Ringhoffer

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Ringhoffer is the family name of ennobled industrialists who come from Burgenland , who settled in Prague and who owned the Ringhoffer works and were large landowners in Bohemia until 1946 .

Origin and social advancement

The progenitor of the family, Jakob Ringhoffer (1673–1732), was a master blacksmith and came from Müllendorf in Burgenland . His grandson Franz (1744–1827) moved to Prague in 1769 . Two years later he set up a coppersmith's shop there, where he made brewing pans. In addition to his job, he already held a number of public offices in Prague, for example he was head of the coppersmiths' guild, from 1803 on the city ​​council and later on the city council.

His son Josef (1785–1845) took over the business and expanded it further and built a copper hammer mill in Kamenitz. Equipment for the sugar industry and schnapps distilleries were manufactured there. In 1832 he received the title of master coppersmith . With the factory license obtained in 1843 , he was allowed to manufacture all metal objects.

Ringhofferstrasse Kamenice

The son Franz Ringhoffer II. (1817–1873) joined the company after completing his training at the Prague Polytechnic . He was married to the landowner's daughter Josephine Schallowetz (1822-1896). He bought the goods Kamenitz, Štiřín, Popowitz , Lojowitz and Pischely. In 1852 he had a new factory built in Smíchov , where railway cars were built from 1854 onwards. In 1867 the F. Ringhoffer Smichow wagon factory was expanded to include a new hall and a few ancillary operations.

After his death, Franz III. Baron von Ringhoffer, together with his brothers Emanuel and Viktor, turned the factory into the largest wagon factory in Austria-Hungary in 1873, despite the economic crisis . In 1906/07 he founded the automobile manufacturer Praga together with the First Bohemian-Moravian Machine Factory in Prague .

His son Franz Ringhoffer IV converted the company into a stock corporation , Ringhoffer-Werke AG , in 1911 . From 1918 on, his brother Hans Ringhoffer gradually acquired shares in all of the larger wagon manufacturers in Czechoslovakia . In 1935 the Ringhoffer-Werke merged with the Tatra-Werke AG, automobile and wagon construction , in Kopřivnice . The industrial group Ringhoffer-Tatra AG was created .

family members

  • Franz Ringhoffer (1744–1827), Austrian coppersmith and inventor from Müllendorf near Eisenstadt (today Burgenland), Prague councilor and head of the council of guild elders
  • Joseph Ringhoffer (1785–1847) (son of the previous one), manufacturing entrepreneur in Prague and copper hammer owner in Kamenitz (Kamenice) in Central Bohemia, appointed imperial and royal court coppersmith master in 1832
  • Franz Freiherr von Ringhoffer II. (1817–1873), son of Joseph Ringhoffer and father of the industrialist Franz von Ringhoffer III (Franz Seraph Josef Freiherr von Ringhoffer) (1844–1929), German-Bohemian industrialist and owner of the Kamenic estate with Lojovic and the estates Gross-Popovic and Stirin, all in the Owl District in Bohemia. Knight of the Iron Crown 2nd Class and the Order of Franz Joseph in recognition of his services in the field of industry and his humanitarian work. 1861 Mayor of Smichov , where he set up a gas plant and water supply. Representative of the large landowners in the liberal constitutional party , member of the Bohemian state parliament. According to the diploma of Emperor Franz Joseph I, dated January 3, 1873, he was elevated to the status of Austrian baron. (The coats of arms of the Bohemian nobility. J. Siebmacher's great Wappenbuch, Volume 30, 1979 Neustadt an der Aisch. Reprographic reprint of Siebmacher's Wappenbuch Nürnberg, Volume IV, 9th Department (1886) by Rudolf Johann von Meraviglia-Crivelli , ISBN 3 87947030 8 , with a description of the coat of arms on heraldic panel 52)
  • Emanuel von Ringhoffer I (1823–1903) (brother of Franz II), Austrian technician and architect, professor of structural engineering, rector of the Imperial and Royal Polytechnic Institute (Technical University) in Prague; Ennobled on April 10, 1900 (knighthood)
  • Wilhelm Ringhoffer (1826–1885) (brother of Franz II.), Machine manufacturer in Prague and Breslau
  • Franz von Ringhoffer III. (1844–1909) (son of Franz II.), Austrian industrialist and landowner, member of the manor house of the Austrian Imperial Council for life (1892), President of the Industrial Council and the State Railroad Council, founded in 1906/07 together with the First Bohemian-Moravian Machine Factory in Prague the automobile manufacturer "Praga", co-initiator of the anti-duel league
  • Emanuel von Ringhoffer II. (1848–1923) (brother of Franz III.), Austrian industrialist, landowner, agricultural expert, lifelong. Member of the manor house (1912), confidante and advisor to the heir to the throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand (designated by him for the office of Agriculture Minister)
  • Carl Ringhoffer (also Karl R.) (1854–1906) (son of Wilhelm), historian and writer in Berlin, supporter of Bismarck and author of a number of works on the history of the House of Hohenzollern and on European history in the 16th and 17th centuries
  • Alfred von Ringhoffer (1880–1938), Austrian baron and owner of the Lordship of Plan and Gottschau
  • Felix Ringhoffer (1891–1954) (son of Emanuel II.), Industrialist and brewery owner, chairman of the umbrella organization for breweries and agricultural associations in Czechoslovakia
  • Franz Ringhoffer IV. (1874–1940) (son of Franz III.), Industrialist in Czechoslovakia, President of the Board of Directors of Ringhoffer-Tatra-Werke AG and Mährisch-Schlesische Fahrzeugwerke AG (Stauding / Studenka)
  • Franz Ringhoffer V. (1902–1937) (son of Franz IV.), Large industrialist, Czechoslovak golf master
  • Friedrich Ringhoffer (Bedrich) (1884–1945) (son of Emanuel II), industrialist, mechanical engineer
  • Hans Freiherr von Ringhoffer ( Hanusch ) (born January 3, 1885 in Prague- Smichov , died on January 1, 1947 in special camp No. 1 Mühlberg of the NKVD ) a son of Franz III. Baron von Ringhoffer (1844–1909), industrialist and lawyer, since 1923 General Director of the Ringhoffer Group, Governor of the Czechoslovak National Bank, Royal Norwegian Honorary Consul. (Prager Nachrichten (1962) No. 1, pages 2-4)
  • Ferdinand Wenzel Freiherr von Ringhoffer (1919–1991) (son of Friedrich), industrialist
  • Count Hans Serényi-Ringhoffer (great-nephew and adopted son of Hans) (1928–1993)
  • Count Anton Johann Serényi-Ringhoffer (great-nephew and adopted son of Hans)

