Product & Company Information

The Family

The story begins in 1756 in Bohemia and continues right down to the united Europe of today, taking in on the way some of the most dramatic events in European history.

The Riedel family has been in the glass business for 300 years, with 11 generations keeping the family business intact.

The Riedel story begins in 1678 in the northern part of Bohemia, bordering Schlesia - today the Czech republic and Poland respectively. This part of Bohemia was a German speaking enclave known as the Sudetenland.

The Venetians brought back the knowledge of glass making from the Near East around 1.000 A.D. The knowledge of producing glass spread slowly towards the northern part of Europe, searching for energy, critical to the melting of glass. Wood was the source, causing a glassmaker migration to the forests. Due to this migration, a glass culture developed in Bohemia in the 17th century.

The Riedel Trademark

The Riedel trademark dates from the Art Nouveau period at the end of the nineteenth century, and was used for Riedel glassware made in Bohemia from 1890 to 1925. In 1996, to commemorate Riedel’s 240th anniversary, we reintroduced this trademark for all our mouth-blown, hand-made products. The distinctive Riedel signature is now featured on the base of all these products made in Austria.

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This signature trademark (1) helps our customers to distinguish immediately between hand-made products and those made by machine (2). Our machine-made products carry this Riedel trademark. The Riedel glass dynasty is built on the creative energies of a long line of glassmakers.

Johann Christoph Riedel

The first Riedel in the trade of luxury glass goods was Johann Christoph Riedel, born in 1678. He journeyed all over Europe trading glass, travelling as far as Spain and Portugal. The earnings from the business justified the long, arduous and dangerous travels.

Johann Carl Riedel

Johann Carl, 2nd generation (1701-1781) was a gilder and glasscutter. He operated his own workshop refining glassware.

Johann Leopold Riedel

Johann Leopold Riedel, 3rd generation (1726-1800), made his fortune in the Seven Year War (1756-1763) fought between the Austrians and the Prussians over Bohemia and Schlesia.

The demand for window panes needed for rebuilding the surrounding cities and villages destroyed during the war, offered Johann the chance to found his first glass factory, which he opened on May 17, 1756.

His success was based on a his invention of a technique that substituted stained glass windows with window panes.

Anton Leopold Riedel

The next generation, Anton Leopold, 4th generation (1761-1821) radically changed his father's production from window panes to pure luxury goods, such as chandelier parts and ornate glassware.

Franz Xaver Riedel

Franz Xaver, 5th generation (1786-1844) became a famous engraver in his youth. He signed his works of art, which are available at auctions even today.

He later became an important entrepreneur, enjoying European demand for his goods.

His main success derived from his addition of unknown colours to glass, using Uranium to produce the fluorescent colours, yellow and green, known in the literature as "Annagelb and Annagrün", which he named after his daughter.

Franz called upon his nephew Josef Riedel at the age of 14 to work in his company.

Josef Riedel, The Elder

Josef Riedel The Elder turned out to be an extremely talented person, becoming his uncle's assistant and ultimately inheriting the company.

Josef Riedel The Elder, 6th generation (1816-1894) had great gifts, and the fact that that he was born in the time of the industrial revolution, proved to be very much in his favour.

He left the romantic traditional production places where the glass was melted using furnaces heated by wood in the Bohemian forests, and settled in Polaun. Here he was able to import coal, when the railway came in 1877, which was less expensive and more efficient than wood. The railway assured that the enormous amount of goods produced could travel quickly and safely to his customers.

Josef employed 1200 people at his time. His main production was coloured glass beads and blanks (glass not shaped into finished form), which were cut and polished in the small family workshops.

The goods were ordered and sold through trading companies. The distribution of the Riedel goods reached as far as India and South America. This distribution through the trading companies had the disadvantage that the Riedel name never became a brand in the 19th century as the trading companies sold the goods under their own names.

Josef Riedel, The Younger

The 7th generation, Josef The Younger (1862-1924) was an outstanding chemist and mechanical engineer, creating a remarkable portfolio of 600 different glass colours.

This sophisticated variety of colours set him apart from the competitors and enabled his business to develop further, unaffected by the first Great War.

