General Archive - Mautner Markhof

1000 hours in appreciation for Mautner Markhof

18. November 2022/in General /by Beate Hemmerlein

A project of this dimension – meaning the present website – cannot be completed with conceptual know-how, creative strength, willingness to work and perseverance only. It is the soul of a work that forms its perfection – and I had good companions who made it possible for me to accomplish this work with soul. Each of them has strengthened and motivated me again and again – each one in his own way; some of them actively, some of them just in memory of, some of them sporadically, some of them constantly. They are the ones whose contribution I do not want to leave unappreciated and therefore dedicate the following lines to Adolf Ignaz , Carl Ferdinand, Victor, Manfred II, Viktor, Abi & Rike, and finally to Theodor Heinrich.

Adolf Ignaz

whose pioneering spirit, diligence and will (like his motto to match the coat of arms) made incredible achievements possible for generations over a period of only half a human life. A self-made man with the heart in the right place, whose memory has to be valued far beyond his social achievements and whose biography – as I hope – gives all his descendants the motivation not to just limit themselves to inherited social privileges.

Carl Ferdinand

the one that touched me inside. As a boy, already looking after his family at a young age and still simple and modest, as a young adult, dutifully treading the predetermined path at his father´s side, when a mature man was forced to do so, he saw himself to choose suicide. And this with the simple touching final request for forgiveness, but not to refuse him the sacraments of death.

Victor

whom I personally find refreshingly outstanding in the dynastic context on hand.
Although he was not concerned about social advancement through marriage, which remained childless, he was fond of the fine arts and individual joie de vivre, I cannot avoid the fact that this historically proven cheerful and pleasant contemporary, brother and uncle always brings a smile on my face.

Manfred II

the dear Professor, who had always been friendly and benevolent towards me and who had always shared his office at the Seilerstätte with me according to demand. I will never forget our last meeting in the lift on the Stubenring.

Viktor

the best, the most correct and the most reliable partner that one can only ask for and who has never spared the time and effort to bring the project up to date with the most detailed content that we can present on this website.

Abi & Rike

who sifted through their inheritance with so much commitment and dedication and tirelessly research, scan and transcribe over many nights of work. Thanks to them, the Reininghaus line could also – but not only – be resurrected!

Theodor Heinrich

who sent me on this historic journey at the beginning of 2017, which did not only take me through a large part of Austrian history, but also finally made me understand all the stories that I had been listening to – first being completely incoherent to me – over the past three decades. It is only thanks to his vision —, energy, and generosity that everything that once started in Bohemia with Adolf Ignaz and was taken up by Georg (IV) J.E. in the 1990s, was able to find its way out of the paper archives, and with the help of contemporary media it can also be preserved for future generations worldwide.

1,000 hours of Mautner Markhof – may the exciting journey bring many more hours of Mautner Markhof.

The passing on of the fire

18. November 2022/in General /by Theodor Heinrich Mautner Markhof

The history of the Mautner Markhof House is a story of many fates. A story of tradition, of success and, of course, also setbacks. Outstanding are the pioneers, who passionately pursued their visions and thus influenced society at that time, some of them sustainable.

You cannot choose a family, as the saying goes, that, of course, also applies to each of us, with all its advantages and disadvantages. However, what Mautner Markhof is able to give to all its members and descendants is the certainty that all dreams, wishes and imaginations can be realized with dedication, commitment, faith, will and perseverance.

Adolf Ignaz was brave, progressive, creative and revolutionary. He created, effected, shaped, produced and – above all else – had the heart in the right place. Preserving his spirit therefore means not only being the beneficiary of material and social values, but also courageously follow new paths, believing in oneself and creating one’s own trend-setting ideas and projects.

“Innovate don’t imitate” – or to put it in Gustav Mahler’s words: “Tradition is to pass on the fire and not to worship the ashes”.

In order now to make this possible and to all family members, wherever they may be, to get their roots, I have in the age of new media seized the opportunity to use its powers and laid the foundation for this as part of the website. I wish and hope that in every future generation a few descendants find that to continue what my cousin Viktor and I have initiated and thus preserve what Adolf Ignaz outstandingly had begun.

Written by Theodor Heinrich Mautner Markhof

Georg III and the Ethiopian adventure

20. March 2020/in General /by Beate Hemmerlein

Since George III Mautner Markhof always endeavoured to set up companies abroad, he decided in 1937, at the end of the Italo-Ethiopian War, to acquire a dilapidated brewery in Addis Ababa. So the cousins Georg III and Manfred I personally, as equal partners, took over the largest brewery in Africa, which was to be called San Giorgio in memory of Floridsdorf. Since this could only be done together with an Italian partner (it was decided in favour of a Roman lawyer) via a very complicated company structure, there were great difficulties starting and maintaining operations.

