Wienerwald is a chain of fast-food restaurants with stores in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, and Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

. In Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, a separate company by the same name operates casual dining

Casual dining

This is a list of casual dining restaurant chains around the world, arranged in alphabetical order. A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere...

 restaurants with a similar menu.

Founded in 1955 by Friedrich Jahn in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, it rapidly grew up to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

's largest chain of fast-food restaurants.
In more than 1600 restaurants throughout Europe in 1978, they mainly sold rotisserie

Rotisserie

Rotisserie is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit - a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This method is generally used for cooking large joints of meat or entire animals, such as pigs,...

 chicken and other chicken products.
In 1978, Wienerwald purchased the 273-restaurant Lum's chain from former Kentucky Fried Chicken owner John Y. Brown, Jr.

John Y. Brown, Jr.

This article is about one of four John Young Browns, from Kentucky, that have served political office. For others see: John Young Brown ...

. The chain's inability to market themselves as a provider of good tasting chicken, (rather than overcoming the US misconception that "Wienerwald" was a hot dog chain), plus their huge growth in 1978 brought enormous debts. Many of the restaurants in the USA and Europe were forced to close; Wienerwald declared bankrutpcy in 1982, divesting itself of its 880 restaurants in the United States.

there were only 63 restaurants left in Germany and Austria.

External links

• Wienerwald - German company's English-language site
• Wienerwald - Austrian company's site (German language only)