Franz Xaver Wertheim was born in Krems on the Danube in early 1814 as the son of a merchant. He died on 3 April 1883 as Baron von Wertheim in his own palace on Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna. In between lies one of the most enigmatic and breathtaking careers in Austrian industrial history.
Wertheim began as a simple merchant in Krems and, as an industrialist, rose to the rank of noble baron and to the dignity of Imperial Truchsess. He was president of the Lower Austrian Trade Association, vice-president of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce and Trade and a municipal councillor in Vienna, the recipient of numerous domestic and foreign orders and awards. In 1883 he left a fortune of about 5 million guilders (about 70 million euros). This made him one of the richest men in Vienna.
But in order ....
In most biographies, Wertheim's date of birth is given as 12 April 1814, and this date is also written on his tombstone at the Vienna Central Cemetery. However, a look at the baptismal register of the parish of Krems reveals that this is the date of Franz Xaver Wertheim's baptism. His true date of birth is therefore unknown. It should be noted, however, that it was quite common at that time to equate the date of birth with the date of baptism.
His father Franz, a trained tailor, came to Krems around 1812 (probably from Bavaria) and was initially a supervisor at the k.k. Tabak und Stempelamt Krems. In 1813 he married the widow Barbara Albert (née Reitmayer) and acquired a clothes shop in the house at Krems No. 296 (later No. 281, today Untere Landstraße 17). The residential address was the house at Krems No. 208 on Pfarrplatz, where Franz Xaver saw the light of day. The couple had two more children after Franz: Katharina and Karl Magnus, but both died in infancy (1815 and 1817). In 1816 Franz senior was granted citizenship, in the same year he bought a tailor's workshop in Krems.
The marriage register also provides information about Franz Wertheim's grandparents: Michael Wertheim was an iron merchant in Bavaria, his grandmother Elisabeth came from Württemberg. His maternal grandparents were the master miller Matthias Reitmayer from Immenstadt in Bavaria and his wife Franziska.
Franz Wertheim attended primary school in Krems and then completed a commercial apprenticeship in Vienna. The authors of the various biographies and obituaries disagree about the nature of this education. Opinions range from an apprenticeship in commerce to studies in commerce to attendance at the Imperial and Royal Polytechnic Institute. Some also suspect a locksmith apprenticeship in combination with commercial training.
Considering the rather modest family circumstances, the simple trade apprenticeship is probably the most likely variant. Wertheim's lack of general knowledge, which later provided material for anecdotes, also speaks against a higher education. However, there is no evidence for this.
The formative and decisive period for his development and the foundation for his later career followed after his education in Vienna: Franz Wertheim spent several years on the road in Germany, France and England (perhaps also Italy). Unfortunately, no details have come down to us about his years of wandering. We therefore do not know where and how exactly Wertheim acquired his extensive specialist knowledge, which he later demonstrated. What is certain is that he returned to Krems in 1837/38 as an extremely self-confident and energetic young man.
From his father he received "a stock of Nuremberg goods to open a trading business". And thus began the success story of Franz Wertheim.
"Nuremberg goods" is a collective term for all kinds of arts and crafts, utilitarian and household articles that has its roots in the Middle Ages, when traders from Nuremberg (and Augsburg) dominated long-distance trade in Europe with the products of the manufactories there. Typical articles for such shops were, for example, musical instruments, drawing instruments, measuring instruments, wire products, metal foils, glass mirrors, toys, pencils, paper, knives, needles, nails, pens as well as tools, fittings and other small iron parts.
Franz Wertheim junior opened his shop in 1838 in house no. 314 (in today's "Untere Landstrasse") in Krems. Success was immediate, as Wertheim was mentioned for the first time in a Viennese newspaper in the same year, called "Der Humorist":
"(Wertheim's Nuremberg goods shop) is furnished with such elegance that it could stand on the Graben or Kohlmarkt in Vienna. The proprietor of the same, a young, enterprising man, has brought back from his travels a good taste from London, Paris and Milan, and his efforts are amply rewarded by abundant sales."
Even the first mention of Wertheim hints at a talent that would be essential to his career: Wertheim's sense of presentation (and also self-promotion).
After only a short time, Franz Wertheim was able to expand his business and moved to the Krems town hall, one of the best addresses in the city.
In 1842 the next step was taken.
