Richard von Schoeller

Richard von Schoeller (from 1919 Richard Schoeller ; born August 13, 1871 in Groß-Čakovice near Prague , † June 22, 1950 in Vienna ) was an Austrian major industrialist in the coal and steel industry .

Live and act

Richard (von) Schoeller came from the Brno line of the Rhenish entrepreneurial family Schoeller and was the son of the Moravian industrialist in the sugar industry Philipp Johann von Schoeller (1835-1892) and the Idaliese Edle von Schickh († 1896). After attending the German state school in Prague, he studied agricultural science at the University of Halle , since he and his brother Philipp Josef von Schoeller (1864–1906) were to take over the management of his father's sugar factories in Groß-Čakovice, Čáslav and Vrdy. From 1900, like most family members, he initially joined the Viennese wholesale and trading company Schoeller & Co. , which later became Schoellerbank , as a partner . Soon afterwards, his cousin from the Viennese line of the family, Sir Paul Eduard von Schoeller , appointed him to the management of the Ternitzer Walzwerk- und Bessemer Stahlfabrikations-AG founded by Alexander von Schoeller . In order to continue the expansion of Schoeller's steelworks already operated by Paul Eduard, Richard set up numerous branches and his own sales subsidiary for supplying the German market. He also temporarily integrated the steel works of Prince Johann Adolf von Schwarzenberg in Vordernberg and Trofaiach into his company, which he had shut down again in 1911 due to unproductivity. He also took over the hammer and rolling mills in Murau and Unzmarkt-Frauenburg, as well as the wood grinding, wood pulp and cardboard factory Schoeller & Co in the Hirschwang district of Reichenau an der Rax , which he sold to Neusiedler AG in 1916 .

After Paul Eduard's death in 1920, Richard Schoeller became the universal heir of the entire company empire, including Schoellerbank and the various sugar, beer and grain factories. In this capacity, the next important step in 1924 was the merger of Bleckmann-Stahlwerke in Mürzzuschlag with Ternitzer Schoeller-Stahlwerke to form Schoeller-Bleckmann Stahlwerke and took over the office of president. As heir and head of the Ebenfurther Rollbarstenfabrik, which was also founded by Alexander von Schoeller in 1853 and which had already been merged with the First Viennese Walzmühle Vonwiller in 1894, he pushed through the merger of the baker's mill on the Schüttel and the waiter's mill in Schwechat to form the grain AG of Schoeller & Co. . Finally, in 1926, as President of the Hütteldorfer Brewery, he arranged for the takeover of the United Breweries Schwechat , Sankt Marx , Simmering AG, which at that time was the third largest brewery in Europe.

In addition to these diverse entrepreneurial tasks, he was also a member of various boards of directors, administrative and supervisory boards. As President, he managed the fortunes of the Grazer Waggonfabrik and, as Vice-President, that of the Lokomotiv-Fabrik AG, formerly G. Sigl, and the United Breweries AG. He was a member of the board of directors of Bodencreditanstalt , Getreide AG and Wiener Erste Sparkasse , as well as the supervisory board of Veitscher Magnesitwerke AG and the Schwechat brewery. In addition, he was president of the industrial house association for the construction of the house of industry , which was opened by Emperor Franz Josef in 1911 , and was vice-president of the industrial club residing there , a forerunner organization of the industrialists' association .

In the mid-1920s, the alchemists Franz Tausend , Rolf Rienhardt and Erich Ludendorff tried to produce gold by transmutation , and they founded Gesellschaft 164 for this purpose in 1925 . The alleged "research" was financed by "rich citizens pushing for the National Socialist Party". Richard Schoeller and his nephew Philipp Alois (see below) also belonged to these wealthy manufacturers and industrialists. In reality, Gesellschaft 164 served as a money laundering facility for illegal party donations , with the greater part of Ludendorff's money being used to finance the deficit Nazi party newspaper Völkischer Kurier .

