William Wagener was born in Germany. His family emigrated to America in the 1850s, settling in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. In 1874, 37 year old William and his younger brother Frederick moved north to start a brewery in the town of Sturgeon Bay on Door Peninsula. The brewery was barely five years old when, in late October 1878, William accidentally shot himself in the hand. Despite the efforts of surgeons blood poisoning set in and he died on the 6th of November, 1878. His distraught brother sold the brewery a few months later to the Leidiger Brothers, who ran the firm until Prohibition shut it down on January 16th, 1920. The brewery made a brief resurrection upon Repeal as the Schonbrunn Brewing Co., Inc., but was finally shut down for good in 1939.

Friedrich Nicholas Arnold Wagener was born in Germany. His family emigrated to America in the 1850s, settling in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. In 1874, 30 year old Frederick and his brother, 37 year old William, moved north to start a brewery in the town of Sturgeon Bay on Door Peninsula. The Sturgeon Bay Brewery barely got a start when William died in 1878. Frederick sold the brewery the next year to Louis and Ernst Leidiger. Under their leadership the Sturgeon Bay Brewery continued to brew beer until Prohibition on January 16th, 1920. After Repeal the brewery reopened as the Schonbrunn Brewing Co., Inc. and produced beer until 1939.