The brewery was in a sorry state. A desolate building with equally desolate machines awaited the new owners. In October 1937, machine foreman Weissenhofer from Schwechat was sent to Ethiopia with his son Wilhelm to carry out the necessary technical renovations. The equipment of the St. Georg Brewery, which had been closed, was used. The water quality was so miserable that it seemed downright impossible to brew a decent beer. Later it turned out that the African barley was also completely unsuitable, so that it had to be imported from Schwechat. Wilhelm Weissenhofer finally succeeded with three other Europeans and around twenty local workers to renovate the brewery and improve the water quality. From 1938 on it was possible to produce a decent beer, although the circumstances could not have been more difficult. The language barrier was enormous, it was only with great effort that it was possible to communicate to the locals what was expected of them. The competition was considerable; foreign beer imports stormed the market.

In 1940 Gerhard Mautner Markhof came to see if everything was going well and Afredo Conte della Feld (married to Erika Hebra, a great-granddaughter of Adolf Ignaz) was appointed director. Just when the first successes were showing and Amedeo Duke of Aosta, Vicerory of Italian East Africa, had honoured the brewery with his visit, the victorious English conquered the country in 1941, which in turn meant the end of the brewery. Emperor Haile Selassie returned to his country, declared the brewery confiscated on the spot and had it transferred to his wife immediately. George III and Manfred I had to convince the emperor after 1945 that the brewery was an Italian company, but indeed was entirely Austrian-owned and that Austria was not considered an enemy of the British. After numerous attempts at mediation and proceedings at international courts, which were very expensive for the Mautner Markhof family, Haile Selassie finally wanted to speak to Georg III personally. This conversation between the god-like emperor and the “little” entrepreneur, who worked with “Wiener Schmäh” and tactical breaks in conversation, should not have lacked a certain bizarre. According to tradition, Georg III annoyed the very linguistic Haile Selassie furthermore with endless translations in three languages and so he finally managed to convince him of his point of view. Manfred I and Georg III received compensation that, although not quite the amount requested, was at least satisfactory. At the same time Wilhelm Weissenhofer, who had been taken prisoner of war and had been interned since 1941, was allowed to return to Austria. Even today, a beer in Ethiopia reminds of the Mautner Markhof era.

The emblem of the Ethiopian St. George Beer

Signets der Abessinischen Brauerei San Giorgio in Anlehnung an St. Georg Floridsdorf

Georg III and the Brazilian adventure

20. March 2020/in General /by Beate Hemmerlein

Cervejaria Vienense – when the Schwechat brewery expanded to Brazil

After the war and his return to Austria George III continued to support the takeover policy of foreign breweries and therefore also used his contacts in Brazil, where he had spent several years of war. With a share capital of 11 million Cruzeiros, he founded the Companhia Paulista de Cervejas, in which the Schwechat Brewery had held 55% of the voting shares.

He used the equipment of the Nussdorf brewery, which had been bought in 1950 thanks to an increase in the share capital. For the organization of the transport, all machines were dismantled into two halves, one half of which was transported via Hamburg and the other half via Trieste. This was done to ensure that the devices really arrived in South America and could not be set up anywhere near the Ural (George III was a chronic enemy of the Soviets). 8 million schillings and 62 railroad cars were required for that.

The undertaking was fortunate and the Brazilian “Vienense” was successful for a number of years. However, George III, was unable to inspire any other family member to join the “new home” permanently. The poor Brazilian economic situation of the following years and the devaluation of money almost caused the project, however, to fail, so that the “four-in-hand-management” (Georg III, Gustav, Gerhard, Manfred I) were very much in favour of welcoming a new partner. So, the Brazilian brewery group Cervejaria Brahma was taking over the large capital increase and started actively participating in the business management. Subsequently they could sell the entire stake to Cervejaria Brahma until 1959 and withdraw again successfully, as they claimed. It is said that with an investment volume of 9.5 million schillings, cash returns of 16 million schillings were ultimately made.

Marius Mautner Markhof (left) and Georg III Mautner Markhof (front right) at the opening of the Brazilian brewery in 1954

1954: Tasting of the first glass, the Radetzky March was played as signature music. Marius Mautner Markhof (left) and Georg III (right) with the Viennese master brewer Ing. Urban, who had fled to Brazil from the Russians. He had slapped a communist member of the workers` council on the face and otherwise would have been “transferred” to a GULAG.

George III Mautner Markhof hands over the ballots for the election of Miss Vienense

Magda Mautner Markhof by Gustav Klimt

21. June 2018/in General /by Theodor Heinrich Mautner Markhof

Study/portrait of Magda Grasmayr, the ninth child of Carl Ferdinand Mautner von Markhof.

