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The History Behind Riedel Glasses

It was a cold, clear day in 1946 when Claus Riedel managed to escape from the train carrying him and other prisoners of war. With a dauntless leap, he eluded capture by the Allies on the Brenner mountain pass.
This leap not only marked a dramatic turn in Claus Riedel’s life, but also represents a significant instant in the history of the Riedel family and their enterprise – a leap with symbolic power: the beginning of the modern age for the glassmaker's dynasty.

The Riedel family and their commitment to glass as a material can be traced back to Johann Christoph Riedel. He is the 'original' Riedel, that is to say, the 1st generation. In 1723 he met a tragic end. On his way back from business travels, the glass dealer from Bohemia was murdered out of greed by two robbers. Apart from some crows, no one witnessed this cruel deed. The story of Johann Christoph Riedel’s terrible death became well known in Bohemia and was passed down through the generations. The circumstances of his death were the same as those described by the German poet Friedrich Schiller in his famous Ballad “The Cranes of Ibykus”. It is assumed that the glass dealer’s tragedy inspired the great poet.

His grandson, Johann Leopold, is the 3rd generation and proved an able businessman. Documents verify that 250 years ago, on May 17th 1756 to be precise, he established the family's entrepreneurial tradition. With the help of a loan, he took over the glassworks, where he had formerly been employed. Business went so well, that the local landlord gave Johann Leopold permission to run his business as an independent enterprise under a lease. Despite the unfavorable circumstances brought about by the beginning of the Seven Years War, Johann Leopold managed to establish the first Riedel glassworks near Zentner in Antoniwald, today’s Antoninov.

No sooner had glass production begun, than the next political crisis arose: the Bavarian War of Succession. This situation brought out the typical Riedel-family character in Johann Leopold. Without fearing any danger or the threat of punishment, he offered refuge to a number of families, which had fled from areas conquered by the Prussians.

Anton Leopold, the 4th generation, took over the glassworks in Neuwiese (Nová Louka), acquired, in 1766 with as much entrepreneurial spirit as his father, who had died around the turn of the century. The prosperous days ended rather abruptly in 1811 when the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars caused massive inflation. In order to keep the business alive, Anton Leopold began to experiment – successfully - with new production methods. In the period of expansion that followed, both of Anton Leopold’s sons offered active assistance. During that time, Franz Xaver Anton’s considerable artistic and entrepreneurial talents surfaced, providing the best basic conditions to carry on the family tradition.

In addition, the positive economic development helped the new head of the company. The economy recovered and the fashion and lifestyle in the mid-nineteenth century created demand for the glass products from Bohemia. A new boom had begun.

Franz Xaver Anton, the 5th generation, turned out to be a typical head of the Riedel family. On his watch, the glassworks tradition of the Bohemian Forest and modern industrial manufacturing were combined. Demand for fancy fashion accessories such as glass beads, buttons and glass jewelry rose. Soon, production was running at full steam. Improved glass quality and the development of novel and interesting colors, such as yellow and green uranium glass, ensured the company a position among the leaders in the glass industry.

Franz Xaver Anton presided over a stable and prosperous business, but he had no male heir – only his cherished daughter, Anna Maria. In those patriarchal days, the thought of putting a woman in charge of a business was impossible. And so, Franz Xaver Anton brought his 14 year old nephew, Josef, into the business in 1830. Josef learned the ropes of the business, from the ground up, and took on all tasks with great commitment in order to familiarize himself with all the details of glass manufacturing. Four years after Franz Xaver’s death in 1844, the issue of succession within the Riedel dynasty was solved by young Josef’s marriage to his cousin Anna.

Josef Riedel, the 6th generation, was a dedicated and highly successful visionary. In 1849 he was able to enlarge his enterprise by acquiring other glassworks. Thus, Josef Riedel became the Glass King of the Jizera mountains. Everything was going well until his beloved wife, Anna, died prematurely at the age of 36. She left four children behind, but Josef’s grief was so deep that he could not bear to stay in Antoniwald. He relocated his glassworks to Unter-Polaun, today’s Dolní Polubný, where he immersed himself in work again. In 1859 he married Johanna Neuwinger and began the construction of new glassworks to replace the original Antoniwald-Zenker works in 1866.

Nothing could stop the Glass King. Business expanded further, and his four sons, Otto, Hugo, Wilhelm and Josef, the latter a child from his second marriage, supported their father actively in running his large enterprise, although Josef senior did not waste a single thought on retiring from business life. On the contrary, he introduced gas furnaces heated with coal gas and put an end to clear-cutting the forests. The Glass King was decades ahead of his time. He ran his business until his death in 1894.

His youngest son, Josef, the 7th generation, is the forefather of today’s generations. He had no intention of following in the footsteps of his larger-than-life father and decided to cut his own path. He focused on other business areas where he could leave his mark. The one thing he shared with the Glass King was the love for glass and innovation. For example, he succeeded in developing a machine for the production of glass beads – a landmark in glass production of those days.

His son, Walter, the 8th generation, experienced incredible highs and lows. After the end of World War I, Walter started working in his father’s enterprise and, out of four male descendents, was appointed the spokesman of the company after his father’s death in 1924. This was also the time in which the worldwide economic crisis began, which climaxed in 1929 when the New York Stock Exchange collapsed. National protectionism sprouted in Germany and lead to a decline in exports as well as rising unemployment.
Soon after the outbreak of the World War II, Walter started the production of textile glass fibers. At the same time, the industrialist Werner Schuller, developed a new method for spinning glass fibers without platinum, for which he had patent pending. The aviation authority recommended this material as suitable for army purposes and forced Riedel and Schuller to found a joint venture. The authority commissioned Schuller to produce a masterpiece in glass technology: a screen with a diameter of 76 centimeters, the basis for a large-screen radar display. This seemed impossible at the time, when the maximum dimension for such screens was not more than 38 centimeters. Three weeks after receiving the order, he presented the requested screen in Berlin, much to the amazement of the authority. It was a cruel twist of fate that his ingenious accomplishment cost him 10 years of his life in captivity in Russia.

In May, 1945 the Russian army invaded Polaun from the north, while the Czech partisans advanced from south. This was the end of the Riedel’s enterprise. However, Walter Riedel was ordered by the new Czech government to carry on the now nationalized business, which had been confiscated along with all other assets. Thus, everything the family had worked for over a period of 200 years evaporated practically overnight. 16 days after the nuclear bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Walter Riedel was taken into custody and transferred to Moscow, where he was forced to build up the Russian glass industry. When his five-year contract expired he sought to leave the country, but the Russians had other plans for him. When he turned to the Austrian Embassy in Moscow for help, he was arrested for espionage. Walter received a 25-year sentence to be served in Siberia. Lev Kopelev, an inmate at the same prison camp described these times and the encounter with Walter in his drama “Ease my sorrows”. After Stalin’s death, and thanks to the great efforts of German chancellor Konrad Adenauer in intervening on behalf of prisoners of war, Walter Riedel returned to Austria in 1955.

His son Claus, the 9th generation, made the brave leap into freedom from war captivity described at the beginning of the story. On the way out of Italy he jumped off the train while passing through the Tyrol, where a friend and co-prisoner had a farm. On foot and wearing no more than his thin prison uniform, he struggled through the snow to get there. Daniel Swarovski, the owner of the glass cutting company of the same name, learned that a Riedel was in the village. Swarovski had once been taught the art of glass making by Claus’ great grandfather Josef back in Bohemia. He took Claus under his wing like a son and made it possible for him to go to university to study chemistry. Later, Claus Riedel settled in the capital of the Austrian province of the Tyrol together with his wife Aida, whom he had met in Italy. In 1955 the Swarovskis were asked to take over the bankrupt “Tiroler Glashütte” [Tyrolean glassworks] in Kufstein. They declined, since the production of drinking glasses did not fit their company profile. Swarovski approached Walter and Claus Riedel, who were interested, but lacked the funds to take over the company. The Swarovskis advanced the amount they needed, thus enabling the Riedels to continue their family tradition in the Tyrol in 1956.

After a time of rebuilding, both Walter and Claus threw themselves into their work with great enthusiasm. However, father and son had different visions of how to position the company in the future. Claus wanted to produce stemware, whereas Walter wanted glass products with high production output. A conflict was unavoidable. Of course, this conflict between generations was healthy and once more proved the Riedel family’s motto: “Stoke the fire, don’t save the ashes”.

The Riedel glassworks took on a completely new direction – purposeful, unadorned, thin-blown wine glasses. In the catalogue of the year 1961, Claus Riedel presented, for the first time ever, his novel idea: wine glasses designed to underline the individual character of a wine. Thus, the new functional glass distinguished itself from competitor’s products more than ever before, which were shaped according to the fashion and aesthetics of the time. The mouth-blown Sommeliers line was introduced in 1973. A revolutionary philosophy for all those who enjoy good wines, it earned Sommeliers countless international awards and changed wine culture from that time on.

Georg represents the 10th generation. He developed and refined his father’s visionary theories by beginning to produce glasses which suit specific grape varieties. In 1986 he mechanized the production of functional wine glasses with his Vinum line. Machine-blown glasses which suit the type of wine became more affordable for wine lovers around the world. In 1979 Georg founded a subsidiary in the United States. Two people contributed significantly to the company’s present success: the legendary winemaker Robert Mondavi and the world’s most influential wine critic, Robert Parker.

While Claus was a forward-thinking, gifted designer – among other things, the National Olympic Committee commissioned him to design and produce the cups for the 1964 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck and the 1968 Games in Mexico City – Georg possessed an analytical instinct for the essential and a distinctive cost-consciousness. As a logical consequence, he took over the control of the company strategy holding the majority of company shares in 1987.

Georg made it his life’s work to develop the heritage of special wine glasses that further underline the individual taste of a given grape variety. He traveled the world and organized workshops with wine experts to develop new glasses from Tinto Reserva to Single Malt. The world of wines is diverse and there will still be need to develop new forms and new glasses in the future.

Today, the enterprise is run by Georg and Maximilian Riedel, the tenth and eleventh generations. Maximilian, the 11th generation, who has been in charge of the highly successful Riedel USA subsidiary, has already left his mark on the world of wine glasses. He designed O, a tumbler that enhances the character of the wine. His unconventional approach to wine glasses led to impressive demand, which demonstrates that creative ideas and innovations are well received in the market.

Through successful marketing around the globe, Georg managed to accrue the capital required to take over the German glassmakers F.X. Nachtmann and Spiegelau. Through these acquisitions in the year 2004 his enterprise became the fourth-largest glass manufacturing company in Europe.

Georg made this weighty decision as a manufacturer of machine-made glass and marketing strategist to strengthen and expand the Riedel empire. There will always be a market for purposeful, handmade glasses; however, in the machine-glass segment there are better opportunities for growth. The three brands, Riedel, Nachtmann and Spiegelau, will maintain clear market positions in the future.

Georg continues the impressive family history his forefathers began with determination, innovation, dedication, and with forward-thinking concepts. Thus, he is ensuring the success of future Riedel generations. The best pre-conditions for conquering markets around the world have been laid and Riedel is ready to take the next leap.

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