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Franz Sacher

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Franz Sacher
BornDecember 19, 1816
Vienna, Austrian Empire
DiedMarch 11, 1907(1907-03-11) (aged 90)
Weikersdorf, Baden bei Wien, Austria-Hungary
OccupationConfectioner
Known forInventing the sachertorte
Children3

Franz Sacher (19 December 1816 – 11 March 1907) was an Austrian[1] confectioner, best known as the inventor of the sachertorte.

Biography

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Sacher was born on 19 December 1816 in Vienna[2] to Anton Sacher and Anna (nee Löw). It has been claimed by multiple sources that his family was Jewish,[3][4] however Sacher did not publicly state he was ever Jewish, and it is debatable whether he was either born Jewish, but converted and hid his roots, or if he was simply Catholic.[5][6]

According to Sacher's son Eduard, in 1832 Austria's minister of foreign affairs, Prince Metternich, ordered his court's kitchen to create a special dessert for a dinner to be attended by high-ranking guests.[7] Dass er mir aber keine Schand' macht, heut' Abend! ('Let there be no shame on me tonight!'), he is reported to have declared.[8] On the day of the dinner the chief cook of Metternich's household was taken ill, and the task of preparing the dessert had to be passed to Franz Sacher, then in his second year of apprenticeship at the palace. The result would be the chocolate cake devised on the spot by the 16-year-old trainee. The story was probably invented by Eduard many years later, to appeal to "Viennese nostalgic for their imperial past".[9]

Sacher died in Baden bei Wien, and was buried in its Saint Helena Cemetery [de].[1] Eduard opened the Hotel Sacher in 1876, near the State Opera House in Vienna. The Sachertorte is said to have been instrumental in spreading the fame of the hotel; or perhaps the other way around.[9] The exact recipe as created by Sacher himself is a closely guarded secret.

Personal life

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Franz Sacher and his wife Rosa (nee Wieninger) had three sons.

  • Franz (died 1889; age: 48/49)[10] took over the business of his father in the 1860s, and later became the restaurateur and hotelier in Bucharest, then Head of Marine Casinos in Pula;[11]
  • Eduard (1843–1892) founded the Hotel Sacher in Vienna in 1876;
  • Carl (1849–1929) founded Sacher's Hotel & Curanstalt in Helenental in 1881.[12]

Tribute

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On 19 December 2016, Google celebrated Sacher's 200th birthday with a Google Doodle.[13]

References

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  1. 1 2 Funeral notice. In: Badener Zeitung, 13 March 1907, p. 7 (Online at ANNO)
  2. ↑ Filek-Wittinghausen, Wolfried (1988). "Sacher Franz". Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950. Vol. 9. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences. p. 367. ISBN 3-7001-1483-4.
  3. ↑ "Sacher Torte's Sweet Jewish Roots". The Forward. 2012-10-08. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
  4. ↑ "How To Make Sacher Torte". Tablet Magazine. 2014-05-14. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
  5. ↑ Weiss, Nino Shaye (2025-07-03). "Sacher Cake Variation: The Jewish Sacher-Masoch Story". Retrieved 2026-08-28.
  6. ↑ Hazout, Tamar Lea (2024-01-25). "The Mysterious History of Sachertorte: The Famous Austrian Chocolate Cake | Aish". Aish.com. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
  7. ↑ "The Sacher Story and Vienna". www.viennadirect.com. Retrieved 2026-08-28.
  8. ↑ Jelinek, Gerhard (2015-10-28). Sternstunden Österreichs: Die helle Seite unserer Geschichte (in German). Amalthea Signum Verlag. p. 1823. ISBN 978-3-902998-91-0.
  9. 1 2 Michael Krondl, Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert, ISBN 1569769540, 2011, p. 290-291: "my best guess is that the Metternich creation story originates with Eduard Sacher"
  10. ↑ "ANNO, Badener Bezirks-Blatt, 1889-01-29, Seite 3". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
  11. ↑ "ANNO, Neue Freie Presse, 1907-03-12, Seite 8". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
  12. ↑ "ANNO, Badener Bezirks-Blatt, 1881-11-19, Seite 6". anno.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
  13. ↑ "Franz Sacher's 200th Birthday". Google. 19 December 2016.
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