Heinrich Mitsch

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Heinrich Mitsch (born January 13, 1826 in Kuttenberg ; † October 22, 1903 in Trofaiach ) was an entrepreneur in the Austrian iron industry in the 19th century.

Life

Mell Castle, Trofaiach

He came from the Bohemian mining town of Kutná Hora (German: Kuttenberg), 70 kilometers east of Prague, and in 1845 came to be trained at the metallurgical college in Vordernberg . Soon after his arrival in Vordernberg, he became a senior employee of the Radwerk XI there, which in the third generation belonged to a member of the long-established Prandstetter family, namely Johann Nepomuk Prandstetter. On January 8, 1848, Heinrich Mitsch married Caroline Prandstetter, b. on November 1, 1815, the youngest daughter of the cycling master , and became a co-owner. The marriage remained childless.

In 1869 Heinrich and Caroline Mitsch acquired Mell Castle in Trofaiach , which they completely rebuilt in 1871 and 1872. It was then that Mell Castle was given its current appearance. After the death of his wife Caroline on December 30, 1881, Mitsch became the sole owner of wheel works XI and the large property in 1882. In addition to the Mell castle and the grounds on the Mell plateau and several houses in Vordernberg and Graz, the property also included larger land and forest areas in Trofaiach and Vordernberg. Heinrich Mitsch also owned iron hammers in Möderbrugg , houses and an ironworks in Gradenberg near Köflach , whereby the town where his work had existed is now called Mitsch.

On November 5, 1892, Heinrich Mitsch married his second wife in Graz Cathedral, Maria Franziska Deutsch, née Gridl, born on April 26, 1855 in St. Leonhard in Lavanttal. Maria Deutsch was connected to Jakob Deutsch, who was of the Mosaic faith, through a civil marriage and had a son with him. So that the marriage with Heinrich Mitsch was made possible, the civil marriage was declared invalid by the state and repealed. Heinrich Mitsch's second marriage also remained childless.

In the second half of the 19th century, major changes occurred for the Vordernberg bike masters. After 1870 there were innovations in iron and steel technology. The coke oven began to prevail, which marked the end of the charcoal-powered wheel works in Vordernberg. For the first time, the Siemens-Martin furnace was used for steel production . Iron production was increasingly relocated to Donawitz . Only a few of the Vordernberg cycling masters were able to maintain their independence. Peintinger (Radwerk I) and Mitsch (Radwerk XI) were the last independent entrepreneurs. In addition there were the two wheel works of the Leoben economic association, which became the legal successor of the city of Leoben in 1885 as the owner of the ore mines and wheel works. Ultimately, all wheel works, with the exception of wheel works XIV (Böhler), became the property of the Österreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft , which was founded in 1880.

The Alpine wanted from the iron production to the Franz Mayr (an ancestor of the family Mayr-Melnhof concentrate), founded plant in Donawitz and was particularly interested, the entire ore mining on both sides of the Erzberg to unite in their possession. In the end only Heinrich Mitsch resisted this agreement. He was therefore able to remain independent for longer because he had had his own iron refining plant in Gradenberg near Köflach since May 1, 1861, where he had his pig iron from Vordernberg first processed into sheet steel and later also into steel bars and cement steel and found sufficient buyers for his products. He also owned a brown coal mine in Köflach . But the wheel of time could not be turned back. In 1899 the Mitsch plant in Gradenberg was closed. The result was a hammer mill for the Uray company.

Heinrich Mitsch died on October 22nd, 1903. His wife Maria inherited the entire property and with it the now decommissioned Radwerk XI, which she handed over to the Österreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft in 1909 . In 1910, Maria Mitsch married Hannes Schreckenthal, the bank's authorized signatory, who became a co-owner and also took over the joint asset management. He died in 1930. After his death, it turned out that he had lost a huge fortune through speculative transactions, which meant that the entire extensive property holdings, between 1935 and 1938, had to be used to cover debts. Maria Mitsch died completely penniless on December 2nd, 1944 in Vordernberg. The grave of the Mitsch family, in which Heinrich, Caroline and Maria Mitsch were buried, is located at the cemetery of the market town of Vordernberg.

The wheelwork symbol of Radwerk XI is an upwardly pointing three-pronged fork, which is also called Mitschgabel and is still attached to some of the boundary stones of the former Mitsch property. This wheelwork symbol can also be seen on the wrought-iron fountain at Mell Castle, which originally stood at the wheelworks in Vordernberg.

Heinrich-Mitsch-Straße in Trofaiach is named after him today.

  • Remains of Radwerk XI; former casting hall on the right and former melting hall on the left (today residential buildings)

  • Vordernberg, Radwerk XI, Hauptstrasse 78

  • Mitsch family grave, Vordernberg cemetery

  • Fountain near Mell Castle with wheelwork mark

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Tunner (Ed.): Yearbook 1845 of the mining and smelting institute Vordernberg
  2. ^ Parish registers in Vordernberg Marriage Book V 1862–1900, p. 180.
  3. ↑ Reinhold Jagersberger: Herrenhäuser der Hammernherren and Radmeister , Stocker-Verlag, Graz 2015, ISBN 978-3-85365-275-6 , p. 138, p. 154ff, p. 171
  4. ↑ Hans Jörg Köstler: The former ironworks in Gradenberg near Köflach (Mitsch-Werk) , in: Blätter für Heimatkunde from the Historisches Verein für Steiermark 1996 issue 2, p. 33ff
  5. ^ Anton Pantz: The trades in the Bannkkreis des Styrian Erzberg , 1918, p. 249ff
personal data
SURNAME Mitsch, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH Kuttenberg
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1903
Place of death Trofaiach