Former Lindt chocolate factory at Wasserwerkgasse 2

About the building

At the lower end of Wasserwerkgasse, where it joins Gerberngasse close to the Nydegg bridge, stands a plain residential building with large windows on its stairwells. On the façade a faded advertisement in flowing Belle Époque lettering survives, recalling the time when chocolate was made here. A newspaper report of 2022 renders the legible letters as “Fabrique de Chocolat W. Lin…”.

Rudolf Lindt (1855–1909) of Bern, who called himself Rodolphe, trained from 1873 to 1875 with the chocolate maker Kohler in Lausanne. In 1879 he planned to found a factory in the Matte with his former master Charles-Amédée Kohler; when Kohler pulled out, he founded the firm on his own. He stirred the mass in a longitudinal grinding machine of his own construction with a shell-shaped trough, the conche, and added pure cocoa butter. This allowed the chocolate to be poured into moulds and gave it a melting texture. No building records of the factory exist, but the city’s heritage office considers it likely that conching was developed in this building. The inventory dates the building to probably 1879, the text on the Matte building group names it as the firm’s seat from 1878, and according to the newspaper report old directories list a firm Lindt-Kohler at Wasserwerkgasse 20.

In 1899 Chocolat Sprüngli AG of Zurich took over Lindt’s business and process; according to the inventory, Lindt continued to run the Bern factory until 1905. The newspaper report adds that former employees and relatives later founded a rival firm, “A. W. Lindt”, nearby, which went bankrupt in 1928 after long lawsuits, and that Lindt & Sprüngli produced in the Matte until 1932. The sources do not say exactly how the lettering relates to these firms.

From 1932 to 1934 the Thun architect Arnold Itten converted the factory into a building with small flats for the Baugesellschaft Aarehof, a very early conversion for its time. The same project included extending Wasserwerkgasse to Gerberngasse, for which the river bank was filled in, and the houses at Gerberngasse 7–9A. In the rear courtyard there is a small fountain in Expressionist forms. The building is worthy of protection and belongs to the Matte building group; the heritage office calls the advertisement a monument of industrial history. It is easy to see from the Nydegg bridge.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Wasserwerkgasse 2, 2B · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Matte · Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz: Lindt, Rudolf · Wikipedia (en): Rodolphe Lindt · Plattform J: Süsse Geschichte (10. Dezember 2022) · Wikidata: Q139677426