Ignaz Mayer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
around 1870

Ignaz Mayer (born October 19, 1810 in Ofen , Kingdom of Hungary , Austrian Empire , † August 31, 1876 in Linz ) was a member of the Upper Austrian state parliament, president of the Chamber of Commerce and founder of the Linz shipyard .

Live and act

The father of the shipbuilder and industrialist came from Pulkau , in the Lower Austrian Weinviertel . Ignaz Mayer himself was born in Ofen . At a young age he came to train with a relative in Linz , the ship master Paul Lüftenegger, after whom Linz Lüfteneggerstrasse is named. At Lüftenegger the young man started as a ship's clerk and after his death took over the business together with his widow, Anna Lüftenegger. In 1835 Mayer married Susanne Hauck, née Schwarz, a young carpenter's widow. This, the daughter of the confectioner Josef Schwarz, brought the house Untere Donaulände 22 on the Brauhauslände as a dowry, in which the shipping industry was rooted.

The trained businessman Mayer was very open to the technical developments of this time, which mainly affected the transport sector. Not only modernizations in shipping, but also the expansion of the rail network were very important to him. He stayed in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Great Britain from 1837 to 1840 and studied modern shipbuilding. In Linz he later rebuilt ships that he had seen in England.

At the age of 30, in 1840, he built his shipyard. This was the first iron processing company in Linz and the first important shipyard on the Danube in Austria. The lighter was his first iron cargo boat, 35 meters long and had a draft of 2.25 meters. It drove to Vienna for the first time on November 12, 1840, laden with 200 tons of salt. In the period from 1840 to 1873, 252 ships were built in Mayer's shipyard and he was able to employ up to 556 workers. During this time, the monarchy, commercial law was not yet standardized. It was only 12 years after the shipyard was founded that Ignaz Mayer asked the commercial court to have his shipyard recorded. This last traded under the entry "Ignaz Mayer, ship master, raw product dealer and ship builder in Linz".

Mayer was the father of five children and the eldest son Josef was to take over the company from him. However, he died in 1873 after a long illness at the age of 37. The family founded the “Linzer Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei Ignaz Mayer und Comp.”, But family, economic and political problems prompted Ignaz Mayer to sell his Linz shipyard to the “Austrian Construction Company”.

After the revolution in 1848 , Ignaz Mayer was a liberal councilor in Linz for 25 years, later he was a member of the Landtag and Reichsrat for many years, and also President of the Chamber of Commerce. In his work as an economic functionary, the liberal fought against the interference of leading chamber members in church and cultural politics. This dispute also triggered political turbulence in the form of three state elections in two years. In these disputes, however, Mayer drew the short straw.

Ignaz Mayer died in Linz on August 31, 1876.

Honors

When the “Tages-Post” inquired after his death, it was possible to read about the socially minded and helpful entrepreneur and politician: “What he said he thought. He pursued public affairs with zeal and brought order to Linz's municipal finances. "

In 1967, in the Lustenau district of Linz, Ignaz-Mayer-Strasse was named after him. About 1 km south of the Linz shipyard at the Winterhafen, Ignaz-Mayer-Straße runs in the industrial area south of the commercial port from Pummererstraße, first a bit in a north-north-west and then in an east-north-east direction to Saxingerstraße, not far from the right bank of the Danube.

A room rental is called Ignaz for short after the street name.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Linz street names. Lüfteneggerstraße - Lüfteneggerstraße begins about 100 m SE of the Brucknerhaus (on the right of the Danube) and continues about 200 m further to the southeast.
  2. ↑ Note. Untere Donaulände 22 is about 400 m (away) on the right bank below the Nibelungen Bridge.
  3. ↑ Linz street names. Ignaz-Mayer-Strasse
  4. ↑ Ignaz | Ignaz-Mayer-Str. 10, 4020 Linz realgruppe.at, accessed February 20, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Mayer, Ignaz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Chamber of Commerce President, entrepreneur, shipbuilder and politician, member of the state parliament
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Furnace , Kingdom of Hungary , Empire of Austria
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 1876
Place of death Linz