Johann Christoph Ferdinand Count of Mallenthein

Johann Christoph Ferdinand Graf von Mallenthein (* 1682 ; † 1749 ) was an Austrian nobleman and textile entrepreneur.

Groß-Siegharts in the Waldviertel , at that time a village with around 20 houses and a knight's seat, which had belonged to the Counts of Mallenthein from Carinthia since 1681 , should, according to Johann Christoph's ambitious plans, become a center of the textile industry , especially cotton processing, with over 1000 houses . For this purpose he recruited skilled workers from Swabia, Moravia and Saxony and built 200 workers' houses. In 1725, together with the East India trading company in Ostend, he founded the first textile factory that supplied the trading company.

In connection with Mallenthein's ambitious plans, a large and magnificent parish church was built in Groß-Siegharts from 1723, with ceiling frescoes by Carlo Carlone , who also worked for Prince Eugene of Savoy . Mallenthein also expanded the castle generously and in 1727 obtained market rights for Groß-Siegharts. However, 1727 was also the year in which the Imperial Ostend Company had to be shut down due to British pressure (and as a counter-deal to the British recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction ). Mallenthein became impoverished. His impetus, however, promoted the textile industry orientation of the region for centuries.

Web links

• Entry on Groß-Siegharts in the database of the state's memory of the history of Lower Austria ( Museum Niederösterreich )