Siegfried von Wimpffen

Siegfried von Wimpffen at the steering of his Serpollet 1892

Count Siegfried von Wimpffen (born September 6, 1865 in Vienna , † November 26, 1929 in Ercsi , Hungary ) was an Austro-Hungarian nobleman and motorist. In 1892 he was the first motorist in Austria to receive a driving license.

family

Wimpffen was the son of Count Viktor von Wimpffen and Anastasia Sina von Hodos and thus on his father's side a great-grandson of the important Jewish banker Bernhard von Eskeles , and on his mother's side an heir of the Greek-Austrian banker Simon Baron Sina . On June 11, 1892, he married Countess Franziska Stockau. Franziska's father Georg came from a morganatic line of the Thurn und Taxis family , her mother Eveline Baltazzi was the sister of Helene Vetsera . Siegfried von Wimpffen had nine children; his son Simon died in 1918, during World War I , while serving on the Italian front.

Creation and works

In 1892 Wimpffen and Hans Graf Wilczek junior (like Wimpffen a member of the exclusive Viennese jockey club) imported an almost two-tonne steam car from the French company Serpollet to Vienna. This automobile was fired with coke. To ensure that enough steam was produced, the passenger had to constantly "top up". The wheels were iron-shod and made an enormous amount of noise. Wimpffen and Wilczek caused a sensation with their unusual vehicle. Wimpffen asked the authorities for permission to operate the automobile within the Vienna road network. This did not say no, but required a driving test. Wimpffen did a few test laps in the courtyard of his palace - he wasn't allowed to use the public roads yet -, then took his exams and, after an eventful drive, got his driver's license :

"The rector of the technical university , an official of the magistrate and one of the police formed the examination committee. The gentlemen took their seats in the car and, like me, had no idea of ​​the dangers we were countering. I had driven about a thousand paces and approached the wet one , steeply downhill Rothenthurmstrasse , when the car came to its maximum speed without my intention. The speed frightened me. I put the brakes on, and to my amazement the car turned in circles. [...] After about Half an hour had enough for my passengers; they forego the return journey and preferred the horse-drawn tram after they had given me certificate no. 1 as a certified motorist. "

Thirty years later, in addition to a Rolls-Royce, he owned a number of Daimlers. As a technology enthusiast, Wimpffen was also involved in the Austrian Automobile Club : from 1898 he was a lifelong member of the institution and also represented on its board.

In 1914 Siegfried von Wimpffen was first mentioned as a hereditary member of the Hungarian magnate house in the court and state handbook of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . He had accepted Hungarian citizenship and at the time of his application for membership in the magnate house in 1902, he owned a Hungarian estate of 37,000 yokes . The Ercsier sugar factory in Hungary was founded by him in 1912 as the first modern industrial settlement in the area. In addition to numerous possessions in Italy, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia, he also owned the Palais Sina in Vienna . The family's possessions in Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia were nationalized after the Second World War , and the Ercsier sugar factory closed in 1998.

Wimpffen had numerous churches, chapels, crosses, castles, schools and kindergartens built in Hungary. He died in 1929 on his Hungarian estate in Ercsi and was buried there in the family crypt.

Web links

Commons : Siegfried von Wimpffen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website about the Wimpffen family
• Siegfried Graf Wimpffen †. A pioneer of automobilism. In:  Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung , December 15, 1929, p. 7 (online at ANNO ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ party. In:  Wiener Salonblatt , December 8, 1929, p. 19 (online at ANNO ).
2. ^ Gothaisches Genealogical Pocket Book of the Count's Houses 1896 . Verlag Justus Perthes, Gotha 1896, p. 1267 (digitized version)
3. ^ Heinrich Baltazzi-Scharschmid, Hermann Swistun: The Baltazzi-Vetsera families in imperial Vienna . Hermann Böhlaus Nachf., Vienna – Cologne – Graz, 1980, ISBN 3-205-07160-3 , Baltazzi family table
4. ^ Heinrich Baltazzi-Scharschmid, Hermann Swistun: The Baltazzi-Vetsera families in imperial Vienna . Hermann Böhlaus Nachf., Vienna – Cologne – Graz, 1980, ISBN 3-205-07160-3 , Stockau family table
5. ↑ Article  in:  Neue Freie Presse , September 12, 1918, p. 8 (online at ANNO ).
6. ↑ Christian Rapp: Before starting - a look in the rearview mirror . In: Technisches Museum Wien (Ed.): Change of track. Vienna is learning to drive . Christian Brandstätter Verlag , Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-902510-84-6 , p. 16
7. ^ Martin Pfundner: From Semmering to the Grand Prix. Motor racing in Austria and its history . Böhlau Verlag , Vienna – Cologne – Weimar 2003, ISBN 3-205-77162-1 , p. 12
8. ^ ^{A b} Siegfried Graf Wimpffen:  Two steam cars: 1892–1902. In:  Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung , March 1, 1903, p. 9 (online at ANNO ).
9. ^ The reactions of the population to early automobilism in Austria , diploma thesis by Jutta Czabaun, Vienna 2008 (PDF, 3.8 MB), p. 39
10. ↑ See Presidium and Board of Directors. In:  Allgemeine Automobil-Zeitung , July 1, 1900, p. 2 (online at ANNO ).
11. ↑ IX. Due to the succession are members of the magnate house. In: Court and State Handbook of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy for the year 1914 , section: The countries of the Hungarian Holy Crown . K. k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1914, p. 1083 ( digitized version of the Austrian National Library )
12. ↑ From the Hungarian Parliament. In:  Neues Wiener Tagblatt , Abendblatt, December 10, 1902, p. 2 (online at ANNO ).
13. ^ Vienna address book. Lehmanns Wohnungsanzeiger 1926 , Volume 2, Part IV (List of Houses), Page 439, Column 3, Hoher Markt 8 (digitized version)