiger even had dreams of creating a German biergarten to celebrate Anaheim’s heritage. Local politics, money and an outside developer got in the way.
Los Angeles-based developer Golcheh Properties bought the Sunkist Plaza with the intention of tearing it down displacing eight immigrant-owned small businesses for a 7-Eleven and car wash. The neighborhood and patrons of The Jagerhaus tried to stop the sale.
For many, it was one of the few places to get a taste of dishes such as sautéed chicken liver served over spaetzle or German apple pancakes. For others, it was a weekly meeting place for important civic groups or a neighborhood spot where everyone knew their name.Schwaiger started a petition that received thousands of signatures. Community members spoke out against Golcheh’s project at community meetings, in person and via Zoom. The planning commission received numerous emails against the project.
“Even in the face of absolute total opposition from the neighborhood, he still bought it,” says Steve White, a member of the planning commission. “He was kind of an arrogant guy.”
Several attempts were made to speak with Golcheh Properties for this piece, but the company did not respond.
Golcheh Properties, now going by Anaheim Care LLC, would go on to hire lobbyist Jeff Flint. City council member Dr. Jose Moreno says that Jeff Flint “is one of the most active lobbyists for the resort industry and corporate interests in our city. He does fundraisers, raises money, and is completely plugged into every member of the city council except Avelino Valencia.” Anaheim City Council would ultimately vote to allow the 7-Eleven and car wash development authorizing the eventual demolition of Sunkist Plaza against the wishes of the neighborhood.
Council Member Stephen Faessel, who voted to stop the sale of the Sunkist Plaza understands why his fellow council members might have voted the other way: “In my colleague's defense, that was a private property owner who wanted to build a commercial project full in keeping with the underlying zoning. By right they have every reason to do that.”
Tragically, Schwaiger passed away on October 6, 2021, at 78 years old. The Jagerhaus closed for good on December 12, 2021, and will not relocate to downtown Anaheim as once planned.
“It was tragic that our city council chose to allow the development in the interest of putting a car wash, a gas station and a 7-Eleven,” says Moreno. “There are plenty of those throughout the city of Anaheim. There’s I think six car washes within a one mile radius of that location. So it's not that the neighborhood needed a car wash.”
The closure of the Jagerhaus has left a void in the city of Anaheim. Civic groups, whom Schwaiger often did not charge a rental fee in order to help them fundraise, would have to find another place to meet. The staff, many of whom worked at the restaurant for 30-plus years, would have to find new employment. The neighborhood would have to find somewhere else to eat and feel welcomed.
“Jagerhaus was always a special place for my family to visit,” says former Anaheim resident Noelle Carden, who remembers the restaurant fondly. “The food was always incredible, of course, but it was more than that. It felt like an extended family. The staff treated us like we were special every time we ate there.”
Andy Ersek, who immigrated to the United States from Hungary at age 11, visited to get a taste of meals he remembers his mother making in his childhood.
“It was the only place I could get chicken liver and spaetzle,” he says. “It was something I couldn’t get anywhere else.”
Longtime Anaheim resident Doreen Gray states that the Jagerhaus was “my favorite restaurant in Anaheim. When anyone visited from out of town I would take them there. The waiters worked there for years and years. Being of German-descent, I enjoyed the German decorations and food. My husband and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in their banquet room.”
***Adding to the void left by the closure of the Jagerhaus, down the street, another German-centered business, the Phoenix Club, is also moving out of Anaheim. The Phoenix Club was originally founded in 1960 after two men, Franz Sielck and Gustav Winkler, placed similar ads in the paper asking if there were any local Germans around who wanted to get together. After these initial gatherings, including one of about 300 people in nearby Orange, 15 people met at the home of Brigitte and Hans Klein, and the idea for the Phoenix Club was born. Its purpose is to “to preserve the German culture, customs and language.”
The original location was purchased by members in 1964. No bank would help them finance, so they took out personal loans to get the necessary money. In 1990, the city of Anaheim made an offer to buy the club to make room for a sports arena. The club voted to accept the offer and moved to its current location. At its peak, the club had 5,500 members. Today membership is around 600. The Phoenix Club was sold to Firebird Real Estate Holdings.
Linda Kriesant, president of the Phoenix Club, said the main reason for the sale was covid.
“When we got shut down [because of covid], we held on as long as we could,” she says. “It wasn’t enough to keep us here. They [Firebird Real Estate Holdings] made an offer, and we accepted. We found a place in Brea that is very much smaller, but it still allows us to do the important things, which is continue our group activities, continue a place for membership to meet. We will still have a restaurant and German style pub. It fits our needs at this time.”
She went on to say that they “did not get moved out. It was covid. Purely covid.” She says “it’s very sad” to be moving out of Anaheim with its German history. She has nothing but kind things to say about the sale of the Phoenix Club, which will be in its Anaheim location until the end of the year while Kriesant and her team work on their new site in Brea.
“The future is bright,” she says. “We can maintain promoting the German culture.”
Firebird Real Estate Holdings has not publicly announced a use for the Phoenix Club’s site.
The word restaurant comes from the French word restaurer. This literally means “restore to a former state.” Restaurants and social clubs are more than a place to grab a quick bite. They are a way to connect to the history and culture of a city. Neighborhood based restaurants and clubs also allow people to be known and seen creating a family of sorts. Moreno wants people to know that local elections are important and directly impact them. Stephen Faessel muses “growth is inevitable,” but one cannot help but be a little sad to see the history of Anaheim’s German heritage be slowly erased from the city.
