Silver locomotive

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Silver Locomotive from Heinrich Sichrovsky-Rudolf Gomperz-02.jpg
Silver Locomotive from Heinrich Sichrovsky-Rudolf Gomperz-06.jpg
Recordings made by Markus Yitzhak Feuerstein shortly after the handover in 2015

The Silver Locomotive is a model of a steam locomotive made from silver from the early days of the railroad. It was a birthday present to Heinrich Joachim von Sichrovsky (1794–1866) in 1845. The model was lost for many decades and was given to the Israelite Community for Tyrol and Vorarlberg after it was found again because its last owner was a Jew murdered by the Nazis was without surviving offspring. The ownership structure of the Silver Locomotive is still unclear.

story

The Silver locomotive was Heinrich von Sichrovsky in his capacity as general secretary of the excl. Priv. Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (KFNB) from its employees paid on the 50th birthday. It then came into the possession of his daughter Elise Sichrovsky (1848–1929) and then into the possession of her son Rudolf Gomperz (1878–1942). 1941, shortly before his forced departure on January 20, 1942 Vienna , Rudolf Gomperz handed the Silver Locomotive a friend in St. Anton am Arlberg in trust . Rudolf Gomperz was murdered by the Nazis in 1942 in the Maly Trostinez extermination camp in Belarus because he was Jewish.

The model was then lost for almost 74 years. On December 12th, 2015 it was picked up by the local researcher Hans Thöni , Jakob Eisenstein and Markus Yitzhak Feuerstein in St. Anton at a request of the custody family and handed over to the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde for Tyrol and Vorarlberg on the condition that the name of the family, which the model had kept for decades could not be named. The erection of a monument to Rudolf Gomperz had already led to great resistance in St. Anton am Arlberg. According to Hans Thöni's experience, the family's fears of being discriminated against by former, but influential National Socialists in St. Anton for a long time, were not unfounded.

The model has been part of the permanent exhibition in the Jewish Museum in Hohenems since 2020 on loan from the Israelite Community for Tyrol and Vorarlberg .

The locomotive was first to the public in the exhibition What remains shown in 2016 in Hohenems and 2018/2019 also in the exhibition traces: Exhibition on ski culture am Arlberg in Lech Museum in Huber-Hus.

In 2002 Sina Moser made a short film entitled The Silver Locomotive . The locomotive is currently also being “exhibited” virtually in the “Shared History Project” of the Leo Baeck Institute New York and can also be viewed there in a 3D view.

The restitution office of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde in Vienna has so far unsuccessfully researched persons entitled to inheritance.

description

The model, which is a working samovar , is the work of a Viennese goldsmith. It bears the maker's mark “AR”, silver content 13 Lot (812.5 / 1000). The size of the model is: 47.3 cm × 23.5 cm × 40 cm. Weight (total) with wooden plate: 8.8 kg; Dimensions of the separate wooden plate: 57.7 cm × 34.1 cm × 2.4 cm. The inscription on the front side reads: "The officials of the ap Kaiser Ferdinands Nordbahn out of grateful respect for their honored boss - General Secretary Heinrich Sichrovsky - on the 50th birthday on July 2, 1845".

As an example a locomotive of the then widespread type has Patentee the English manufacturer Stephenson served, of which the four KFNB with the names JUPITER, GIANT, CONCORDIA and BRUNA in its portfolio. However, the model deviates significantly from these locomotives in terms of the location of the boiler superstructures and bears the name Fortuna . The tender that carried the supplies of feed water and coal was not implemented as a model .

literature

  • Harry Sichrovsky: My ancestor - the pioneer: Heinrich von Sichrovsky and his time , biography, Braumüller Verlag, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7003-0787-X .

Web links

Commons : Silver Locomotive  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Harry Sichrovsky: My Urahn - The pioneer: Heinrich Sichrovsky and his time . 1st edition. New academic press, 1988, ISBN 3-7003-0787-X , p. 232.
  2. ↑ Elise Gomperz was married to the classical philologist Theodor Gomperz .
  3. ↑ Hanno Loewy , Anika Reichwald, Dinah Ehrenfreund-Michler: Remaining . 1st edition. Hohenems 2016, ISBN 978-3-99018-311-3 , pp. 19 .
  4. ↑ Harry Sichrovsky in: My Urahn - The pioneer: Heinrich Sichrovsky and his time . Pp. 213, 216. He was murdered on May 26, 1942.
  5. ↑ Hans Thöni wrote about the repressed story of Rudolf Gomperz, the pioneer of modern ski tourism, and inspired Felix Mitterer to write his drama No beautiful country .
  6. ↑ Harry Sichrovsky . In: My Urahn - The pioneer: Heinrich Sichrovsky and his time . P. 218 f.
  7. ↑ Report by Harry Sichrovsky in Hans Thöni: No beautiful country on the Arlberg, The fate of Ing. Rudolf Gomperz, trailblazer for St. Anton's tourism . Ed .: Association for the Arlberger Kulturtage, ISBN 3-9501280-1-8 , p. 57.
  8. ↑ The silver locomotive. Jewish Museum Hohenems, May 31, 2016, accessed on March 24, 2019 ( conversation between Hanno Loewy, Hans Thöni and Rudolf Hausherr on YouTube ).
  9. ↑ Anika Reichwald: Papa's silver locomotive. In: Leo Baeck Institute - Shared History Project. Retrieved August 28, 2021 .
  10. ↑ Traces: The exhibition on ski culture. Lechmuseum, accessed on March 24, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Sina Moser: The silver locomotive. In: Studio West. Independent film. Youtube, 2014, accessed March 23, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Hanno Loewy, Anika Reichwald, Dinah Ehrenfreund-Michler: Remaining . 1st edition. Hohenems 2016, ISBN 978-3-99018-311-3 , pp. 23 .
  13. ^ Leo Baeck Institute - Shared History Project. Retrieved August 28, 2021 .
  14. ^ Jewish stories from Hohenems. ORF.at, March 29, 2021, accessed on September 13, 2021 .
  15. ↑ Hanno Loewy, Anika Reichwald, Dinah Ehrenfreund-Michler: Remaining . 1st edition. Hohenems 2016, ISBN 978-3-99018-311-3 , pp. 20 .
  16. ↑ Information according to the Jewish Museum in Hohenems to user Asurnipal by email from August 19, 2021.
  17. ^ Alfred Horn: The Kaiser-Ferdinand-Nordbahn (= The Austrian-Hungarian Railways. Volume 2). Bohmann Verlag, Vienna 1970. Pages 162, 268, 302.