Kastner Lebzelterei

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The Lebzelterei Kastner was a Lebzelter family business in Bad Leonfelden in Upper Austria that operated from 1558 to 2001 . The successor company Kastner produces gingerbread, cookies, confectionery and waffles.

history

In the Kastner headquarters on Marktplatz 18, at the corner of Nagelschmiedgasse, a bar next to the year 1558 already bears the old Lebzelter trade mark. In 1559 the name Kastner was first mentioned in connection with the ancient craft. The document in question in the possession of Father Benedikt Kastner, who was dean of Malsching (Malšín) near Hohenfurt (Vyšší Brod) until 1945 , was lost in the turmoil of the post-war period.

The Lebzelter des Landes ob der Enns wrote their first master book in 1636 when they still belonged to the Viennese Lebzelter Guild in a quarter drawer. It records that Hanns Georg Castner (around 1637–1717) was accepted as an apprentice on June 17, 1650 for the Corpus Christi feast at the Linz Lebzeltermeister Georg Kayser (1620–1702) and that he was accepted as an apprentice on January 16, 1658 Marriage married.

Heyday

In 1665, a separate Upper Austrian gingerbread guild based in Linz was founded, the records of which are in the second master book from 1658 to around 1760. In the Mühlviertel , besides the Kastner family, there were also Lebzelter in Haslach , Freistadt , Grein , Perg , Mauthausen and later also in Oberneukirchen . There were three Lebzelter workshops in Linz, two workshops in Wels and Steyr, but there was only one Lebzelter company in each of the other cities and markets in the region above the Enns. In the minutes of the more than 200 annual meetings of the gingerbread guild held on Corpus Christi Day in Linz, Kastner is by far the most frequent name, as the masters of this family were present from the first to the penultimate annual meeting in 1867.

On Corpus Christi in 1676, Hanns Georg Castner went down in the history of the Upper Austrian Lebzelter Guild as the first price breaker because, contrary to an agreement, he had sold Starkmet “without fear” for 10 instead of 12 Kreuzer and Süßmet for 8 instead of 10 Kreuzer. He had to pay 5 guilders to the ark.

The Lebzelterei counted as a "free trade" that offered certain social benefits. The journeymen on the roll were not only given the welcome drink (a) "given", but were also entertained and accommodated by the masters. Kastner had just no vacancy, the fellows were in 1505 built Bürgerspital catered for the market.

The Kastner were members of the Josephi Brotherhood, founded in 1673 in the hospital church, which, in addition to religious and charitable matters, also aimed to promote church music and church singing.

Over the centuries, the Leonfeldner Lebzelter also provided a number of market judges , councilors and later mayors . Several times they were entrusted with the salt office, which had been set up to manage the lucrative salt trade along the Linzer Steig , for example Hans Caspar Castner from 1713, Hans Georg Castner from 1737 or Ferdinand Adler, who came from Enns in 1742, who temporarily replaced the Lebzelterei of the underage half-orphan Franciscus Ignatius Kastner continued. The age-old Franz Ignaz (1737–1800) was very enterprising and sold his gingerbread, his wax products and his mead at the major annual markets in Linz, Vienna and Budapest . Mid-19th century, the company launched its products even at his own ironing down the Danube in the two capitals of the Dual Monarchy.

Upheavals

The young mayor Franz Kastner (1819-1859) ran for the first Austrian Reichstag in 1848 , but was defeated by the older, regional opponent Anton Hofer. In 1857 he was a founding member of the "Liederkränzchens Leonfelden". In economic terms, he fought against the general decline of the gingerbread trade, against the competition of confectioners who used cheap beet sugar instead of honey , against the new paraffin and stearin factories and against the emerging, large breweries whose products replaced mead as a popular drink. After his death, the energetic widow Anna Kastner (1812–1870) was the guardian of the underage children. In 1862 she opened a shop in Linz No. 53 (today Klosterstrasse) and in 1867 a stall at Am Hof in Vienna.

Her son Franz Kastner (1839–1904) worked as a successful entrepreneur after his experience in North America (1868–1870). In 1881 he founded the "Franzensbad" (Franzensbad), named after his first name, together with the blue-collar boy Karl Wagner, which was in operation until the First World War and mainly attracted guests from Bohemia ( Krummau , Iglau , Pilsen ).

During the major fire in 1892, which killed over 90 market houses in Leonfelden, valuable old company documents and the holdings of the Kastner family's archives were also destroyed, so that these sources are no longer available for research.

Franz Kaspar Kastner (1874–1940) presented the “Leonfeldner Pumpernickl”, which was to become a best seller, at the Upper Austrian state craft exhibition in Linz in 1909, where he was awarded the “Silver Medal”.

After the hard work after the Second World War , the first gingerbread machine was put into operation in the Lebzelterhaus on the market square in 1970. In 1976 the gingerbread factory was built outside the center of the village. The rumba plum product introduced in 1980 became the company's well-known brand.

In 2001 there was a management buyout to the new owners Franz Weglehner and Paulus Nimmervoll, who opened the “Lebzeltarium” gingerbread world in 2013.

Personalities

literature

  • Felix Manzenreiter: Kastner. Bad Leonfelden. Lebzelter for five centuries. Ried im Innkreis 2001, 144 pages.
  • Gilbert Trathnigg: From the Welser Lebzelterei. In: Yearbook of the Musealverein Wels 1956. Wels 1956, pp. 65–89, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at (history of Lebzelterei in Upper Austria in general and in the city ​​of Wels in particular).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Manzenreiter 2001, p. 10.
  2. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, p. 13.
  3. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, p. 17.
  4. ↑ a b c Trathnigg 1956, p. 71f.
  5. ↑ a b Manzenreiter 2001, p. 20f.
  6. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, p. 29.
  7. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, p. 33.
  8. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, p. 33.
  9. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, pp. 44–46.
  10. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, p. 49.
  11. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, p. 73.
  12. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, p. 80.
  13. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, p. 78f.
  14. ↑ Manzenreiter 2001, p. 90.
  15. ↑ a b Short history of the Kastner Lebzelterei on kastner-austria.at.