Anecdotes

There have been, of course, one or two interesting occurrences in Huber & Lerner’s company history. For example, Emperor Franz Josef noticed a special product made by Huber & Lerner at the Vienna Hunting Exhibition in the Rotunde in 1910. 

Emperor Franz Josef and the Pincushion by Huber & Lerner

The following event led to increased public awareness of the company during the monarchy: in 1910, Emperor Franz Josef I. opened the Vienna Hunting Exhibition at the Rotunde. Huber & Lerner had a small display case with special exhibition objects, in addition to a variety of paper and stationery goods and embossed cards. There was a funny pincushion among these exhibition pieces: it was in the form of a Tyrolean farmer with green socks and padded lederhosen, which had different-coloured pins stuck in it.
After the Emperor had made appreciative comments about the stationery goods on display, he walked by the showcase and discovered the special pincushion and asked: “What’s that?” Peter Lerner Sr., the excited co-founder of the company, took the piece out of the case and said: “A pincushion, your Majesty”.  Upon which the Emperor took the farmer in his hand and stuck a needle in him: “That must be really uncomfortable for person concerned.. ha, ha, ha..” The effect was sensational – Franz Josef had laughed, which was something incredibly rare. The next day, this little episode was in all the newspapers and this sweet article was a bestseller.

Arthur Schnitzler and his "Museum of Trivia"

Arthur Schnitzler apparently really embarrassed Huber & Lerner co-founder Peter Lerner during one of his visits to the Kohlmarkt: “Your shop is a museum of small, sweet trivia,” said Prof. Schnitzler. He relieved the shocked Lerner by thankfully adding: “But I really enjoy coming into your shop because this makes life so much nicer.”