Victor Alder

Victor Alder ( May 20, 1877 - April 15, 1948 ) was an Austrian chemist and industrialist .

family

Victor Alder Junior's father, Victor Alder Senior, was already involved in the manufacture of detonators , which has led to an unexpected boom since the German War of 1866 with the introduction of breech loaders . After his father Victor Alder Senior died early in a hunting accident in 1896, the son had to take over the company immediately after graduation: the V. Alder chemical product and ignition capsule factory in Vienna X.

With his brother-in-law Ferdinand Hrdliczka , the founder of Herlango , and an independent Austrian photo industry, Alder shared an interest in corresponding products for this industry.

His sister Helene Alder was married to the timber industrialist Max Hrdliczka in Bystřice pod Hostýnem .

education

Alder studied at the Technical University in Vienna and throughout his professional life he had a close connection between theory, experiment and production.

Working life

The preparations for the First World War, which had already started, brought Alder to intensive occupation with modern special ammunition, to which he contributed some outstanding innovations at the time. So he became the author of several patents in ammunition technology (No. 8054, No. 64453, No. 84321, No. 8628, No. 92731, No. 93671), the first working ammunition for firing airships (Alder-B cartridge ) is to be named as well as the tracer ammunition he invented. He also developed poison gases for the First World War. Around 1900 in Austria and Great Britain the civil process for the production of cyanide was developed.

Soon the area in the Xth district became too small and the new factory premises in Vienna Oberlaa were moved into. Alder was raised to hereditary nobility in 1917 for the development of the B cartridge.

In the additional production site in Hungary in Lajta Ujfalu, today Neufeld an der Leitha , a street was named after him.

Political

In the period after the dissolution of the Danube monarchy, he bought up the scattered ammunition industries of the divided empire during the hyperinflation in order to be ready for the return of the Habsburgs. The most prominent example in this regard was the participation in Wöllersdorf Werke AG near Wiener Neustadt.

Alder's participation policy was opposed by the League of Nations in the 1920s, so that he had to sell some things again. He kept the armaments machines and stored them in Oberlaa. He accomplished the political feat of not keeping these machines running in World War II because he had sworn his oath on the House of Habsburg.

literature

Josef Mötz: The ammunition factory in Wöllersdorf , DWJ 8/1985, p. 978
Josef Mötz: The chemical product and ignition capsule factory Victor Alder , DWJ 8 / 1984,7 / 1984

Josef Mötz: Brief history of the ammunition company G. Roth , DWJ 11/1983

Josef Mötz: Headstamp on military cartridges for handguns in Austria 1867-1938

Roman Sandgruber: Dream time for millionaires. The 929 richest Viennese in 1910 , Styria Premium 2013, information on the Alder families p. 88,166,306; Edlinger p. 332

Web links

Commons : Victor Alder - collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Alder, Victor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian chemist and industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 20, 1877
DATE OF DEATH	April 15, 1948