The story of a one-hundred year old triangle

Myths are good for business according to a book launched in Bern on the 100th anniversary of the Toblerone. When the Toblerone appeared on the market in 1908 there was no sign of the Matterhorn either on the packaging or in the advertising. The distinctive mountain in the Wallis canton did not make it onto the packing until 1970. Historians also reject another myth associated with the triangular shape according to which Theodor Tobler took inspiration from the Parisian variété shows at the «Folies Bergères».
Tobler, who was seeking an alternative to the bar form of chocolate, may have modelled the Toblerone on the pyramids formed by the dancers at the end of the show. It may also have been modelled on the spread legs of the revue girls one behind the other in a row.

Only the origin of the name is known for certain

As this hypothesis is not mentioned in any of the Tobler company documents either, nobody knows in the end why the inventers of the Toblerone decided on the triangle. Only one thing is clear: it was «a stroke of pure genius».
However the origin of the name Toblerone is known for certain. It is a combination of the words Tobler and Torrone. Torrone is the Italian name for a dessert made of egg white, nuts or almonds, honey and sugar. The Toblerone contains almond nougat.

A Bernese product from Appenzell

The Toblerone is in a fact a Bernese product but its roots lie in East Switzerland: The Tobler company developed from a confectioner’s shop which Theodor Tobler’s father Johann Jakob Tobler moved from Lutzenberg in the Appenzell-Ausserrhoden canton to Bern in 1868. His wife came from the Thurgau canton.
In 1894 his son entered the business and set in motion the building of their own chocolate factory. It was here, in the Bernese Länggasse quarter, that the Toblerone was invented in 1908. Chocolat Tobler’s production manager, Emil Baumann, discovered a special nougat product on a trip to Alsace. Together with Tobler they subsequently developed the Toblerone recipe.

Patented by Einstein?

Theodor Tobler had the production of Toblerone patented at the Swiss Federal Office for Intellectual Property in 1909. This was the last year of Albert Einstein’s employment with this employer. It is thus possible that the world-famous physicist played a role in the story of the world-famous chocolate.
Although Toblerone was also produced overseas in the past, today the only production plant in the world is located in Bern-Brünnen in the western-most part of the city.
According to different sources, between 270 and 300 employees produce some 35,000 tons of Toblerone per year here. The chocolate is made in Bern so that the packaging can bear the words «Swiss milk chocolate».
An ever smaller staff produces an ever larger amount of Toblerone; in 1985 when production in the Langgässe ended there were 500 people involved in the production.

A socially-responsible owner

The story of the Toblerone is also the story of Theodor Tobler. Tobler was a self-made man who considered a school education to be of little importance, an owner with a social conscience who was good to his employees and who was a pacifist.
Tobler belonged to the freemasons, campaigned for women’s suffrage and maternity protection and promoted the international auxiliary language Ido.
However, 1931 almost saw the end of the Toblerone; the Tobler company had to request a stay of bankruptcy but it managed a turnaround under new leadership. Theodor Tobler had to go. The company later merged with Suchard.
Klaus J. Jacobs then acquired the majority of the shares and later on the US food and tobacco group Philip Morris did likewise. The latter integrated Jacobs Suchard into the Kraft Foods division of the company and it produces the Toblerone today.

swissinfo and Rainer Schneuwly, the Swiss News Agency (SDA) (January 21, 2008)

Caption: The Matterhorn has adorned the packaging only since 1970. (st/sis)