The National Prohibition was a constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. Prohibition was mandated under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was promoted by the “Dry Crusaders”, a movement led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Democratic and Republican parties, and was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
With prohibition in effect and the illegal making, transport, and sale of all alcohol; this gave various crime groups a chance to make money bootlegging. A Reading, PA local by the name of Max Hassel was one of many bootleggers of alcohol at the time. Max Hassel was known widely as the “Beer Baron of Berks County”, the “Jersey Gentleman Beer Baron,” as well as a member of the legendary bootlegging “Jersey Trio”. Hassel ran brewing operations of strong beer and strong ale out of defunct and shutdown breweries across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
Prohibition finally ended in 1933 with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. The order was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 5, 1933. Part of the reason prohibition ended was due to the government was in need of tax money partly caused by the great depression in 1929. So by repealing prohibition and taxing all alcohol sold they could recoup their tax funds rather quickly.
