Paul Kupelwieser

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Paul Kupelwieser

Paul Kupelwieser (born February 1, 1843 in Vienna , † March 20, 1919 in Vienna) was an Austrian industrialist.

Paul Kupelwieser was born as the second son of the then famous painter and professor of history painting at the Vienna Academy Leopold Kupelwieser . His older brother was Karl Kupelwieser .

As a senior employee of Albert Salomon Anselm von Rothschild , he was general director of the iron and steel works in Ternitz ( Lower Austria ), Teplitz and 1876-1893 of the Witkowitz iron works in today's Czech Republic .

In 1893 he resigned and bought the Brioni Islands from a Venetian for 75,000 guilders - an archipelago of a total of 14 small islands that lie like green gems in the blue sea, three and a half kilometers off the coast of Istria near the port city of Pula - now Croatia. Even the Romans built summer villas and farm buildings on the main island (Veli Brijun), five kilometers long and three kilometers wide. Kupelwieser wanted to cultivate a neglected area in the south of the monarchy. The island was infected with malaria, and Kupelwieser also fell ill. In 1900 he offered the island to the famous bacteriologist Robert Koch as a research object. In fact, Brioni became malaria-free within 2 years, while the disease raged on the mainland for decades. Instead of focusing on the eradication of mosquitoes, Koch had identified all islanders with malaria pathogens and treated them with quinine in winter . Meanwhile, Kupelwieser invested a multiple of the purchase price, built an infrastructure, expanded the port, laid a submarine water pipe from the mainland to Brioni and built farm buildings (wine and dairy industry, imperial cheese), built hotels, a lido and the first winter swimming pool on the Austrian Riviera . Anton Gnirs uncovered the remains of a Roman settlement around the Val Catena bay, including a Roman imperial villa and a temple center. Carl Hagenbeck built a zoo based on the model of the Tierpark Hagenbeck and intended an acclimatization station for his animals. Breeding ostriches was not very successful because the fashion changed. The first guests were neurasthenic patients from the Viennese psychiatrists. In 1906 the imperial family discovered the island for recreation, Archduchess Maria Josepha and her children were the first. Archduke Franz Ferdinand , Marie Valerie and Elisabeth Windisch-Graetz with their families became regular guests . The guests were mostly from the upper class, civil servants and artists of all branches. Franz Ferdinand used it as a representative center for state visits, so Kaiser Wilhelm II was here for a visit in 1912. During the First World War the island was used for military purposes, Marie Kupelwieser died in 1915 and was buried in the specially built mausoleum. Paul Kupelwieser died in Vienna in 1919, he is still "temporarily" in Vienna's central cemetery .

His son Karl (1872–1930) continued the work on the Italian islands since the end of the First World War in the spirit of his father. For example, he had a casino and the first 18-hole golf course in Europe built. With the establishment of a polo field, the provision of polo horses and the ambition to offer everything desirable to the elite world here, he took on financially. With the onset of the global economic crisis , the Brioni company ran into difficulties. After Karl Kupelwieser shot himself in 1930, the decline followed and in 1936 his property fell to Italy.

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SURNAME Kupelwieser, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1919
Place of death Vienna