Due to his development of new machinery, he specialised in the mass production of glass beads, which were used for jewellery and in combination with fabrics. In his cutting departments, he refined blanks with overlays of silver, gold, and colour according to the fashion at the time. After 1890 he started to sign them with the Riedel logo, which was brought into use again in 1996.

Walter Riedel

The 8th generation, Walter Riedel (1895 - 1974) suffered through two great wars, which had a great impact on his destiny.

He was forced to change his citizenship four times due to unfortunate political state of affairs. 1918, Bohemia became part of the Czech Republic and Walter Riedel and the German speaking Sudeten became Czech citizens.

Around 1930 the political and economical conflict between the Sudeten and the Czechs turned violent which led to the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Nazi regime in 1938. At this time 70% of the total Czech glass production was dominated by the Sudeten.

In this time the Riedels emerged to the world as a leading manufacturer of perfume flacons and colour overlaid gift items, chandeliers and chandelier parts. Walter Riedel inherited the mechanical genius of his father, developing extremely advanced mould techniques. Those products where then refined by cutting , being mounted onto metal and then wired for electricity.

The war and the Nazis commanded the industry to change from luxury goods to strategic war products. Walter Riedel and part of this team worked on picture tubes, part of the radar used for monitoring airspace. This was an unique technological achievement for that time, with Walter increasing the available diameter of the tube from 38 cm to 76 cm.

This invention became his destiny. When the Russian army conquered Berlin in 1945, they found an intact tube and were very keen to find the scientist. In this era of Stalin, they forced Walter Riedel to sign a five year working contract and held him prisoner in Russia for 10 years.

By the end of the Great War in 1945, the Riedels' property and companies were confiscated and nationalized by the Czechs. The Riedels lost their home.

Walter Riedel returned to Austria in 1955. The Swarovski family, with whom the Riedel's were very friendly, hosted Walter Riedel and offered him and his son, Claus J. Riedel, a new start in Kufstein, Austria, by reopening a glass factory, specializing in mouth blown items, in 1956

Claus J. Riedel

The 9th generation, Claus J. Riedel (1925-2004) had a vision. He changed stemware from traditional coloured and cut glass to plain, unadorned, thin blown, long stemmed wine glasses.

He gained immediate recognition from sophisticated customers and museums. Many design awards signalled that a new era had began. Museums bought pieces for their exhibition, like the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which today still has Riedel in their permanent collection.

Based on his unique designs, Claus Riedel was first in history to recognize the effect of shapes on the perception of alcoholic beverages. His work has influenced and changed the appearance of stemware forever. His master piece "Sommeliers" was introduced in Orvieto, 30 years ago, the first ever stemware line to be based on the character of wine.

George J. Riedel

The 10th generation, Georg Josef Riedel born 1949 joined the family business in 1973. Under his direction, the Riedel firm evolved into a world wide operating company. Georg founded a network of Riedel-owned subsidiaries, starting in 1979 by opening Riedel USA and continuing the expansions to Canada in 1992, Germany 1996, Japan 2000, UK 2001, and in 2006 he founded Riedel Development, specializing on private label offers.

In 2004, Georg bought the German-based companies Nachtmann and Spiegelau, operating the three brands (Riedel, Nachtmann, Spiegelau) under "Riedel Glass Works" one of the largest producers of quality glass in Europe.

Starting in 1987 with the support of winemaker friends like Angelo Gaja, Christian Moueix, Robert Mondavi and the endorsment of wine publications such as Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate, the Wine Spectator, Decanter Magazine and may others Georg was fortunate to lift "his Riedel glasses" onto the tables of the wine world. Under his leadership, Riedel became the world's leading wine glass company.

Laetizia Riedel

The 11th generation, Laetizia Riedel-Röthlisberger (born 1974) company lawyer of the family business.

Maximilian J. Riedel

Maximilian Josef Riedel (born 1977), active in the company since 1997. CEO of Riedel Crystal of America as of December 2004. Designer of the globally successful "O" line and two of the best selling decanter designs. Since Maximilian Riedel joined the team he advanced in North America business exponentially and achieved unprecedented success.