Alfred Weiß (entrepreneur)

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Alfred Weiß , also Alfred Weiss (* 1890 in Vienna ; † 1974 there ), was an Austrian entrepreneur, art collector and promoter of culture.

Life

Alfred Weiss was one of four children of a Jewish merchant family in Vienna. After serving in the First World War , he set up his own grocery store in the 1920s . In addition to his commercial training, Weiss also attended the Vienna School of Applied Arts . In connection with the “ Anschluss of Austria ” in 1938, he emigrated to Italy .

Returning to his hometown after the end of World War II , he set up a coffee and tea import company and imported Italian coffee machines. In 1953 he acquired the heavily neglected and damaged Palais Auersperg on the " Zweierlinie " and had it restored by the architect Oswald Haerdtl. He housed his coffee roastery Arabia Kaffee on the ground floor and one of the most elegant coffee restaurants in Vienna on the first floor.

In 1960 the sons of the last owner sold Laudon Castle (also: Hadersdorfer Castle) located on Vienna's Mauerbachstrasse to the Archdiocese of Vienna , which sold the property to Alfred Weiss in the same year. After extensive renovations and adaptations, he ran the castle - which also included an agriculture and glass houses - as a luxury hotel and restaurant. From 1976, his heiresses rented the castle long-term to the Republic of Austria , which set up an administration academy there.

His two companies were awarded the Austrian national coat of arms in the 1960s :

  • January 1963: Arabia Coffee-Tea-Import Alfred Weiss KG
  • January 1965: Arabia Kaffee-Import Alfred Weiss KG

At the end of the 1960s, Weiss took over the tea and coffee sales company and roasting company founded by Rudolf Schwarz in 1866 (most recently: "Mikado" Coffee and Tea Import Rudolf Schwarz GmbH ) in the 15th Viennese district of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus and merged the two companies operated as the United Coffee Roasters "Arabia-Mikado" Kaffee-Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH Vienna .

Alfred Weiss was the grandfather of Andrew Demmer , born in London in 1946 , the owner of the Vienna-based tea import company Demmers Teehaus and the restaurant chain Trześniewski .

Function designation

In most sources (cf. e.g.) the name of Alfred Weiss is prefixed with Konsul . In which capacity or for which country he was consul is not mentioned. Alfred Weiss was Honorary Consul of El Salvador.

estate

After his death in 1974, his two daughters inherited the company, who sold it to Julius Meinl in 1984 for economic reasons .

The heiresses sold Palais Auersperg to a real estate company in 1987.

literature

  • Hans Morgenstern : Jewish biographical lexicon . LIT-Verlag, Vienna 2011, p. 851

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Entries on Arabia coffee in the historical database of Staatswappen.at. ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b c "We have always stuck together adamantly." Interview with Norbert and Johanna Anetzhuber. From the series: The current interview. In: MZ-Ministrantenzeitung, newspaper of the Roman Catholic. Rectorate Church of St. John the Baptist , 42nd year, No. 3, Vienna 2015, p. 23ff., Here: 24/25: Norbert Anetzgruber was the manager of Arabia coffee until shortly before the sale and at the same time was the administrator of the Auersperg Palace and Laudon Castle.
  3. ↑ a b Entry about Palais Auersperg on Burgen-Austria
  4. ^ A b Hadersdorfer Schloss in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  5. ^ A b Rudolf Schwarz in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  6. ↑ See entry on Mikado and entry on Arabia Kaffee in: Alte Reklame, website by Alexander Genuin. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
  7. ↑ a b Ilse Huber: Very British. Master of ceremonies. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on May 9, 2020 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.wohnart-online.at (PDF; p. 9/10) In: Wohnart, edition 04/14, p. 18/19, box personal. (Note: Andrew Demmer's parents emigrated to London “due to the war” and returned to Vienna with their son in 1948.)
  8. ^ The company: The story. ( Memento from February 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Note: In the meantime, the property of the Palais Auersperg has changed hands several times.
personal data
SURNAME Know, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weiss, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian entrepreneur and lord of the castle
DATE OF BIRTH 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 1974
Place of death Vienna