Wilhelm Kestranek

Wilhelm Kestranek (born May 22, 1863 in Branowitz , Moravia , † May 19, 1925 in Vienna ) was an Austrian industrialist.

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Kestranek was the eldest of seven children of Johann and Karoline Kestranek, and on his father's side came from a wealthy, respected bourgeois family in Pilsen. His father was a high official in the Emperor Ferdinand's Northern Railway . As a confidante and employee of Karl Wittgenstein , he was appointed central director of the Prague Iron Industry Company as his successor in 1898 . He led the company from the sphere of influence of Creditanstalt into that of the Lower Austrian Escompte-Gesellschaft and represented Wittgenstein's controversial cartelization and high price policy with great assertiveness. Kestranek had a mighty villa built in Sankt Gilgen am Wolfgangsee in 1906-07 and remained a well-known leader in Austria's industry until the 1920s. However, he had to vacate his position as President of the Alpine Montangesellschaft after Hugo Stinnes took it over . "Vilmos" Kestranek also played the leading role in the Herz-Kestraneks family clan . He also appeared as a patron of the arts, for example as a co-founder of the Mozarteum in Salzburg and as a sponsor of the singer Lotte Lehmann .

Wilhelm Kestranek died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 62. The unusually frankly formulated obituary in the Neue Freie Presse on May 19, 1925 (evening edition) calls Kestranek a “boisterous” personality, a “fighting nature”, which, however, “played no role in political life” and indicates that early death of the older of Kestranks two sons could have had something to do with the conflict with his father. Kestranks wife Marie, née Lenk, died immediately in the wake of her husband's death, also of a stroke.

A cousin of Wilhelm Kestranek was Paul Kestranek (1856–1929), general of the infantry and last corps commander in Prague .

literature

Gerald Sturmayr: Industrial Interest Policy in the Danube Monarchy , Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1996, ( online version )

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Hannes Stekl: Citizenship in the Habsburg Monarchy II , Vienna – Cologne – Weimar 1992, page 393
^ The industrialists complained that, because the iron cartel charged such exorbitant prices for iron and steel, their own industries could not prosper. They sought to convince the government to lower protective tariffs, since the iron cartel was charging artificially inflated prices. The growing opposition influenced Wittgenstein to resign his post as central director of the Prague Iron Industry Company in the summer of 1898 and to go on an extended tour. quoted from Jorn K. Bramann, John Moran, web document
^ General Kestranek died. In: Prager Tagblatt , No. 165/1929 (LIV. Volume), July 17, 1929, p. 3, column 3. (Online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / ptb

personal data
SURNAME	Kestranek, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian industrialist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 22, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH	Branowitz , Moravia
DATE OF DEATH	May 19, 1925
Place of death	Vienna

[1] Hannes Stekl: Citizenship in the Habsburg Monarchy II , Vienna – Cologne – Weimar 1992, page 393

[2] The industrialists complained that, because the iron cartel charged such exorbitant prices for iron and steel, their own industries could not prosper. They sought to convince the government to lower protective tariffs, since the iron cartel was charging artificially inflated prices. The growing opposition influenced Wittgenstein to resign his post as central director of the Prague Iron Industry Company in the summer of 1898 and to go on an extended tour. quoted from Jorn K. Bramann, John Moran, web document

[3] General Kestranek died. In: Prager Tagblatt , No. 165/1929 (LIV. Volume), July 17, 1929, p. 3, column 3. (Online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / ptb