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THERESIA HAUER
PATISSERIE & CONFISERIE
is the core of the company and brand
of Leconte Chocolatiers.
For 176 years, all our products and brands have come from the same family of entrepreneurs: Hauer/Leiningen/Lorenz/Schmid/Lehner.
With this background since 1850, our company stands for innovative products of the highest quality, which elegantly combine tradition and the demands of the times.
The strong female founder.
Theresia Hauer was born in 1829 in Vienna's Josefstadt district, the daughter of an innkeeper. From a young age, she worked in her parents' business, the renowned Jägerhof restaurant with its attached patisserie and confectionery, located at the corner of Schlösselgasse and Wickenburggasse. She took over the business in 1850 at the age of only 21, following the early death of her father.
1850
It all starts with an innovative recipe for cakes that stay moist and fresh for longer.
Because other well-known Viennese cakes dried out far too quickly due to the high flour content and were not suitable for travel and shipping according to Theresia's quality standards, she developed a completely new recipe for a chocolate cake, in which she completely replaced the drying flour with finely grated almonds and glazed the cakes with the finest apricot jam.
The result was a cake that stayed moist and fresh for several weeks, traveled well worldwide, and delivered a moist and fresh treat upon arrival—no matter where in the world it was enjoyed. This success is linked to several production details that remain closely guarded "sweet" secrets to this day, in the fifth generation of the same owner and entrepreneurial family.
The bellows of the organ in the Piarist church served as a model for Theresia Hauer's innovative convection oven.
For example, baking without flour required constant air circulation. The organ construction and bellows of the nearby Piarist church Maria Treu served as a model. They had similar bellows installed on both sides of their oven, which were operated by their staff throughout the entire baking process. This allowed the cakes to rise well even without flour.
Its innovativeness and advancement in time is remarkable, considering that the first commercially available convection oven was not developed until over 100 years later, in the 1960s.
The nougat-marzipan praline
In Theresia Hauer's chocolate factory, the finest nougat-marzipan pralines with a distinctive taste were created, covered in dark or white chocolate.
In the mid-19th century, pralines were usually produced by skewering a nut or fruit onto a stick and rolling it in chocolate or nougat.
Traditional chocolates, mostly nougat-covered fruit or pure nougat pralines, couldn't withstand the summer heat and melted away. Theresia Hauer, the great-great-grandmother of the current owners of LECONTE CHOCOLATIERS, was tasked with meeting this particular challenge:
As a first step, she placed the most heat-sensitive nougat mass in the center. Then she surrounded it with the finest marzipan, which is virtually impossible to melt. However, she found marzipan too visually unappealing as the top layer. And a final layer of dark chocolate would melt again.
To protect the marzipan from drying out, it had to be dipped in chocolate. However, to prevent this from causing further problems with heat resistance, Theresia Hauer first applied a layer of milk chocolate followed by a layer of dark chocolate. The resulting tension created by these two chocolate layers resulted in increased heat resistance and a crisp, fresh bite.
Pioneer of white chocolate.
But an innovative idea led them to an even better solution:
Theresia Hauer continually researched and experimented to extend the thermal stability gained through the spherical structure all the way to the surface of the praline. It helped that she produced her own cocoa powder from carefully selected cocoa beans.
When her brother, a builder during the later Ringstrasse period and owner of a marble quarry, developed a granulate mill for finely grinding his marble fragments, his sister Theresia Hauer visited him with a sack of cocoa beans to try whether they could be ground into powder more quickly using his machine than by conventional, labor-intensive and time-consuming grinding.
She underestimated the significantly accelerated processing and not only removed the cocoa powder from the mill, but found it in a buttery, milky liquid.
Through further experimentation, she developed a white chocolate glaze, which she applied to her pralines while very hot and then quickly cooled. Because its melting point was higher than that of dark chocolate, her coated products became extremely heat-resistant and could be produced year-round. This made Theresia Hauer a pioneer of white chocolate.
Along with her new cake and praline recipes, she became a global pioneer of white chocolate. By discovering that cocoa butter, which she called "l'Essence Absolue der Kakaobohnen" (the essence absolute of the cocoa bean), could be obtained by pressing cocoa powder, she was the first person in the world to possess the basic ingredient for the production of white chocolate.
This gave her a heat-resistant white chocolate coating for pralines and chocolate cakes, both global sensations. This laid the foundation for the worldwide export of the truffles and cakes, even over long distances.
„Lipizzaner“ cakes & truffles.
Naturally, Theresia Hauer used her white chocolate as a glaze for both her innovative chocolate balls and her moist, fresh, gluten-free cakes.
Because of its color, which was completely new for chocolate, the white chocolate ball was nicknamed "Lipizzanerkugeln" by the Viennese, as were their white cakes, which were called "Lipizzanertorten." Trademark law did not yet exist in the mid-19th century.
Theresia Hauer's new products became world-famous, especially with their white chocolate coating.
The “Lipizzanerkugel” and the “Lipizzanertorte” were born.
The very first trademark rights for Lipizzaner® were registered in Austria in 1954 for confectionery. Our international brand Lipizzaner® has existed since 1999.
“It´s Chocolate and it comes in a Hat”
In the 19th century, Theresia Hauer liked to deliver her cakes and balls in sturdy hatboxes. The current design is reminiscent of this.
The triangular hatbox.
The triangular shape of some of our packaging references the Cheops pyramid, which Theresia Hauer's son-in-law, Karl Graf Leiningen-Billigheim, visited several times with his wife Christine on the occasion of his participation in the excavations of the Sphinx, bringing with him chocolate balls and cakes from the family's manufactory.
