The Werkstätte Carl Auböck was founded in the 19th century as a metal workshop in Vienna by Karl Heinrich Auböck (1872-1925) producing “viennese bronzes”. In 1912, the workshop was installed in the premises of Bernardgasse 21 and 23 where it is still located.

Karl I sent his son Carl II (1900-1957) to art courses at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna at a very young age. Later on, he was trained as a bronze worker and chaser in the family business and studied at a course led by Johannes Itten in Vienna. Itten acknowledged talent in Carl II and so invited him to be a student at the Weimar Bauhaus, where he was co-founder. There, Carl II joined the Metalwork course.

There he met and later married sculptor and textile artist Mara Utschkunova and one year later their son Carl Auböck III (1924-1993) was born. When Karl I passed in 1925, Carl II took over his parents' business and slowly began to incorporate the aesthetics of early bauhaus experimental modernism into his product range. His son Carl Auböck III - who grew up in the workshop - shared his passion for craft and design. Carl II and Carl III designed numerous objects together, such as paperweights, cutlery, ashtrays, corkscrews, floor lamps, coat racks, and bookends, in a long and fruitful collaboration. After the passing of Carl Auböck II in 1957, Carl III took over the workshop with his wife Justine, and the workshop achieved international fame through collaborations with renowned luxury brands such as Longchamp, Tiffanys, Hermès and Pierre Cardin. Today the workshop is run by the fourth generation of the family, Carl Auböck IV, his daughter Zola and his sister Maria.