Theodor Tobler

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Theodor Tobler
Born24 January 1876
Bern, Switzerland
Died4 May 1941(1941-05-04) (aged 65)
Bern, Switzerland
NationalitySwiss
Occupation(s)Chocolatier, businessman
Known forCo-creator of Toblerone

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.

Early life[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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 [de], which advocates Switzerland's full entry into the European Union.[8]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Staatsarchiv des Kantons Bern (Canton of Bern State Archives) (2001). Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde (in German). Vol. 63.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Theodor Tobler in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  3. ^ a b c d e Katja Hürlimann. "Tobler, Ernst Theodor". Deutsche Biographie (in German). Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  4. ^ Alexander Thoele (29 May 2003). "A história picante do Toblerone". Swissinfo (in Portuguese). Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  5. ^ "Toblerone – How it all began". Toblerone. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Toblerone:1909". How it All Began: Tobler's Chocolate. Kraft Foods. 2006. Archived from the original on March 24, 2009. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
  7. ^ "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.
  8. ^ Eric Flury-Dasen. "Nouveau mouvement européen Suisse (NOMES)". Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in French). Translated by Monique Baud-Wartmann.
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