Georg Weifert | Origin of Street Names

Đorđe Vajfert (Georg I. Weifert, 1850 - 1937), was arguably the greatest Serbian industrialist in history, the founder of the first Serbian brewery and the Bor mine, as well as the governor of the National Bank of Serbia.

This "Švaba" from Pančevo was a descendant of the German Vajfert family, who settled in Pančevo as early as the mid-15th century. His father, a merchant and a businessman, always maintained good relations with the Serbs, so young Georg grew up socializing with Serbian children, without the prejudices that were so common at the time in a city where the majority of the population was German and Hungarian.

Brewing was the Vajfert family's craft, and after completing elementary school, Georg was sent to Bavaria to learn the trade from the best. Upon his return from the brewing academy, his father sent him to Belgrade, where he founded his own brewery on today's Topčider Hill. The rest is history - Vajfert's brewery became widely renowned (it existed until 2008), and Georg earned millions from beer, becoming one of the wealthiest residents of Belgrade.

However, it is less known that Georg Vajfert was a passionate lover and financier of mining exploration in Serbia.

Seeking to secure fuel for his brewery, Vajfert, as a highly successful industrialist and capitalist, embarked on a quest for sources of energy. Encouraged by initial discoveries of significant coal reserves in Kostolac, he began investing immense amounts of money in mining throughout Serbia... but unsuccessfully! Soon, he started losing millions and selling off shares of his brewery, ultimately finding himself on the verge of bankruptcy, in a situation where no bank in Belgrade would even consider granting him a loan.

His obsession with mining on one hand, and his failures in the same field on the other, were so significant that in Belgrade at the beginning of the 20th century, the expression "crazy like Vajfert" became popular. Even in such a situation, Vajfert did not give up - when he was already completely broke, he went to the then Trgovačka Bank with a promissory note of 50,000 dinars in gold. He gambled everything! Although everyone was convinced that he had truly gone mad, the bank director signed the promissory note and approved the money - money that Vajfert used to start explorations in the vicinity of Bor, probably not realizing that he was scratching the surface of one of the largest copper and noble metal mines in the region, a mine whose shares are still valuable today, more than a hundred years later.

That's how Georg Vajfert "pulled through" and regained his wealth, restored his tarnished reputation, and became one of the greatest benefactors of the Serbian people. Considering himself a Serbian of German origin, he changed his name from Georg to Đorđe. As a cavalryman, he participated in the Balkan Wars, financially supported the Serbian army in World War I, built schools and clinics, and ultimately became a shareholder and governor of the National Bank of Serbia, for which he is most famous.

He did not have any children, so he left his property to his relatives, while the brewery was confiscated and nationalized after World War II.

Đorđe Vajfert passed away in his house in Pančevo, where he was buried in the Catholic cemetery.

Today, the name of Đorđe Vajfert is carried by streets in Belgrade, Bor, and Kostolac. His magnificent portrait (painted by Uroš Predić) occupies a place of honor in the ceremonial hall of the National Bank, and his likeness adorns the 1000 dinar banknote.