Karl Ernst Wedel (February 7, 1813 – June 17, 1902) was a German

confectioner Confectionery is the art of making confections, or sweet foods. Confections are items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates, although exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confections are divided into two broad and somewh ...

of the

Wedel family The House of Wedel (or Wedell) is an old and distinguished German nobility, German noble family, from Stormarn (gau), Stormarn in what is now Schleswig-Holstein. The family members held the title of Fürst#Use of the title in German, Prince, Graf ...

, who settled in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Early life

He was a member of the

Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Republic of Poland () is a Lutheran denomination and the largest Protestant body in Poland with about 61,000 members and 133 parishes. History The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Co ...

. Wedel came to

at the beginning of 1845 and began to work with Karl Grohnert, who was an owner of a confectionery store at 12 Piwna Street. The collaboration between them was a success and won them a large group of loyal customers. Soon afterwards, around 1851, Wedel became financially independent and opened his own store at 12 Miodowa Street, and next door, a steam-powered factory making chocolate. His company, E.Wedel would grow into one of the leading confectionery companies in Poland. A year later, he introduced his widely popular "karmelki smietankowe" ("cream caramels"); the caramels' success was aided by an advertising campaign in "

Kurier Warszawski The ''Kurier Warszawski'' (or ''Warsaw Courier'') was a daily newspaper printed in Warsaw, Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carp ...

" daily newspaper. Another product made popular by Wedel was drinking

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans that can be a liquid, solid, or paste, either by itself or to flavoring, flavor other foods. Cocoa beans are the processed seeds of the cacao tree (''Theobroma cacao''); unprocesse ...

. The store was selling over five hundred cups a day. As the years passed, more products, under the brands, "Brilliant" and "Dessert", were introduced. Wedel married Karolina Wisnowska (1819-1893), daughter of another famous Warsaw confectioner. In 1864, Wedel's son, Emil Albert Friedrich Wedel (1841-1919) returned from an apprenticeship tour of confectioneries in Germany, Switzerland, England, and France, and received a Ph.D. in chemistry (in particular food chemistry). On his return he joined the family business. In 1876, his father gave him the company as a wedding gift on the day of his marriage.

References

Wedel, Karl Wedel, Karl Wedel, Karl German Lutherans Chocolatiers Confectioners 19th-century Lutherans Wedel family Immigrants to the Russian Empire {{confectionery-stub