As mentioned above, tools, especially joiners tools, were also part of the assortment in Wertheim's shop. These were certainly English chisels and plane irons as well as planes and the famous plane irons from the factories of Anton Gruber in Vienna and Neustift near Scheibbs. Wertheim recognised the quality of Gruber's tools, and he also recognised the economic potential of tool making.
When Anton Gruber died unexpectedly in March 1842 and the continuation of his company was uncertain because there was no successor in the family, Franz Wertheim acted without hesitation: together with the toolmaker Georg Gleischner from Senftenberg near Scheibbs, who was supposedly Gruber's foreman, he acquired a privilege for an "improvement in the production of plane irons" in September 1842 and immediately opened a factory in Rehberg near Krems.
In large-format advertisements in the Wiener Zeitung, Wertheim and Gleischner announce the founding of their factory, with clear reference to Gruber.
Two things are particularly striking in this advertisement: On the one hand, Wertheim warns against imitating Gruber's plane irons (just as Anton Gruber himself had done in the years before), but on the other hand, the factory sign, which can be seen in the picture of the plane iron in the advertisement, looks like a copy of Gruber's sign.
Wertheim obviously already sees himself as Gruber's legitimate successor through his collaboration with Gleischner.
But only three months later the rumours about the end of Gruber's factory prove to be false: In February 1843 Michael Holzer, according to his own information also a former foreman for Anton Gruber, buys both the factory in Vienna and the hammer mill in Neustift near Scheibbs from Gruber's heirs, including the valuable privilege on Gruber's plane irons.
Only one month later, in March 1843, another competitor enters the scene: Joseph Herrmann, Gruber's foreman at the hammer mill in Neustift, has bought his own hammer mill in Miesenbach, a district of Neustift near Scheibbs, and has been granted his own privilege to improve the production of plane irons. And Herrmann, a trained blacksmith, is a master of his trade.
Franz Wertheim changes his tactics in the face of sudden competition.
He wastes no time with a perhaps laborious and above all lengthy expansion of his own factory in order to stand up to Holzer and Herrmann. Franz Wertheim chooses a quicker and more direct path: in May 1843 he without further ado joins Holzer as a partner.
In the full-page newspaper advertisement with which Wertheim makes his partnership public, he also sharpens the tone against his remaining competitors. He declares future advertisements that also refer to Gruber's manufacturing method to be untrue from the outset. This is directly aimed at Joseph Herrmann.
Furthermore, Holzer and Wertheim make it clear that the genuine patent plane irons are only available in Vienna from Michael Holzer in Alleegasse. This remark is directed primarily against a manufacturer who had been Gruber's only notable competitor since 1820: Johann Weiss in Vienna.
But partnership is not enough for Franz Wertheim. Only two weeks later, on 30. 6. 1843, he took over the hammer mill in Neustift near Scheibbs alone. And even more important: he also buys Gruber's privilege! Michael Holzer remains the owner of the Viennese factory at Alleegasse 55, where the wooden tools are built.
The factory in Rehberg with Georg Gleischner continues unchanged.
The small merchant Franz Wertheim is thus, only 9 months after founding his first factory, in fact the successor of Anton Gruber and thus the largest producer of plane irons and cutting tools in the entire Austrian Monarchy.
But his competitors are not willing to leave the field to Wertheim alone. Quite the opposite.
At the same time as Wertheim founded his factory in Rehberg, Johann Weiss' son Vinzenz took over the management of his father's company in Vienna.
It is clear to Vinzenz Weiss that plane irons are the key to success, so he too does not hesitate for long: he joins forces with Joseph Herrmann in July 1843 and participates in his privilege.
In full-page newspaper advertisements, both respond to Wertheim's attacks. They make it clear that Joseph Herrmann had been Anton Gruber's only master craftsman for 6 years and that there had been no other besides him, neither in Scheibbs nor in Vienna. They openly accuse Wertheim, Holzer and Gleischner of lying.
And Herrmann goes even further: the excellent reputation that Gruber's plane irons enjoy is mainly due to Herrmann's expertise, so that only he is able to produce plane irons of genuine Gruber quality. His factory mark, which he stamps on the irons, underlines this claim: to Gruber's mark he simply adds his name with the addition "Gruber's former foreman".
Franz Wertheim's answer follows immediately. Only one week after the appearance of the first advertisement by Herrmann and Weiss, he publicly announces that he is the sole owner of Gruber's privilege and counters Herrmann that the good reputation of Gruber's plane irons "has probably existed for longer than 6 years". Wertheim defends himself against all "unlawful encroachments on my privilege rights" and also threatens legal action. To prove the legitimacy of his claims, he also prints a certificate with which Michael Holzer publicly confirms Wertheim's lawful assumption of the privilege.
