Werkstätte Carl Auböck

Werkstätte Carl Auböck is one of Vienna’s most iconic design workshops—four generations deep, and still family-run today.

It began in 1912, when Karl Heinrich Auböck (1872–1925) founded the studio as a metal workshop. Early on, the Auböcks became known for producing “Vienna Bronzes”—tiny bronze figurines and mini sculptures that were beloved in the early 20th century.

From there, the work evolved into something distinctly modern.

Carl Auböck II (1900–1957) trained in bronze smithing and engraving under his father, then expanded into fine art—studying painting at the Bauhaus in Weimar under Johannes Itten. That blend of craftsmanship and modernist thinking became the workshop’s foundation: functional objects with a sculptural point of view.

In the 1950s, Carl Auböck III took the legacy even further. He studied architecture in the United States and came into close contact with the designers shaping modern life—Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Herbert Bayer, Walter Gropius, and others. When he returned to Vienna, he brought that new energy back to the studio. Together, father and son created a collection of beautifully odd, highly useful objects—paperweights, ashtrays, corkscrews, bottle stoppers, lamps, coat racks, and shoe horns—each one grounded in utility, but unmistakably Auböck.

Today, Werkstätte Carl Auböck is led by the fourth generation: Carl Auböck IV, along with his daughter Zola and his sister Maria—continuing the same spirit of precision, play, and timeless modern design.