Gustav & Wilhelm Heller
The company Gustav & Wilhelm Heller was a Viennese confectioners.
history
The company was founded in 1891 by the two brothers Gustav (born November 14, 1857 in Sázava ; † September 7, 1937 in Vienna ) and Wilhelm Heller (born November 21, 1859 ; † September 16, 1931 in Semmering ), who came from a Jewish family originate, founded.
The production was initially located in the 3rd district of Vienna, Landstrasse . The factory obtained the energy to produce the sweets by means of steam from what was then Beatrixbad , which was a novelty at the time. The competition produced the same goods over an open fire, while Heller produced them with the help of vacuum equipment. This led to great success, especially in the monarchy - but exports were also made overseas. The company had one of the largest factories in this branch in Austria.
Gustav Heller was appointed as the owner of the imperial court supplier and later even the chamber supplier to the emperor. In 1899 the company moved to a newly built factory in Favoriten , Vienna's 10th district. Before the outbreak of the First World War, the company reportedly employed 1,400 people.
For more than 30 years Gustav Heller headed the business of the association as President of the "Central Association of Chocolate and Sugar Confectionery Manufacturers Austria in Vienna" and was also Vice-President of the "Office International du Cacao et du Chocolat, Bruxelles". In 1910 he became a commercial councilor. In the 1930s he was appointed to the board of directors of Creditanstalt in Vienna.
After the First World War , the foreign branches in London and Paris were lost. A branch was even set up in New York during the war, which was also lost again. The company started producing canned fruit, which continued into the 1950s. In 1932 the company received the state award and was allowed to use the federal coat of arms in business transactions.
After the connection of Austria to the German Reich, the company was "arisiert" . The workforce rose to over 1,000, but fell again by 1945.
After the war, the original owners, who had meanwhile emigrated to the United States and set up a new production facility, returned to the traditional Viennese company.
The company is considered to be the inventor of the dragées . The Wiener Zuckerl are still known today .
The company was sold to competitor Victor Schmidt & Sons in 1971 . The plant itself, which still employed 350 people, was closed. From 1994 the company belonged to the Nestlé group until it was sold to the Viennese confectionery manufacturer Manner in 2000 .
The artist and cultural manager André Heller is a grandson of Wilhelm Heller.
literature
Hans Heller was a son of the company founder Gustav Heller and deals with the history of the company in his book. Hans was married to Margarete (Gretl), b. Steiner; from this marriage came Peter Heller, who later worked in the USA .
- Hans Heller: Between two worlds. Memories, documents, prose, pictures . Verlag Ovilava - Libri, Wels 1985 ISBN 3-85410-045-0
- Gustav Heller , in Austrian Biographical Lexicon .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Heller ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Big Business in Austria (1) , page 144, accessed on February 28, 2009
- ^ Heller (confectionery) in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
- ↑ born January 11, 1920 in Vienna - died November 7, 1998 in Williamsville (New York) . see exile literature. In: literaturepochen.at. Retrieved July 28, 2019 .
