EIt was an accidental find, almost in passing. What Oskar F. Weishäupl discovered almost 50 years ago on the Piazza delle Erbe, the oldest square in Verona, was something very ordinary. As almost every day, there was a market and the market women sold their fruit and vegetables. They were well protected from the sun because they stood under large umbrellas.
“At that time there were only small sunshades for private use, with a maximum diameter of 1.80 meters,” says the senior of the Weishäupl brand, which he founded and named after him. “People had to keep following them on their terraces and balconies, moving or repositioning their umbrellas as soon as the sun had moved a little further.” But the market women in Verona could comfortably stand in the shade all day. “I thought to myself, a whole family would have to fit under one big umbrella.” A vision was born, as Weishäupl says: the vision of “living outdoors”.
Since 1974, Weishäupl has been manufacturing large parasols in Stephanskirchen near Rosenheim – located on the Inn River between Chiemsee and Munich. Initially only in white, later also in multicolor. Of course, Weishäupl senior was not the inventor of a new movement. The vision of “living outdoors”, i.e. in nature, is as old as mankind itself and had already in the 18th century through Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s alleged request “Retour à la nature!” Century got a new boost. And that long before the actual industrialization, which led to rural exodus and urbanization with all their negative consequences.
It started with the umbrella
Back then, in the pre-industrial era, parasols first became really popular, as countless paintings from the 19th century show – such as Carl Spitzweg’s famous “Sunday Walk”, on which the cheerful father protects himself from the sun with a top hat, which he put on balancing with his raised walking stick. The women behind him, who walk rather demurely, are not only wearing large Biedermeier straw hats, but also small parasols, even with a built-in crease in the handle to be able to protect themselves from the slanting rays of the sun.
Still handmade: Weishäupl’s famous umbrellas
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Photo: Finn Winkler
Protection from the sun was also the reason why large sunshades for gardens, terraces or balconies became increasingly popular, especially in the second half of the 20th century, albeit only really about 40 years ago, when there was increasing discussion about the harmful effects from UV radiation. So Weishäupl was even a bit ahead of his time with his idea. The umbrellas, which Weishäupl calls “something like our flagship”, are still manufactured in the region around Stephanskirchen.