Anton von Codelli

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Anton Baron Codelli

Anton Freiherr Codelli von Codellisberg, Sternreif and Fahnenfeld (born March 22, 1875 in Naples , † April 26, 1954 in Porto Ronco , Ticino ) was an Austro-Hungarian inventor of Neapolitan-Slovenian origin.

In an article in the newspaper Nedelja, a Sunday paper in Ljubljana (October 22, 1989 edition), Codelli is described as one of the most interesting personalities in the recent history of Ljubljana and Slovenia. He first caused a stir in 1898 with his automobile, with which he drove up to his father's castle Thurn an der Laibach , the first ever in Laibach and in the southeastern regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, he had to get the driver's license in 1906.

ancestry

Codelli's parents were Karl von Codelli, ensign in the ku k Navy, and Rosalie, nee. Freiin von Tauffrer . The family came from Naples, where in the middle of the 13th century Martin Codell (Covell) is said to have served as an officer under King Charles of Anjou and later his son Laurenz under Galeazzo Visconti in the Milan war against King Wenceslaus . Codellis ancestor Peter married Catherine de Marano, which he in Friuli reached a considerable fortune, which enabled him in 1400, near Bergamo , the fort to build Lacodelli (Codellisberg). The family came to Krain via Gorizia , where they acquired the local inkolat in 1688 and, together with Augustin von Codelli, was elevated to the status of hereditary-Austrian baron in 1749.

Vita

education

Codelli was brought up by private tutors who instructed him not only in Italian but also in German and Slovene. There is much conflicting news about Codelli's further education. He is said to have studied technology in Vienna and graduated as a mechanical engineer. However, from the memoirs (typewriter script, 710 pages) that his mother wrote, it can be inferred that Codelli did not attend technical schools and that he acquired technical knowledge through self-study. After graduating from high school and after a long period of service in the kuk navy, he enrolled at the University of Vienna to study law, but he broke off this degree and in 1906 - following his inclinations - completed a six-month specialist course at Telefunken in Berlin.

Inventions

His inventiveness extended to numerous areas. Most of his inventions were intended to serve military purposes. He devoted a lot of time to the automotive industry. In 1906 he planned the rotary explosion engine. In 1910 he sketched the plan for a huge aircraft that could hold several hundred passengers and was made of sheet steel casing and filled with oxygen. His greatest success was in the field of radio telegraphy . As early as 1907, the Austro-Hungarian Navy commissioned him to introduce wireless communication from ship to ship and later also from there to the command center in Vienna. The most remarkable invention - for those times - was certainly the opto-mechanical television, which he - as the first "Yugoslav" - patented on June 7, 1929 in Belgrade and up to 1933 in 11 other countries in Europe as well as in the USA let. Until then, he was constantly working on improving the system. In 1929 Telefunken carried out first experiments with Codelli's apparatus in Berlin. He also offered his invention to the multimillionaire Morgan in the United States. But there the company RCA developed the electronic television already since 1930. As a result, Codelli's invention was soon forgotten.

In German service

Because of his inventions, people in Germany became aware of Codelli. He was commissioned to set up a radio station in Togo that would connect the German colonies in East Africa with Europe and the German warships in the South Atlantic. Work on it began in 1911. Two years later, he managed to connect his radio system to the existing telephone system. As early as 1914 there was a powerful power station near Kamina and three 75 m and six 120 m high antenna towers of the Kamina radio station . He also had a 7 km long makeshift railway laid from the Atakpamé central station to the construction site near Kamina. All facilities, a masterpiece for the time, were destroyed at the beginning of the war so that they would not fall into the hands of the enemy. During the construction period, Codelli often accompanied the governor of the colony, the Duke of Mecklenburg, on his travels through still unexplored parts of Togo. Codelli was captured by the French, from which he was able to escape. In 1920 he returned to Laibach via the Czech Republic and Austria. (According to others from internment in Switzerland as early as 1919). In the period between the wars, until the mid-thirties, he mainly devoted himself to improving his television system.

family

Codelli is said to have been married four times. However, only three marriages are recorded; all three failed.

From his first marriage (Görz 1900) with his cousin Maria Concha von Codelli two daughters, Maria Carmen and Liselotte as well as the son Karl Anton emerged. He was tragically killed in 1921.

Coming from Africa at short notice, Codelli married Valentina (Nina) Marie Freiin Mladota von Solopisk on January 21, 1914 in Vienna (born February 11, 1891 in Linz). The only child from this connection was born during Codelli's captivity in France in Porto Novo, the then capital in Dahomey, a neighboring city of Togo . The marriage ended in divorce in 1921.

From his third marriage in 1923 to Ilona von Drasche-Lazar, who were divorced in 1935, there was a daughter and son Sixtus. Father and son fell out for political reasons. Codelli was a staunch opponent of Hitler and refused to cooperate with the German occupiers during the war. Sixtus, on the other hand, was an enthusiastic supporter of National Socialism even before the war. Sixtus' fate is unclear. Some claim that he was killed as a volunteer on the Eastern Front at the beginning of the war, others claim to have seen him in a German officer's uniform in a café in Ljubljana in 1944; others believe they know that he was executed in Belgrade after the war ended.

Property in Carniola

Thurn an der Laibach

literature

  • Sandi Sitar: Sto slovenskih znanstvenikov, zdravnikov in tehnikov (One hundred Slovenian scientists, doctors and technicians), Ljubljana 1987;
  • Genealogical manual of the nobility - Adelslexikon Vol. II - Vol. 58 of the complete series, Limburg ad Lahn 1974
  • Genealogical handbook of the nobility - Freiherrliche Häuser A Volume V, Vol. 30 of the complete series, Limburg ad Lahn 1963;
  • Genealogical handbook of the nobility - Freiherrliche Häuser, Volume XXII, Complete series Volume 127, Limburg ad Lahn 2002 ISBN 3-7980-0827-2
  • Ernst Heinrich Kneschke : New general German nobility lexicon , 1st vol. Leipzig 1859;
  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Biographical Lexicon of the Austrian Empire , Part 2, Vienna 1857;
  • Branko Ozvald: Afriška mojstrovina priučenega inženirja (African masterpiece of a semi-skilled engineer) in Nedeljski dnevnik (Sunday paper) of October 22, 1989, and cont. Ibid October 29, 1989 (Štiri) poroke podjetnega barona ((four) marrying of the enterprising baron;

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Codelli, Anton von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Codelli von Codellisberg Sternreif and Fahnenfeld, Anton Freiherr
BRIEF DESCRIPTION inventor
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Naples
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 1954
Place of death Porto Ronco , Ticino