Branch at St. Stephen's Square in Vienna
The success of the sensational white chocolate products led Theresia Hauer Chocolade Manufactur 1875 to open an exclusive branch at Stephansplatz in the adjacent Viennese city center, in addition to its production site and restaurant in Vienna's Josefstadt district.
1889
The Lipizzaner cake and great love.
Charles Count of Leiningen, Egyptologist and diplomat in Bavarian service, was in Vienna on official business in 1889 and was preparing for his trip to Cairo, where he participated in the excavations of the Sphinx.
When he asked a friend for a Viennese cake that he could easily transport to Cairo as a juicy, fresh gift even after a week-long trip, he was recommended the Theresia Hauer cake, and especially the white one, the "Lipizzaner cake" which he could buy at Stephansplatz 6.
Upon arriving there, he was not only impressed by the cakes. He fell in love with Theresia Hauer's daughter Christine, who was helping out in sales that day.
The honeymoon trip to Cairo became the most spectacular export to date of Theresia Hauer's cakes and chocolates, which brought Theresia Hauer valuable feedback.
Christine and Charles introduced the successful products from Josefstadt and Stephansplatz as exclusive “sweet greetings” from Vienna to the international stage of diplomatic representation and exclusive culinary enjoyment.
With Charles Count of Leiningen, the coat of arms and motto “Never return” also came into our family, which still stand for our companies and products today.
The occasion for the “modular”
“Lipizzaner” wedding cake
The white Lipizzaner cake has been produced in four sizes ever since. From the four modules "King Size", "Classic", "Princess" and "Medium", Theresia Hauer created a tiered cake for her daughter's wedding, which remains one of our most popular and beautiful creations to this day.
To this day, the 4 white Lipizzaner cakes are ideal modules for creating festive multi-tiered cakes at any time, even without pre-ordering, by simply stacking the 2 to 4 different sizes decoratively on top of each other.
Vienna, Cairo, Munich, London.
Karl Graf Leiningen's extreme durability tests paved the way for successful export activities. In particular, her two white chocolate products, "Lipizzaner“ truffles and "Lipizzaner“ Cake, brought Theresia Hauer international success.
1893
Munich branch.
Due to their high heat stability and durability, their products were ideally suited for export. A branch in Munich followed as early as 1890.
1895
London branch
In 1895, another branch of the Theresia Hauer Chocolate Manufactory was opened in London, where she was also permitted to supply HM The Queen Victoria with her fine Viennese pastries. To mark the opening of this branch and the birth of her granddaughter Emilie, she named one of her black tea varieties "Lady Emily Tea", which remains a staple in our tea selection to this day.
The 2nd generation.
After Theresia Hauer's death in 1900, the company was successfully continued by her two daughters, Anna Lorenz in Vienna and Christine Countess of Leiningen in Munich.
1934 - 1960
The 3rd generation.
Theresia Hauer's granddaughter Emilie Lorenz then took over and led the company through the difficult war and post-war years at its original location in Vienna-Josefstadt.
1960 -2003
The 4th generation.
From 1960 onwards, Theresia Hauer's great-granddaughter Annemarie Lehner-Schmid continued to manage the affairs of the family business in the 4th generation.
1999
The brand was already registered for chocolate products in 1954
LIPIZZAN®
In 1999, it was expanded internationally and incorporated into our product range as a brand name for
&
adopted in order to combine them with the traditional products of our house, where they historically originated in the mid-19th century, at that time as a nickname for the white cakes and balls.
In the following years, the brand blended perfectly with our tradition of white chocolate, especially with the gluten-free LIPIZZAN® CAKE and the LIPIZZAN® TRUFFLES.
In 2000, the LIPIZZAN® brand was internationalized for confectionery and other food & non-food products.
2003
The 5th generation.
Since 2004, the Theresia Hauer and Lipizzaner brand areas have been managed in the 5th generation by Theresia Hauer's great-great-grandson, Wolfgang Robert Lehner.
2004
Establishment of Lipizzanerkugel Production & Sales GmbH
Following the first factory sale at the production site,
LIPIZZAN® SHOPS
with a wider range of quality food and non-food products, starting in 2004 with the branch
LIPIZZAN® St.Wolfgang
in Salzkammergut.
2005
LIPIZZAN® AT ST. STEPHENS SQUARE
With the same product range as in 1875-1900, the new LIPIZZAN flagship store will be reopened in 2005 in Vienna's city center at Stephansplatz 6, a building of the Archbishop's Palace, with a facade and interior largely preserved from 1900.
In 2012, this historic site with its preserved old Viennese facade from 1875 unfortunately fell victim to the renovations for its integration into the Cathedral Museum of the Archdiocese of Vienna located behind it.
2014
LIPIZZAN® JOSEFSTADT
With the shop in the premises of the “Old Cacao Comptoirs” at Feldgasse 1, a LIPIZZAN® branch will be opened again in Josefstadt in 2012, where our company history began in 1850.
2019
LIPIZZAN® Rauhensteingasse 4.
2020
170th Anniversary
Theresia Hauer Torte und Kugel, the oldest brand division of the Lecon Industries Group, celebrates
170 years of long-standing tradition.
2025
175 years
Theresia Hauer cake and truffles
25 years
International brand Lipzzan®.
THE TRIBUTE.
Our well-known international brand products LIPIZZAN®TORTE & LIPIZZAN®TRUFFLES proudly bear the name of the inventor of their recipes in 1850 in Austria:
