Buchbinderei Prouza

Buchbinderei Prouza, at Esterhazygasse 12/2/2 in Vienna's 6th district, is a three-generation family bindery that started with nothing more than a home workshop. Gerhart Prouza founded it in the 1980s without significant capital; his daughter Manuela joined in 1984 and became the first woman to own the business outright in 2001 — a succession the workshop's own site states directly, not a detail inferred from elsewhere.

The bindery's stated work covers custom-bound books and dissertations, photo albums, protective boxes and cases (Schuber), and restoration and repair of existing bindings — a spread that pairs new commissioned work with restoration and repair of older books. Prouza frames its own approach around "quality and sustainability," stating the goal is binding that lets a book last for centuries rather than merely hold together for a season — the workshop's own claim, offered here as a stated philosophy rather than a verified material-science fact.

The workshop keeps limited public hours (Monday and Thursday mornings and early afternoons, other weekdays by appointment only), consistent with a small hand-operation serving libraries, publishers, artists, and private clients directly rather than walk-in retail traffic.