Gessler (company)

In 1873, the company, which supplied the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire, was reorganized in Jägerndorf (Krnov), Czech Silesia, and its brand name “Altvater” (“old father”) 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 Nazis confiscated the business in 1939, and Felice Westreich and eldest daughter Irma were killed at Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942, Leo and Felice's daughter Gertrude Löwenbein was murdered in the mass shooting in the forest at Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, in November 1944.

The reconstituted company continued to specialize in quality alcoholic products for domestic consumption in Austria and for export to various countries in various continents, to include Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America, most notably the United States.

Its centuries’ old reputation and record of quality led to its being selected as the only representative of the Austrian liquor industry at the International World Fair in Chicago in 1950.