The stove fitter Robert Kauder established his company in 1903 at Parkring 2, a central address in Vienna. Initially, he sold Budweiser tiled stoves and continuous-flow stoves. He also held the general agency for a 'heating multiplier' patented by Gasselseder & Niemeczek in Warsaw until 1912. From 1914, he acted as a sworn appraiser and expert for continuous-burning stoves. His wife Malvine, née Stransky, was also employed in the business. By 1924 at the latest, Robert Kauder had set up an art dealership as a second mainstay, which he also operated from the premises of his company. According to Dorotheum sources and annotated auction catalogues of the art auction house Aldolph Weinmüller, Kauder's art collection included Bohemian glass beakers and other glass objects, works by Old Masters, oil paintings and graphics by artists such as Hans Canon, Josef Danhauser or August von Pettenkofen, Karl Sterrer, Sergius Pauser, Viktor Staufer, Ferdinand Kitt, Tina Blau and Zora von Preradović. In addition, he traded in antique stoves.

After the annexation of Austria to the Nazi German Reich, the Kauders, who were Jewish and had married in Pisek, Bohemia in 1899, were persecuted by the regime. The prosperous business, which was placed under temporary administration, was "aryanised" by the stove-maker Anton Gollner and taken over at the end of 1938. In July 1938, Robert Kauder had submitted a declaration of assets, valuing his art objects, summarised as a „Bildersammlung“ ("picture collection"), at 18,940 Reichsmark. In July 1940, Robert and Malvine Kauder were forced to vacate their flat in the Palais Dumba in Parkring 4 in Vienna's 1st District and relocate to a so-called "Judenhaus" at Pyrkergasse 33, in the 19th District, where at least eight other persecuted persons were collected. In the early summer of 1941, Robert Kauder invested 4,280 Reichsmark in moving, renovating, and furnishing their new home. As he no longer had any professional income, he attempted to cover the costs with the proceeds from his art collection, which was deposited at the Dorotheum for private sale. Until shortly before his deportation, Robert Kauder continued to believe that he had access to the art objects, and on 2 October 1941, left the 116 paintings valued at around 6,000 Reichsmark as determined by the Dorotheum, to the architect Adalbert Toth from the renovation company Adaptor to cover his debts. A few days later, on 15 October 1941, the Kauders were deported to Litzmannstadt ghetto.

In March 1939, the Österreichische Galerie acquired a painting by Johann Baptist Reiter depicting the innkeeper Barbara Meyer from Weinmüller in Vienna. Based on the provenance research, the Art Restitution Advisory Board decided on 12 March 2024 to transfer the painting to the heirs of Robert Kauder. To date, works from the Kauder Collection have not been linked to any other federal museum in Austria.