Through the nobility annulment law in Czechoslovakia of December 3, 1918, the families were stripped of their nobility titles .

Overview of activities as an entrepreneur up to the expropriation of the group in 1946

Salon car from Emperor Franz Joseph

Josef's eldest son Franz Ringhoffer II established a larger company in New Town of Prague and in 1852 built a factory in the south-western suburb of Smíchov , the F. Ringhoffer Smichow wagon factory , where he began manufacturing railway wagons in 1854 , initially freight cars and from 1860 also passenger cars . Since it had not yet been the leading on Smíchov Southern Railway, the cars had to through the city center, 4 km away railhead Prague (today Masarykovo nádraží , Masaryk Station) are brought by wagon. In 1867 the factory was expanded to include a new hall and a few ancillary operations and the construction of saloon cars began (later the salon car for Emperor Franz Joseph I from 1902 became known), which is now on display in the National Technical Museum in Prague . The company started exporting. Ringhoffer became mayor of Smíchov, where, among other things, he built a modern settlement. Not far from Prague he began to build the Kozel brewery . He was raised to the hereditary Austrian baron status by the emperor .

After his death in 1873, his son Franz III took over . Freiherr von Ringhoffer founded the company with the brothers Emanuel and Viktor. Under his leadership, the company grew into one of the largest companies in Austria-Hungary . Not only were all types of rail vehicles built , electric locomotives , multiple units , tenders for steam locomotives and trams , but also production facilities for sugar factories, distilleries, breweries and cooling systems for cold stores .

In 1909, Franz Ringhoffer IV took over the company, which he converted into a stock corporation in 1911 . In 1923 there was a merger with the Tatra company in Kopřivnice , which, in addition to automobiles, also built rail vehicles. From now on the company was called Ringhoffer-Tatra AG , after the takeover of all companies based in Prague- Smíchov and Nesseldorf (Kopřivnice) and 20 subsidiaries with around 30,000 employees, as well as the large agricultural and forestry operations of the company F. Ringhoffer, to which the Brewery Groß-Popowitz (Velke Popovice) belonged.

After his death in 1940, his younger brother Hans (Hanusch) Ringhoffer (1885–1946), who is said to have been a member of the NSDAP , took over the management of the company, to which the Austro-Tatra , the Austrian branch of the Tatra-Werke in Vienna - Simmering belonged and received orders from Albert Speer , armaments minister of the Third German Reich . Armored rail vehicles were also built back then.

Hans (Hanusch) Freiherr von Ringhoffer died on September 31, 1946 in the Soviet special camp No. 1 Mühlberg . The family members of the Ringhoffer were expropriated in favor of Czechoslovakia and deported to Austria in the course of the expulsion of the Germans from Czechoslovakia .

literature