A (; English: "Mozart ball"; ) is a small, round sugar confection made of

pistachio The pistachio (, ; ''Pistacia vera'') is a small to medium-sized tree of the Anacardiaceae, cashew family, originating in Iran. The tree produces nut (fruit)#Culinary definition and uses, seeds that are widely consumed as food. In 2022, world ...

marzipan Marzipan is a confectionery, confection consisting primarily of sugar and almond meal (ground almonds), sometimes augmented with almond oil or extract. It is often made into Confectionery, sweets; common uses are chocolate-covered marzipan and ...

, and

nougat Nougat refers to a variety of similar confections made from a sweet paste hardened to a chewy or crunchy consistency.. The usual version in Western and Southern Europe is made from a mousse of whipped egg white sweetened with sugar or ho ...

that is covered with

dark chocolate Dark chocolate is a form of chocolate made from cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar. It has a higher cocoa percentage than white chocolate, milk chocolate, and semisweet chocolate. Dark chocolate is valued for claimed—though unsupported— ...

. It was originally known as , created in 1890 by

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

confectioner

Paul Fürst Paul Fürst (born 12 August 1856 in Sierning, Austria, died 14 February 1941 in Salzburg) was an Austrian confectioner and the inventor of the " Original Salzburger Mozartkugel". Biography Paul Fürst was the son of Johann Fürst (1827–186 ...

(1856–1941) and named after

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

. Handmade are manufactured by Fürst's descendants up to today, while similar products have been developed by numerous confectioners, often industrially produced.

Origins

Paul Fürst's family descended from

Dinkelsbühl Dinkelsbühl () is a historic town in Central Franconia, a region of Germany that is now part of the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. Dinkelsbühl is a former free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. In local government terms, Dinkelsb ...

; he himself was born in

Sierning Sierning is a municipality in the district of Steyr-Land in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Geography Sierning is located between the city of Steyr Steyr (; ) is a statutory city (Austria), statutory city, located in the Austrian federal st ...

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

, and was raised in Salzburg. Upon the early death of his father, he lived in the house of his uncle, who owned a confectionery at No. 13, Brodgasse. Fürst took over his uncle's business and trained as an apprentice in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionpraline after lengthy trials in 1890. As his specialty became increasingly popular, Fürst established a company that continues to sell . However, he had not applied for a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

to protect his invention, and soon, other Salzburg cake shops began to sell similar products.

Recipe

The original recipe for is: A ball of marzipan combined with pistachio and covered in a layer of nougat is produced. This ball is then placed on a small wooden stick and coated in dark chocolate. The stick is then placed vertically, with the ball at the top, on a platform to allow the chocolate to cool off and harden. Finally, the stick is removed; the hole that it leaves behind is filled with chocolate coating, and the ball is wrapped in metal foil. The balls remain fresh for about eight weeks at room temperature.

Name dispute

When imitation products began to appear, Fürst initiated a court process to attempt to secure a trademark. At first, the dispute concerned only confectionery producers in Salzburg, but later spread to include the competition from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The result was an agreement that obliged Fürst's competitors to use other names. The Mirabell firm, based in

Grödig Grödig is a market town of Salzburg-Umgebung District in the state of Salzburg in Austria. Geography Grödig is located south of the Salzburg city limits in the historic ''Flachgau'' region, near the border with Bavaria, Germany. The market t ...

near Salzburg, chose the name, "Real Salzburg ". Bavarian producer Reber opted for "Real Reber ". In 1996, a dispute between Fürst and a subsidiary of the Swiss food producer

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

, which wanted to market "Original Austria ", was decided in the third instance. Only Fürst's products may be called "Original Salzburg ".

Dispute between Mirabell and Reber

At the end of the 1970s, another dispute arose between industrial confection producer Mirabell (today part of

Mondelez International Mondelēz International, Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food industry, food, Holding company, holding, drink industry, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual rev ...

) and its competitor Reber over the trademark. A provisional agreement was reached in 1981 between representatives of the Austrian and German governments, whereby only Austrian producers were to be allowed to use the label . Reber protested against this agreement, and the EC-Commissioner in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

charged with deciding in the affair finally declared the agreement invalid. This is why Reber may legitimately and continuously use its "Genuine Reber " trademark, though with a hyphen in-between. Nonetheless, only Mirabell are allowed to be round. Other industrially produced must have one flat side. Besides Mirabell and Reber, manufacturers include Hofbauer, Vienna (part of

Lindt & Sprüngli Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG, doing business as Lindt, is a Swiss chocolatier and confectionery company founded in 1845 and known for its chocolate truffles and chocolate bars, among other sweets. It is based in Kilchberg, Zürich, K ...

), and Manner, as well as Halloren in Germany.

Trivia

The won the gold medal at a fair in

in 1905. In the winter of 2006, 80 oversized polyester , each with a diameter of , were placed in the old town of Salzburg. They had been designed by artists. On the night of 27 March, vandals removed one of these from the Franziskanergasse, where it had been bolted to the ground. They then rolled it onto the street, causing damages of .

References

External links

Original Salzburger ''Mozartkugel'' Website
*Organization website
mozartkugeln.org
{{Authority control Austrian confectionery Chocolate Cultural depictions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Products introduced in 1890