What is most interesting is what Wertheim does not do: with not a word does he contradict Herrmann's claim to have been Gruber's only foreman.
This ended the public dispute between Franz Wertheim on the one hand and Joseph Herrmann and Johann Weiss on the other for the time being. It is not documented whether there was actually a legal repercussion, as Wertheim announced. However, it is doubtful whether Wertheim would have filed a lawsuit, as the legal basis for this was rather poor at the time. A general trademark protection law was not introduced in Austria until 1859, and Franz Wertheim himself was not insignificantly involved in this.
In September 1844, the "Verein zur Beförderung und Unterstützung der Industrie und der Gewerbe in Innerösterreich, dem Lande ob der Enns und Salzburg" (Association for the Promotion and Support of Industry and Trade in Inner Austria, the Land above the Enns and Salzburg) held its third industrial and trade exhibition in Ljubljana (after Klagenfurt in 1839 and Graz in 1841).
Trade exhibitions were still relatively new in the Austrian Monarchy and many tradesmen were deterred from taking part by the expense involved, others simply shied away from the competition. Franz Wertheim was quite different: he seized the first opportunity. Of course, it may well be that Wertheim saw in France what opportunities and possibilities such exhibitions offered.
The exhibition in Ljubljana was relatively small compared to the previous ones, 280 exhibitors were represented (in Klagenfurt there were 343, in Graz 370), the majority of them from Carniola. Ljubljana's geographical location in the south of Inner Austria may also have played a role. Nevertheless, this exhibition (as before in Klagenfurt and Graz) was opened by Emperor Ferdinand in person, accompanied by Prince Metternich and Count Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky. Thus, the entire head of state was in Ljubljana, which clearly underlines the importance of such exhibitions for the monarchy.
Franz Wertheim exhibited plane irons, chisels and wainwright knives in Ljubljana. In addition, the official report mentions "20 pieces of completely finished planes, partly made of exotic wood, partly of ordinary wood". This is somewhat surprising, as there had previously been no mention of a factory for the manufacture of wooden components for joinery tools. It is quite possible that Wertheim had the planes made especially for the exhibition, perhaps even by Michael Holzer in Vienna. In any case, the quoted report only mentions the two factories for steel goods, no joinery.
The numbers Wertheim can present are impressive: With 60 workers, 144,000 plane irons are produced annually. By way of comparison, in 1840 Anton Gruber produced a total of 38,900 plane irons (Wiener Zeitung, 5. 9. 1841). Wertheim was able to almost quadruple production within his first year!
In addition, he expanded sales beyond the borders of the Monarchy and also delivered to Constantinople, Rome, Naples and Leipzig.
We have already spoken of Wertheim's sense of presentation and self-promotion. His very first participation in an exhibition provided proof of this and earned him the silver prize medal at the first attempt.
The newspaper "Journal des Österreichischen Lloyd", however, found rather critical words in its report:
"The overly elegant appearance of these tools intended for manual use reminded us unpleasantly of the still rather widespread misconception which believes that industrial exhibitions are only held for rare showpieces and works of art".
This most likely meant the planes that Wertheim exhibited but did not manufacture himself.
In fact, the first industrial exhibitions in France in 1801 and 1802 already encountered the problem that many exhibitors displayed specially made "exposition pieces" that had nothing in common with their actual merchandise. The French organisers, on the other hand, wanted to see "products of daily production" at the exhibitions in order to be able to show a real image of the current state of industry. These two very different views subsequently characterised almost all exhibitions in Europe until the middle of the 19th century.
In any case, the jury in Ljubljana justified the prize medal for Wertheim with the excellent quality of its plane irons at a "significantly cheaper price" (than the English products) and explicitly praised the "peculiar method of production" as well as the rapid expansion of production and the associated increase in sales. The planes were not mentioned at all.
Wertheim's original sample boards from 1844 are now in the Technical Museum in Vienna. Unfortunately, they are not on display in the museum, but at least they are available in the online collection (just click on the pictures).
Franz Wertheim's first appearance at a trade exhibition was thus a complete success. In the same year, he was also represented at the general industrial exhibition in Berlin, where he did not win any awards, but gained further experience for the general Austrian industrial exhibition in Vienna in 1845.
There he had his first direct encounter with his competitors Johann Weiss & Sohn and Joseph Herrmann.