Theodor Tobler
Theodor Tobler (24 January 1876 – 4 May 1941) was a Swiss chocolatier and businessman, best known as the creator, along with Emil Baumann, of the Swiss chocolate brand Toblerone.
Theodor Tobler | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 24 January 1876 |
| Died | 4 May 1941 (aged 65) Bern, Switzerland |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Occupation(s) | Chocolatier, businessman |
| Known for | Co-creator of Toblerone |
Early life
Tobler was born on 24 January 1876 in Bern to Johann Jakob Tobler (1830–1905), a confectioner from Lutzenberg,[1] a town in Appenzell Ausserrhoden near the Austrian border, and Adeline Lorenz Tobler (née Baumann).[2] He attended school in Bern from 1885 to 1892, but left without graduating.[3] After receiving a commercial education in Geneva and Venice, Tobler entered his father's business in 1894.[2]
As their demand increased in the following years, in 1899 Johann Jakob Tobler transformed the confectionery shop into a chocolate factory, naming it Fabrique de Chocolat Berne, Tobler & Cie.[4] In 1900, the company was handed over to Tobler by his father.[5]
Career
In 1908, Tobler and his cousin Emil Baumann, the company's production manager, created the Toblerone chocolate bar,[3] naming the product as a portmanteau combining Tobler's surname and torrone, the Italian word for honey and almond nougat.[3] Tobler applied for a patent for the Toblerone manufacturing process in Bern in 1909.[6] The brand was trademarked the same year at the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, becoming the first patented milk chocolate made with almonds and honey.[6]
Tobler left the company in 1933 and bought the Klameth confectionery firm in Bern in 1934.[2] After attempts to manufacture chewing gum at Klameth were unsuccessful, the company acquired the distribution rights in Switzerland for the Wrigley chewing gum.[3] In 1937 he founded the enterprise Typon AG, in Burgdorf, which produced films for the graphic industry.[2]
He was a witness at the Bern Trial on behalf of the freemasonry. Tobler died in Bern on 4 May 1941.[2]
Personal life
Tobler was first married to Theda Born, from 1903 until their divorce in 1919, then to Bertha Eschmann after 1919.[2] He was a member of the masonic lodge zur Hoffnung of Bern from 1902.[2]
A pacifist and pan-european,[2] Tobler was one of the founders in 1934, in Basel, of the Europa Union,[3] an organization supportive of European federalism,[7] predecessor of the present-day European Movement Switzerland, which advocates Switzerland's full entry into the European Union.[8]
See also
References
- Staatsarchiv des Kantons Bern (Canton of Bern State Archives) (2001). Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde (in German). Vol. 63.
- Theodor Tobler in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- Katja Hürlimann. "Tobler, Ernst Theodor". Deutsche Biographie (in German). Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- Alexander Thoele (29 May 2003). "A história picante do Toblerone". Swissinfo (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- "Toblerone – How it all began". Toblerone. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- "Toblerone:1909". How it All Began: Tobler's Chocolate. Kraft Foods. 2006. Archived from the original on March 24, 2009. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
- "En plein nazisme, des Suisses collaborent à une constitution pour une future Europe fédérale". Le Temps (in French). 7 January 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
- Eric Flury-Dasen. "Nouveau mouvement européen Suisse (NOMES)". Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in French). Translated by Monique Baud-Wartmann.