B1-32 · Wedel: The Sweet Story of a Warsaw Factory

Wedel: The Sweet Story of a Warsaw Factory

Look at the signature on a box of chocolates. If it says "E. Wedel", you are holding a piece of Polish history. The story of this company began in 1851 in Warsaw, when Karol Wedel opened a small sweet shop in the city center.

A small workshop. Karol Wedel came from Germany and had learned to make sweets in several European countries. In Warsaw, he decided to start his own business: a little shop with a workshop at the back, where he made hot chocolate and sweets. In the first years, the business was small and risky. But Karol refused to give up, and his son Emil built a bigger factory. Emil's signature became the company logo, and it is still used today.

Chocolate for everyone. Emil's son, Jan Wedel, took over the company after the First World War. His idea was to make good chocolate with modern machines, so that ordinary people could afford it. In 1931, he opened a large new factory in the Praga district of Warsaw. By the late 1930s, the company employed hundreds of people, and its chocolates were sold all over Poland and abroad.

A factory that cared. Jan Wedel didn't stop at building a factory. He wanted his workers to live well, too. The company had a canteen, a nursery for workers' children and medical care, and it helped workers with housing and holidays. Many young people came to the factory as apprentices: they spent the day working and the evening learning their trade. Wedel believed in rewarding hard work: good workers got bonuses, but they were also expected to follow strict rules.

Birds' milk. The most famous Wedel product is Ptasie Mleczko ("Birds' Milk"), soft sweets covered in chocolate, which Jan Wedel created in 1936. He got the idea after a trip to France. The name comes from an old saying: a person who has everything "lacks only birds' milk". Today, millions of boxes are sold every year.

After the war. After 1945, the Communists took the factory, and in 1949 it was even renamed "22 Lipca" (22 July), after a Communist holiday. But the wrappers still said "formerly E. Wedel", and the people of Warsaw kept calling the chocolate "Wedel". Jan Wedel died in 1960. After the fall of communism, the old name came back. Today, Wedel belongs to an international group, Lotte, but the chocolate is still made in the old factory in Praga.

If you visit Warsaw, remember to drink hot chocolate in the old Wedel shop on Szpitalna Street. You can also try tasting Ptasie Mleczko in new flavors there. And next time you open a box of chocolates, try to remember where it all started.