Melinda Esterházy

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Family table of the Esterházy princes

Melinda Esterházy (born May 24, 1920 in Budapest ; † August 27, 2014 in Eisenstadt ; born Ottrubay, from August 1946 to January 1947 Melinda (Princess) Esterházy de Galantha) was a Hungarian - Austrian landowner and former ballet dancer. She was the widow of Paul Esterházy, who died in 1989 .

Life

Family and youth

Melinda Esterházy's parents were Dezsö (also Demeter) Ottrubay (* 1881), President of the Budapest Higher Regional Court, and his wife Rose, née von Schmidt. She had a younger brother, Josef Ottrubay (1926-2015), who lived as a university lecturer in Lucerne . After high school, she starred in two feature films in 1939. At the age of 24 Melinda Ottrubay was appointed prima ballerina assoluta of the Budapest Opera .

On August 3, 1946, Melinda Ottrubay married Prince Paul V Esterházy de Galántha in Budapest. The marriage remained childless.

Title and name

In 1921, when today's Burgenland was added to the Republic of Austria, Paul opted for Hungarian citizenship. This left him with the Hungarian personal statute and with it his princely title and his nobility name , which he would have had to forego if he had opted for Austrian citizenship due to the nobility in Austria being repealed in April 1919 . After the Hungarian monarchy ceased to exist at the beginning of 1947 and Hungary had become a people's democracy, Law IV / 1947 of January 14, 1947 also abolished the nobility and the nobility designations in Hungary. Thus the names of the couple in Hungary and internationally became Paul Esterházy and Melinda Esterházy.

Escape from Hungary and further life

In 1949 Paul Esterházy was sentenced to fifteen years in prison during the show trial of Cardinal József Mindszenty . It was not until 1954 that Melinda was allowed to visit her husband in Kőbánya prison after having been without news of him for over four years. He was finally released on October 30, 1956 in the course of the Hungarian uprising . Paul and Melinda Esterházy fled on November 1, 1956 in a car disguised as a Red Cross vehicle via the Nickelsdorf border crossing to Austria. Her escape was planned and organized by the Viennese lawyer Kurt Werner and the Burgenland member of the National Council, Franz Strobl . They traveled on to Switzerland, where they lived in Zurich until Paul's death in 1989 .

Death and Posthumous Exhibition

Melinda Esterházy died on August 27, 2014 in Eisenstadt in the presence of her family.

On October 15, 2016, the exhibition Melinda Esterházy: “Life has given me a lot” opened at Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt , showing both her career as a prima ballerina and her life at the side of Prince Paul V. Esterházy.

The Esterházy fortune

Historical development

Until modern times, the property of the Esterházy family formed an entails , an indivisible set of assets that had to be administered by the head of the family. Sales were only possible by resolution of the family council. After the First World War and the Treaty of Saint-Germain , the possessions in "German West Hungary", then in Burgenland , with approximately 66,000 hectares of land, such as Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt ( Hungarian Kismarton ), went to the castle Forchtenstein ( Hungarian Fraknó vára ) in the municipality of Forchtenstein of the same name as well as the Roman quarry St. Margarethen , to the territory of the new Republic of Austria .

The possessions in Hungary, around 128,000 hectares, were expropriated after the Second World War in 1945 as part of the land reform (see prehistory of the Hungarian popular uprising ). At the time of his marriage to Melinda, Paul Esterházy was "practically penniless" due to the expropriation. The goods in today's Slovakia (see castles of the Esterhazys ) were also lost. The possessions in Burgenland were confiscated by the Soviet occupying forces in 1945 and placed under the administration of the USIA (Administration of Soviet Property in Austria) in 1946 . After the State Treaty in May 1955 and the subsequent withdrawal of the Soviets, the Esterhazys returned their properties in Burgenland to their property. An attempt by the Hungarian government to claim the Austrian Esterházy property for itself, since all domestic and foreign property of the "public enemy" Paul Esterházy had forfeited in favor of the Hungarian state, was fought off by the Austrian Foreign Ministry.

Inheritance and establishment of private foundations

After the death of Paul Esterházy in 1989, his widow Melinda became sole heir. In his testamentary disposition, dated August 21, 1986, Paul had instructed her to secure the continuance of the property in the long term: " Search for a legal solution that it does not become salami ".

In the following years, Melinda Esterházy disposed of those parts of the property that had never been part of the family entails ( allodial property ): The Edelstetten estate in Bavaria was donated to Paul Anton Esterházy (* 1986) by Melinda. The Esterházy Palace on Wallnerstrasse in Vienna was sold to Creditanstalt in the early 1990s .

For the majority of the assets, however, no solution corresponding to the testamentary disposal was initially foreseeable. However, after the Private Foundation Act came into force in Austria in 1994 , Melinda, advised by the long-time lawyer of the Esterházy family, Emil Schreiner, and her brother Josef Ottrubay, brought the former Fideikommiss possession with all businesses and real estate into three Austrian private foundations. She handed over her property to these foundations, explicit reference was made in the foundation deeds to the entails commission and a family council was provided as a controlling body. In order to be able to better manage the assets contained in the foundations, a limited liability company, which had been registered in the commercial register since January 2001, was taken over in February 2002 , which was renamed Esterhazy Betriebe GmbH (EBG) at the beginning of 2002 and became the property of Melinda Esterházy and was transferred to the FE Familien-Privatstiftung Eisenstadt . The companies of the Esterházy domain in Burgenland were brought into the EBG.

