Hotel Sacher - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2018 - 170 Euro Cent

A classy family business A first-class Viennese institution is being celebrated on this commemorative stamp from the “Catering with Tradition” series: the Hotel Sacher, Vienna, with its first-class location directly opposite the Vienna State Opera. The commemorative stamp shows the entrance to the Hotel Sacher in Vienna and a piece of the cake from which it took its name. The history of the Sacher started in 1832, when the then apprentice Franz Sacher created the Original Sacher-Torte at the court of Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich. The Hotel Sacher, Vienna, was founded by his son Eduard Sacher in 1876. When the latter died in 1892, his wife Anna Sacher, whose liking for cigars and French bulldogs was legendary, took over the running of the hotel, managing it rigorously and successfully taking it into the next century. The “Sacher” became an exclusive meeting place for politics, business, news and culture. After the death of Anna Sacher in 1930, the Gürtler family took over the hotel, which had run into financial difficulties. Even today the Sacher, which, furthermore, is the only family-run 5-star hotel in Vienna, is still owned exclusively by the Gürtler and Winkler families. Nowadays it is a famous, modern luxury hotel and a member of the “Leading Hotels of the World” consortium. The family company also owns the Hotel Sacher in Salzburg and the Sacher cafés in Innsbruck and Graz. Well-known guests from Austria and abroad, from artists via politicians to the nobility, enjoy the special ambience of the hotel steeped in tradition. The cake as a symbol of Vienna The legendary Original Sacher-Torte with its deliciously smooth chocolate covering and apricot jam filling was and still is a huge success. It became a symbol not only of the hotel, but of the whole city. Even today the original cake is freshly made by hand every day. In 2017 around 360,000 cakes and almost a million Original Sacher Cubes were sold and dispatched around the world. For the strictly limited “Artists’ Collection” artists decorate the famous wooden box of the Original Sacher-Torte. Profits from the sale of this sweet work of art are donated to charitable causes.