In preparation for the referendum on the Anschluss of Austria in April 1938, "individual people were sent an individually written letter with the request to express their opinion on the creation of the Greater German Reich and the referendum." Among them, named under the heading "important men" , also Richard Schoeller. His "German Confession":

“The historical events of the March days in 1938 have filled me, for whom I have longed for close ties with the German Reich over and over again for a lifetime, with honest, deep joy, because this longing has now experienced beautiful, radiant fulfillment in the union. I am happy for our splendid, upright working people that they can enter a large, strong community that does not practice socialism as a means to an end, but is social based on the powerful idea of ​​common fate and blood, and that they are all allowed to work together in the size and power of our beloved German people. "

- "Commercial Councilor Richard v. Schoeller "

family

Villa Schoeller in Hirschwang

Since Richard Schoeller, who was married to Emma, ​​nee Siedenburg, had no male descendants, his nephew Philipp Alois (1892–1977), son of his brother Philipp Josef and father of, among others, the future economic functionary Philipp von Schoeller , was born in 1933 Due to a serious illness, Richard was chosen to be the universal heir of the family's own business empire.

Under Philipp Alois' leadership, the Schoeller-Bleckmann steelworks became an important part of the Austrian armaments industry for the Second World War , whereupon the latter, as an early illegal member of the NSDAP, was later appointed by Hitler to the military economy leader.

As early as 1911, Richard von Schoeller arranged for his two cousins ​​and sons of the Brno cloth manufacturer Alois Philipp Schoeller (1832–1885), the orderly officer Major Friedrich von Schoeller (1872–1917) and the sugar industrialist Robert Schoeller (1873–1950), the Noble title was transferred. This was lost again after the First World War with the Nobility Repeal Act in 1919 , which means that the family members have since only carried the name Schoeller without von .

Richard's daughter Felicitas (1900–1975) married James Wendell Southard in their first marriage and the banker Alfred Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst (1889–1948), son of the Austrian politician and short-term Prime Minister Konrad zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst .

Honors

• 1925: Academic honorary citizen of the Vienna University of Technology
• Before 1938: Awarded the title of Commercial Councilor
• The “Richard-Schoeller-Saal” assembly room in the House of Industry was named after him.

Literature and Sources

• Schoeller, Richard von. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 11, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1999,ISBN 3-7001-2803-7, p. 27 f. (Direct links on p. 27 , p. 28 ).
• Hugo Schoeller, August Victor Schoeller: History of the Schoeller Family. 2 volumes. R. Eisenschmid, Berlin 1894. New edition by Stedman and Wallmoden 1994, ISBN 3-980-32882-1 .
• Hans Freiherr von Dumreicher: 100 years of Haus Schoeller - from the past and the present. Self-published, 2nd edition, Vienna 1934.
• Franz Mathis: Big Business in Austria, Austrian large companies in brief presentations. Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-486-53771-7 .
• Johann Slokar: History of Austrian Industry and its Promotion by Emperor Franz I. F. Tempsky, Vienna 1914.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Nobility Repeal Act 1919
2. ↑ Two years. In: Social Democratic Press Service of November 11, 1930, p. 14 ( PDF ).
3. ↑ From a "gold maker" in Bavaria. In: Kölnische Volkszeitung of October 12, 1929 ( Facsimile ( Memento of the original of February 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ); Statement by Franz Tausend. Process protocol 1921, State Archives Munich AG 69.264; excerpt. printed in: Franz Wegener: The Alchemist Franz Tausend. Alchemy and National Socialism. Gladbeck 2006, pp. 52-57 and 106ff. ( Excerpt in Google Books ). See also Franz Tausend, section “As a 'gold maker'” . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} 6. 5. 3. The propaganda preparation of the referendum. ( Memento of the original from January 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. → "Propaganda" total "" → "67. From: General report of the Reich Propagandahautpamt, Section II (Speaker: Eduard Frauenfeld ), May 5, 1938. “DÖW 11.213. (From: Anschluss 1938. ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. A documentation, ed. vom DÖW , Vienna 1988, pp. 495-526.)  
5. ^ Academic honorary citizens. 1925: SCHOELLER Richard, industrialist. ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Head of the Vienna University of Technology. Retrieved October 13, 2010. 
6. ↑ The Federation of Industrialists uses both the correct spelling “Richard-Schoeller-Saal” and “Richard Schoeller-Saal”. (Example: description of the room (PDF; 149 kB) on the IV website, in which both spellings can be found. Accessed on October 13, 2010.)