In 2002 Melinda Esterházy handed over the management of Esterhazy Betriebe GmbH (EBG) to her nephew Stefan Ottrubay (born August 13, 1954). In contrast, the nephew of her late husband Paul, Anton Esterházy, felt that his skills were curtailed at the time. In March 2005 Melinda Esterházy withdrew from the EBG and transferred her company share of 600,000 euros to the Domains Private Foundation. After her death, with a contribution agreement dated September 26, 2012, the shares of the Domains Private Foundation and Domains Private Foundation Immobilien GmbH were brought into the EBG. The company shares in the amount of 900,000 euros were redistributed: The influence of the FE Familien-Privatstiftung Eisenstadt was pushed back to a company share of 186,300 euros (until then 300,000 euros) and that of the Domains Privatstiftung increased to 713,700 euros.

The Esterházy Betriebe GmbH in 2010 had an annual turnover of 37.8 million euros and had, according to the season, up to 300 employees. With 44,000 hectares of land, the domain is now the largest private property in Austria.

literature

  • Hanna Molden: Griffin and Rose. Story of a princely couple . Europa Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-203-80005-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Esterhazy Foundation mourns the loss of Prof. Josef Ottrubay, brother and most important advisor to Melinda Esterházy
  2. ↑ See Administrative Court, decision VwGH 2008/06/0144 of November 25, 2008.
  3. ↑ See agreement between the federal government and the state of Burgenland for the preservation and further development of the Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park and its facilities, Federal Law Gazette I No. 75/1999 ( full text of the law in the current version in the RIS ), including Annex 2 pursuant to Art. VI, Para 3 (emphasis in italics): “Lease agreement concluded between the estate according to Dr. Paul Esterhazy, represented by the sole heiress Melinda Esterhazy, [...] and the Province of Burgenland on the other hand from February 20, 1991 "as well as:" Usage agreement, concluded between Mrs. Melinda Esterhazy geb. Ottrubay, […] and the Province of Burgenland on the other hand of May 19, 1993. "
  4. ↑ Molden, p. 240f.
  5. ↑ Molden, p. 262
  6. ↑ Princess Melinda Esterházy dies Wednesday night with her family. On August 27, 2014, ID Princess Melinda Esterházy de Galántha, b. Ottrubay, at the age of 95, passed away peacefully with her family in Eisenstadt. In: Website of the EBG - Esterházy Betriebe GmbH (Ed.), Undated, accessed on July 13, 2018.
  7. ↑ APA : Melinda Esterhazy died at the age of 95. In: derStandard.at , August 28, 2014, accessed on July 13, 2018.
  8. ^ Exhibition Melinda Esterházy in Esterházy Palace: "Life has given me a lot" - an exhibition in 5 acts. In: Website of the EBG - Esterházy Betriebe GmbH (Ed.), Undated, accessed on July 13, 2018.
  9. ↑ Molden, p. 204
  10. ↑ Molden, p. 255
  11. ↑ Molden, p. 307
  12. ↑ Molden, p. 310
  13. ↑ Molden, p. 311
  14. ↑ a b Esterhazy Betriebe GmbH, FB-Nr.:204172d. History from the company register in firmenmonitor.at the Wiener Zeitung : Esterhazy Betriebe GmbH , headquartered in Eisenstadt (since 31 January 2002, registered with the commercial register on LG Eisenstadt on 28 February 2002), established on 22 December 2000 as Syrtis HOLDING GmbH with Registered office in Vienna (new entry in the commercial register at the Vienna Commercial Court on January 3, 2001). Dr. Stephan Ottrubay (August 13, 1954), has represented independently since December 12, 2001.
  15. ↑ The history of the Esterhazy company: Dr. Paul Esterházy, the last ruling prince and majorate lord, died in 1989. He made his wife Melinda the universal heiress. In: Website of the EBG - Esterházy Betriebe GmbH (Ed.), Undated, accessed on July 13, 2018.
  16. ↑ The company - the foundations. The diversity of the company is brought together in Esterhazy Betriebe GmbH. In: Website of the EBG - Esterházy Betriebe GmbH (Ed.), Undated, accessed on July 13, 2018.
  17. ↑ Heir aunt Melinda is stingy. The Esterhazys family dispute is about access to a billion-dollar fortune. Die Presse , December 27, 2011, accessed July 29, 2013 .
  18. ↑ Esterházy Annual Report, Eisenstadt, March 22, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Esterházy, Melinda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ottrubay, Melinda (maiden name); Esterházy de Galántha, Melinda Princess (1946 to January 1947)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian-Austrian landowner, formerly Hungarian prima ballerina
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 2014
Place of death Eisenstadt