Gessler (company)

The Gessler company is an Austrian company that produces liqueur such as "Altvater" as well as Monopolowa vodka.

The original company was founded in Bromberg, Prussia (today, Bydgoszcz in Poland). In 1873, the company, which supplied the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire, was reorganized in Jägerndorf (Krnov), Silesia, and its brand name “Altvater” gained world renown.

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary after World War I, licenses were granted to branches in Vienna, Budapest, Czernowitz (Chernivtsi), Bielitz (Bielsko) and Agram (Zagreb). The company was run by Siegfried Gessler and his brother-in-law Leo Westreich, a former accountant. Leo Westreich died in 1924, his wife Felice Westreich and daughter Irma were killed at Theresienstadt concentration camp. His only remaining direct descendent to have lived was his daughter Liesl Herbst (née Westreich), who was Austrian tennis champion of the 1930s and managed to escape to England.

After the Second World War, most of the branches in Eastern Europe were nationalized and became state operated. The Vienna branch continued to produce various products, including Monopolowa vodka.

After the Second World War, Eduard Gessler, the owner of the Altvater Gessler Company in Vienna, Austria, distantly related to the Baczewski family, reacquired the J. A. Baczewski mark. Under Eduard Gessler’s guidance, Altvater Gessler and J.A. Baczewski reunited under the combined name Altvater Gessler - J.A. Baczewski, with its principal place of business in Vienna, Austria.

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