Timeless glasses by Riedel, a world leader in wine glasses
The long-established Austrian company Riedel, based in Kufstein in Tyrol, Austria, has produced drinking glasses and other glass products since the middle of the 18th century and has been family-owned ever since. Riedel combines an impressive past with a successful present. The company was founded in Bohemia in 1756 by the glassmaker Johann Leopold Riedel. His ancestors were glass traders who travelled across Europe. Over the following decades, the Riedel glassworks made a name for itself, and the men of the Riedel family became known as the glass kings of the Jizera Mountains.
The company survived the end of the monarchy, the social upheavals of the First Republic and the effects of the Great Depression. After the Second World War, however, the Riedel family was expropriated, and Walter Riedel, the eighth generation of the company, spent ten years as a prisoner in Russia – so the company's future prospects looked rather bleak. His son, Claus J. Riedel, escaped from a prisoner transport crossing the Brenner Pass in 1946, ushering in the modern era at Riedel.
The first Riedel wine glasses
With the support of the Tyrolean glass industrialist Swarovski, who knew the Riedel family from Bohemia, Claus Riedel and his father Walter – who had returned from captivity in Russia – succeeded in taking over the bankrupt "Tiroler Glashütte" in 1956. Finally, in 1973, Claus Riedel created the groundbreaking innovation that Riedel is still associated with today and that brought the company worldwide fame: wine-friendly, handmade, mouth-blown glasses – the first Riedel wine glasses.
In 2004, Riedel acquired the German glass group F.X. Nachtmann with the Nachtmann and Spiegelau brands. Today, Riedel is regarded as the world market leader in the production of functional glasses. The Riedel range now includes wine glasses, water glasses and beer glasses in a wide variety of timeless and modern designs – all available online in the Connox shop. In 2015, Riedel became the only Austrian company to be admitted to the prestigious French association Comité Colbert. Now in its tenth and eleventh generations, Riedel has remained a tradition-conscious family business whose Austrian roots will continue to shape its path in the future.
