The beginnings of Manner

The trained businessman Josef Manner ran a small shop at Stephansplatz 6 in Vienna, where he offered chocolate and fig coffee . Manner acquired the concession and premises of a small chocolate producer in Margareten and, together with his brothers, founded the “Josef Manner Chocolate Factory” on March 1, 1890. Just six months later they moved to Hernals. In 1897 the company already had 100 employees. The Mannerschnitte was invented in 1898. In 1900, Johann Georg Riedl took over half of the company's share, laying the foundation for a collaboration between the families that still exists today. By 1913, Josef Manner had become the leading confectionery producer in Austria-Hungary , at which time the factory, which is still in use today, was built on Wilhelminenstrasse in Vienna-Hernals. In October 1913 the company was converted into a stock corporation and had 3,000 employees. From March 1922, the company's majority shareholding was owned by the Anglo-Austrian Bank . Due to the restrictions of the economic crisis, the company had to reduce its share capital from 6 to 4.5 million schillings in 1935, and in the same year the company's founder Josef Manner withdrew from operational business. Continue reading...