Anton Apold

Anton Apold (born June 23, 1877 in Groß-Jedlersdorf ; † September 2, 1950 in Velden am Wörthersee ) was an Austrian metallurgical engineer . From 1922 to 1935 he was general director of Alpine Montangesellschaft , the largest company in Austria at the time. During this time Apold was a leading supporter of the Styrian Homeland Security and, from 1933, the NSDAP .

Life

Apold's father was already a senior employee of the Alpine Montangesellschaft. Apold studied at the Montanistische Hochschule Leoben , joined the Cruxia fraternity and completed his studies in 1898 as a metallurgical engineer. In 1919 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Montanist University . After many years of activity in northern Germany , he became head of the Steirische Magnesit-AG in Veitsch in 1921 , a year later the majority owner of Alpine Hugo Stinnes appointed him general director of the Alpine Montangesellschaft. Other members of the management included Josef Oberegger and Felix Busson . Apold was commissioned to sustainably renovate the then severely deficit Alpine, which he succeeded in the following years.

Apold had a German national attitude and fought against social democratic influences in his companies. Among other things, he supported the establishment of the Independent Trade Union of the Home Guards in operation Donawitz . On his initiative, Alpine and the Austrian Industry Association generously supported the home fighters. In 1930, the Federal Government , which was dominated by Christian Socialists, tried unsuccessfully to appoint Apold as President of the Austrian Federal Railways .

From 1934 Apold was a member of the NSDAP, with which he had been in contact at least since 1932 and which Alpine had received from the beginning of 1933. During the July coup he was a minister in a National Socialist federal government under Anton Rintelen . In the aftermath of the putsch, Anton Apold was given leave of absence and finally dismissed in 1935. After joining , he was promoted to chairman of the supervisory board of Österreichische Länderbank . After the war, the British occupation forces arrested him in Carinthia and Apold remained in custody until 1948.

Apold's son-in-law was the sociologist and art historian Hans Riehl . Both are buried in the St. Leonhard Cemetery in Graz .

literature

• Ernst Hanisch : Industry and Politics 1927–1934: Dr. Anton Apold, General Director of the Alpine-Montangesellschaft. In: Michael Pammer , Herta Neiss, Michael John (Eds.): Experience of Modernity. Festschrift for Roman Sandgruber on his 60th birthday. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-515-09020-9 , pp. 241-253.
• Hugo Racine:  Apold, Anton. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 328 ( digitized version ).
• Barbara Schleicher: Hot iron. On the corporate policy of the Österreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft in the years 1918–1933. Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1999, ISBN 3-631-33202-5 (At the same time: Halle, University, dissertation, 1998: In tow of the German steel industry. ).