P. & C. Habig

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P. & C. Habig

logo
legal form one-man business
founding 1862
Seat Vienna
management Barbara Habig
Branch Textile wholesaling, clothing wholesaling
Website www.Habig.at

Business sign of Habig P & C, Vienna Berlin K&K Hof hat factory 1862 in Venice, Italy
Exterior view of the former shop of P. & C. Habig in the Habig-Hof
Manufactured in 1975
Imperial coat of arms with the logo of P. & C. Habig on the Habig farm
Inside view of the listed shop
Wiener Zentralfriedhof, crypt of the company's founder Peter Habig (1839–1916), designed by Josef Engelhart

P. & C. Habig is a hat manufacturer and former supplier to the Imperial and Royal Court in Vienna's 4th district of Wieden . The company is continued in the fifth generation by Barbara Habig (* 1975).

history

In 1853 Peter Habig (born January 29, 1839 in Salmünster , † January 4, 1916 in Vienna) moved to Vienna with his distant relative Franz Auhl and initially worked as a hat maker for 5 years. In 1858 he was acquitted in Korneuburg .

He married Adelheid, the daughter of Franz Auhl. When she got married, she brought a retail shop from her father as a dowry , which he ran until 1866. From 1865 his brother Carl helped in the business.

From 1867 Habig built a small workshop in which the very popular silk hats and the so-called "Chemisse-Galette" were made. In 1871, Peter Habig made his brother Carl the company's companion, and since then the company has been called “P. & C. Habig ”. In 1870 the brothers won the gold medal at the international exhibition in Kassel. The “Hors concours Juror” award, which they won at the Vienna World Exhibition in 1873 , brought them additional prominence in high circles.

In 1882 they both opened their hat factory on Wiedner Strasse. Equipped with the latest machines, Habig was able to achieve huge sales. Shops were on Wiedner Hauptstrasse 15 right next to the factory and in Palais Todesco , Kärntner Strasse 51, where silk and felt hats were sold. In 1888 a shop was opened at Friedrichstrasse 82 in Berlin . The company's heyday took place during the monarchy , when KuK was allowed to call itself a chamber and court hat manufacturer . Furthermore, P. & C. Habig was purveyor to the court of the German Empress Auguste Viktoria and Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia . King Edward VII of Great Britain, George I of Greece and Peter I of Serbia as well as Grand Duke William IV of Luxembourg were also supplied . Habig was also a prominent sponsor of the magazine Das Andere by Adolf Loos , who was an outspoken esthete.

Due to their success, the Habigs were able to have the architects Carl Holzmann and Heinrich Adam build a large Wilhelminian building ensemble near the factory . The so-called " Habig-Hof " was a complete set of apartments and sales areas that took up almost an entire city block. You probably also directed Comptoir one of the company on the ground floor.

The company was able to achieve further exhibition successes in Philadelphia (1876) , Paris (1878) , Antwerp (1885) , Brussels (1888) , Chicago (1893) and the “Grand Prix” in Paris in 1900 .

Peter Habig was one of the founders of the Club of Austrian Hat Manufacturers and was influential in the Viennese hatmakers' cooperative and in the Austrian hat fashion association. He was also socially committed and set up loyalty bonuses for particularly long-time employees. He was also a member of the arbitration tribunal of the Lower Austrian Trade Association and donated a model workshop for the shepherds as an exhibit for the Vienna Technical Museum .

For his services he received many awards, including the Golden Cross of Merit with the Crown, the Franz Joseph Order, the Order of the Iron Crown III. Class and the Knight's Cross of the French Legion of Honor; also was appointed to the commercial council.

Peter Habig died in the middle of the First World War in 1916 and was buried in the central cemetery. His crypt with a grave monument was designed by Josef Engelhart .

After the First World War , the main customers stayed away and after the Second World War hats completely lost their importance due to the changing fashion. The store on Friedrichstrasse was destroyed in the Second World War, and the main store on Wiedner Strasse had to be closed for financial reasons. The heiress Barbara Habig continues to run a small factory to this day , in which she creates hats as fashion accessories.

business

The old main business itself belongs to the Generali Foundation, together with the former factory it is a listed building . The business was only allowed to be adapted for other purposes under strict conditions. After Habig moved out, a number of cafés were established one after the other, and there is now a branch of the Aida coffee house chain on the premises .

The architects were probably Holzmann and Adam, who designed the shop in the Habig-Hof at Wiedner Straße 15 in 1896/97. The interior is decorated with white stucco with small medals showing the prizes and international awards from Paris, Philadelphia, Antwerp, Brussels and Chicago. Imperial double-headed eagles and other national coats of arms show who Habig was purveyor to the court for. The showcases are made of faux mahogany and etched frosted glass. The shop itself is divided by several doors, which are also decorated with decorated milk glass. The lamps from the ceiling are no longer original, but modern additions.

The premises are 320 square meters in size, 150 square meters of which are the heritage-listed hat making, 90 square meters of hat workshop and 80 square meters of cellar and warehouse.

literature

  • Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 3: Ha-La. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-218-00545-0 , pp. 8-9.
  • Reinhard Engel: Luxus aus Wien I. Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-7076-0121-8 .
  • Michael Huey: If the cap fits. In: The World of Interiors. February 2009, ISSN  0264-083X , pp. 76-81.
  • The bearers of the national coat of arms of Austria. Jupiter Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Vienna 1978.

Web links

Commons : P. & C. Habig  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 11 ′ 48.5 ″  N , 16 ° 22 ′ 3.6 ″  E