Isaak Loew Hofmann
Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal (born June 10, 1759 in Prostibor , near Pilsen ( Bohemia ), † December 2, 1849 in Vienna ) was an Austrian businessman .
Life
During the famine in the middle of the 18th century , Hofmann's parents emigrated from Pretzendorf, now Himmelkron , near Bayreuth to Bohemia, where they lived in very poor conditions. He received his first lessons at home, from the age of 13 he was a Bachur (student) at a Talmud school in Prague . After completing his studies, he got a job as a teacher in the household of Joel Baruch , a wealthy Austrian businessman who had built up a tobacco monopoly for the Austrian government . In addition to teaching the children of Baruch, Hofmann also inspected his employer's books. When Baruch opened a wholesaler in Vienna in 1788, Hofmann was hired as the manager of the company. In the same year Hofmann received a trading permit for Vienna from the Austrian government and chose the name Isaak Löw Hofmann for it . After Baruch's death, Hofmann joined the business as a partner and in 1794 became the sole owner of the company that was named Hofmann and Löwinger . From 1796 Hofmann became increasingly interested in the manufacture of silk and in 1802 was one of the first to be allowed to expand the silk monopoly of the Hungarian government, a privilege his family enjoyed for around half a century. At his instigation, his son Emanuel von Hofmannsthal wrote the brochure “Introduction to Seidenzucht” , of which more than 16,000 copies were sold. Hofmann worked hard and led his company among the most successful companies in the Austro-Hungarian economy.
Isaak Löw Hofmann took an active part in Jewish community life and was head of the Jewish community from 1806 and representative of the Vienna Jewish community from 1812 until his death . He campaigned for the building of the Vienna City Temple and promoted traditional rabbinical values. In 1822 he founded an institution for the poor. In 1835 Hofmann was ennobled by Emperor Ferdinand I and since then has been able to call himself Edler von Hofmannsthal . Hofmann died in Vienna in 1849 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Währing . During the Nazi regime in Austria he was exhumed and reburied on January 5, 1942 in the New Jewish Department of the Vienna Central Cemetery (Gate IV).
Isaak Löw Hofmann is the great-grandfather of the writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal .
literature
- Gerson Wolf : History of the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde in Vienna , Vienna 1861
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Hofmann Edler von Hofmannsthal, Isak Löw . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 9th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1863, p. 165 f. ( Digitized version ).
- David Löwy: Gallery of the Most Deserving Jews of the XIX. Century , 1882
- Hofmann von Hofmannsthal Isaak Löw. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1959, p. 387.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Patricia Steines: Hundred Thousand Stones. Grave sites of great Austrians of Jewish denomination on the Vienna Central Cemetery Gate I and Gate IV . Falter Verlag, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-85439-093-9 , p. 316.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hofmann, Isaak Löw |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hofmann Edler von Hofmannsthal, Isaak Löw (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian industrialist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 10, 1759 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Prostibor |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 2, 1849 |
| Place of death | Vienna |