Philipp Wilhelm von Schoeller (industrialist, 1797)

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Philipp Wilhelm von Schoeller (1797–1877), lithograph by Adolf Dauthage , 1863

Philipp Wilhelm Ritter von Schoeller (born February 20, 1797 in Düren , † May 14, 1877 in Brno ) was an Austro-Hungarian industrialist of German origin in Brno.

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The son of Düren's cloth manufacturer Johann Wilhelm Schoeller (1770–1812) and Anna Elisabeth Peipers trained as a cloth manufacturer and cloth merchant in their father's business and gained practical experience on study trips to Belgium, France and England.

After the Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto imposed a trade ban in 1817, important trade connections for the Schoeller family collapsed. The brothers Johann Peter (1778–1838), Carl Friedrich (1784–1860) and Leopold Schoeller (1792–1884), three uncles of Philipp Wilhelm, then applied to Emperor Franz I for a concession to found the Gebr. Schoeller k. k. Fine cloth and woolen factory in Brno, which was granted to them on March 19, 1819. Since the brothers wanted to continue to work mainly in their Düren plants, they transferred the company to their nephew Philipp Wilhelm von Schoeller in 1823.

Philipp Wilhelm now consistently introduced technical modernization, a year later he acquired the first steam engine and in 1827 he was the first company in Austria to install gas lighting. These innovations made it possible to significantly increase the production figures in terms of both quantity and quality and the goods were successfully sold through, in some cases, family-owned international sales channels and branches in Vienna and Milan . After Philipp Wilhelm's cousin Alexander von Schoeller had founded the wholesale house Schoeller & Co. in Vienna on July 20, 1833 , from which Schoellerbank later emerged, Philipp Wilhelm merged the Vienna branch with the trading house and was appointed as a partner . Schoeller was awarded the Civil Honor Medal in 1836 for his services to the domestic industry, and in 1839 his products were awarded the gold medal at the Vienna exhibition. In 1841 he employed 700 people in Brno and in the meantime also involved his younger brother Adolph (1804-1860) as a partner in his company.

Like most of his relatives, Schoeller also invested in the emerging sugar beet industry . He acquired from Alexander von Schoeller shares in land for sugar beet cultivation in the Bohemian Čakovice and Čtěnice and in the Slovakian Levice and was also co-founder with Alexander of the sugar factories in Groß-Čakovice and Vrdy near Prague. Despite the heavy burden of managing these properties, Schoeller still took on numerous public functions in associations and organizations. As early as 1826 he held the office of chairman of the evangelical congregation, was later elected, among other things, to the deputy administrative board of the Moravian Excompte-Bank and appointed director of the Mutual Moravian Fire Insurance Company , the Brno branch of the Austrian National Bank and the Brno-Rossitzer Eisenbahn AG. He was also a member of the Brno Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Vice-President of the Brno Trade Association. In 1848/49 he was a member of the Moravian Landtag and in 1860 the strengthened Imperial Council .

For his versatile services and his charitable work, Schoeller was raised to the hereditary Austrian nobility in 1863 with the title of knight .

After the death of Philipp Wilhelm von Schoeller, his eldest son Gustav von Schoeller (1830–1912) took over, mainly the Schoeller k brothers. k. Fine cloth and wool goods factory in Brno, his second son Philipp Johann von Schoeller (1835–1892) the sugar factories and both together, among other things, shares in the wholesale house Schoeller & Co in Vienna.

The two daughters Auguste and Marie married into the Skene family , which was also active in the cloth and sugar industry , and Auguste married August von Skene (1829-1892), who among others co-founded the later Leipnik-Lundenburger sugar factory with Alexander von Schoeller AG was. Until 1943, the Viennese wholesale and banking house Schoeller & Co. held the majority of shares in this company and until 1988, President Philipp Schoeller, was also a family member in the management.

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personal data
SURNAME Schoeller, Philipp Wilhelm von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schoeller, Philipp Wilhelm Ritter von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian textile entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Düren
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1877
Place of death Brno