[3] Rothaus, at the northern edge of the village of Grafenhausen in the southern Black Forest, is one of Germany's most successful and profitable regional breweries.

Rothaus received its name from the patrician family "Roth", which originated from the region of Klettgau and settled down in Grafenhausen around 1300.

In 1660, the house was sold to a man named Michael Kaiser who proceeded to turn it into an inn after obtaining a liquor license from the Benedictine monastery of St. Blasien.

Under the leadership of Martin Gerbert, prince-abbot of the abbey, the monks' council decided in late 1790 to start attempts of brewing in January 1791.

Additionally, the brewery was a measure of economic promotion, as it was intended to create employment and to counteract the allegedly overpriced beer from Donaueschingen.

Considering the nearby towns of St. Blasien and Bonndorf, the location of the brewery was very convenient in terms of infrastructure; it was surrounded by large areas covered with woods and an abundance of fresh water.

Under CEO Norbert Nothhelfer, who had previously been a district president of Freiburg, Rothaus doubled its beer sales in a shrinking market in the 1990s.

After Thomas Schäuble became ill, Gerhard Stratthaus, former Finance Minister of Baden-Württemberg, took over the management of the brewery on 5 September 2012.

In 2016, the brand "Tannenzäpfle" celebrated its 60th year of existence with a sixtieth anniversary edition of the original 1956 label design.

Fans of the beer started to call her "Biergit Kraft" which is a play on words in the local dialect of Alemannic.

Rothaus advertises throughout the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg and Hesse, though it completely avoids the usage of TV and radio commercials.

It also owns two refrigerator cars resembling railway carriages which are parked in Seebrugg at the Bundesstraße 500 and work as a permanent advertisement – at the exact spot, where the road branches off to Rothaus.

The region in which the brewery is located has branded itself "Rothauser Land – Meine Ferienregion im Schwarzwald" (my vacation destination in the Black Forest) since 2006.

In the 1990s, at a time with decreasing beer consumption by Germans, the brewery experienced a doubling of its output under the direction of the chairman of the board, Norbert Nothelfer, who had previously been employed in a position comparable to governor of a sub-division of a state.