Rudolf Lindt (16 July 1855 – 20 February 1909), often known by his francized name Rodolphe Lindt, was a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

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 ...

maker,

chocolatier A chocolatier ( ; ; ) is a person or company that makes and sells chocolate confections. Chocolatiers are distinct from chocolate makers, who create chocolate from cacao beans and other raw ingredients. Chocolatiers work artisanally with pre- ...

and inventor. He founded the

Lindt 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 ...

brand of Swiss chocolate and invented the

conching upright=1.35, Conche (in the Imhoff-Schokoladenmuseum) Conching is a process used in the manufacture of chocolate whereby a surface scraping mixer and agitator, known as a conche, evenly distributes cocoa butter within chocolate and may act as ...

machine and other processes to improve the quality of chocolate.

Life

Lindt was born on 16 July 1855 in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, to pharmacist and politician Johann Rudolf Lindt and his wife Amalia Eugenia Salchli. Between 1873 and 1875 he did an apprenticeship in

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

with the ''Amédée Kohler & Fils'' chocolate company, then managed by the sons of Charles-Amédée Kohler. In 1879, he founded his own chocolate factory in the Mattequartier, a section of the Old City of Bern. In December 1879, he succeeded in improving the quality of chocolate by the development of the conching machine, a lengthwise stirring device which gives a finer consistency and lets undesired

aroma An odor (American English) or odour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is a smell or a scent caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds generally found in low concentrations that humans and many animals can perceive v ...

s evaporate. He was also among the first chocolate makers to add

cocoa butter Cocoa butter, also called theobroma oil, is a pale-yellow, edible Vegetable oil, fat extracted from the cocoa bean (''Theobroma cacao''). It is used to make chocolate, as well as some ointments, toiletries, and pharmaceuticals. Cocoa butter h ...

back into the chocolate mass (although not the very first one). These two innovations contributed greatly to the high quality of Swiss chocolate. In 1899, Lindt sold his factory and the secret of conching to the ''Chocolat Sprüngli AG'', who have traded as ''Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG'' since. Sprüngli paid 1.5 million Gold francs for the marketing rights and the recipe.

Sources

* * Alex Capus: ''Patriarchen: Zehn Portraits''. Albrecht Knaus Verlag, München 2006,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindt, Rodolphe 1855 births 1909 deaths People from Bern 19th-century Swiss businesspeople 19th-century Swiss inventors Swiss chocolatiers