Adolf Klein (banker)

Adolf Klein (born February 14, 1844 in Humpoletz , † April 30, 1916 in Vienna ) was an Austrian banker and industrialist .

Life

Grave of Adolf Klein in the Vienna Central Cemetery

Adolf Klein, from a Jewish family , completed a technical school and then started banking in Paris in 1867 . In 1872 he moved to Italy , where he soon became director of the Credito Mobiliare Italiano in Genoa . In 1878 Klein was appointed director of the newly opened branch of the Anglo-Austrian Bank in Prague . In 1880 he was appointed director of the newly established branch of this bank in Budapest . Finally, Klein was elected to the Bank's General Council in 1883, to which he belonged until his death. The multiple award-winning Klein was also a member of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce for many years . In addition, he acted as a deputy board member of the standing committee of the Anglo-Österreichische Bank and as vice-president of the Vienna Giro and Kassenverein. Adolf Klein found his final resting place in the old Israelite part of the Vienna Central Cemetery .

Working as an industrialist

Klein's importance for the development of the Austrian economy at the turn of the century was the founding and promotion of a number of important industrial companies . This included the North Bohemian Coal Works Company founded in 1889 by the Anglo-Austrian Bank with its sales organization, the Deutschböhmische Kohlen- und Brikettwerke AG , established in 1907 , as well as the Erste Triester Reisschälfabrikations-AG , founded in 1893 , which was able to supply almost the entire dual monarchy with rice before World War I. . Above all, however, the Allgemeine Österreichische Elektrizitätsgesellschaft deserves mention, which was taken over by the municipality of Vienna in 1914 and from which today's Wiener Stadtwerke emerged. Adolf Klein, who was on the board of directors of this and other companies, also made a contribution to the development of in-house social benefits .

literature

• Wiener High Life , 1905, p. 156
• Carl Morawitz: 50 Years of History of a Viennese Bank , 1913, p. 43 ff.
• Wiener Zeitung and Neue Freie Presse from May 1, 1916
• Reichspost from May 2, 1916
• Klein, Adolf. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1965, p. 376.
• Peter Schmidbauer:  Klein, Adolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-428-00192-3 , p. 732 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Adolf Klein (Bankier)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files