Gustav Klimt drew her in 1904 with black pen on paper, 55 x 34.6 cm

Magda was born on April 14, 1881 in Vienna and, thanks to the influence of her mother Editha Freiin Sunstenau von Schützenthal, grew up in a household in which the artistic elite of the time regularly got together. Besides Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann, Kolo Moser also Bruno Walter and Gustav Mahler were regular guests in the family palace on Vienna’s main street Landstraßer Hauptstraße.

She appeared as a young girl when, on November 18, 1903, she and her mother became co-founders of the “New Women’s Club”. Magda, like her mother and sister Ditha (married to Koloman Moser), was very art-minded and graduated from art school in Vienna under Alfred Roller and as well completed painting lessons with Maurice Denis in Paris. Her doll’s house was the central object of an exhibition of the Secession under Adolf Böhm. Her apartment and studio furnished by Josef Hoffmann developed into a prestigious stomping ground where Albert Paris Gütersloh and Alfred Gerstenbrand liked to socialize.

Magda Mautner Markhof, 1904 by Gustav Klimt

Study by Gustav Klimt on an unfinished portrait of Magda Mautner Markhof

Magda aimed to compile a collection of contemporary Austrian art. For example, she owned the Gustav Klimt painting Hope I, 1903, originally acquired by Fritz Waerndorfer. She also bought the Egon Schiele painting Autumn Tree in Stirred Air (Winter Tree), in 1912, which she acquired for a total of 400 crowns. “I am now sending you 100 crowns, 200 crowns in November, then 100 crowns in December. I prefer the two landscapes more than your figurative works, which are often quite strange to me. By watching your drawings, I also have the feeling that you have a completely different view of things than I do. Nevertheless, I would like to have one of your works because I would like to fully represent young Viennese art in my collection.”

In 1913, she married the teacher Alois Grasmayr, who came from an Innviertel peasant family, with whom she moved to Salzburg, where they purchased a villa on the Mönchsberg, the Bristol and Stein hotels, as well as two inns and a mountain farm. The house on the Mönchsberg became a social centre for artists and writers in the interwar years. Magda herself published poems in a Viennese daily paper, Alois his “Little Faust Book”, which was intended to explain the content of Goethe’s Faust I and II to a wider audience in dialect language.

Magda died on August 22, 1944 in Salzburg, Alois followed on March 11, 1955.

“Melancholie” – Bildnis der Magda Grasmayr, geb. Mautner von Markhof by Eduard Veith

Puppenhaus der Magda Mautner von Markhof (1908)

Puppenhaus (Stiegenhaus) der Magda Mautner von Markhof (1908)

Puppenhaus (Speisezimmer) der Magda Mautner von Markhof (1908)

Written by Theodor Heinrich Mautner Markhof

Jedlesee brewery and the Bosch, Dengler and Mautner Markhof families

2. March 2018/in General /by Beate Hemmerlein

The Jedleseer brewery was the first brewery in Floridsdorf, which was later merged with the breweries of the Mautner Markhof family. It was founded in 1787 by Anton Freiherr von Störck, Maria Theresia’s personal physician, after he had bought the estate with the associated manor house in 1778. Since, as a doctor, he probably knew about the health benefits of beer, he built the “Stately Brewhouse Jedlesee” at Prager Straße 84. In 1790 Josef Obergfell Freiherr von Grechtler acquired the property and with it the brewery, followed by further changes of ownership, which are not adequately documented.

In 1815, the brewery was taken over by Anton Bosch, the son of a Bavarian master brewer of Prince Oettingen-Wallerstein. Anton Bosch had come to Jedlesee for a year of apprenticeship, worked there as a servant, returned to Wallerstein to learn the brewing trade and then to be able to marry the daughter of Jakob Wohl, the operator of the Spitzer Inn^* and then owner of the Jedlesee brewery. Bosch began to modernize the existing facilities, built a new brewhouse and a malt house, and the beers that were improved as a result soon enjoyed great popularity. The monthly production could also be increased from 800 to 10,000 buckets (approx. 6,400 hl). In 1823, he rebuilt the house at Prager Straße 84 in the classical style, and when the great flood destroyed the houses in Jedlesee in 1830, he saved hundreds of people’s lives by offering them protection on the upper floor of his house. He also helped the local population in many other ways and was granted in return by the emperor the exemption of customs duties to Vienna. In 1834, he employed 25 workers and in 1837/38 was the largest beer producer in the city with 112,000 buckets. Anton Bosch was also the first provost of Jedlesee from 1851 to 1853. When he died in 1868, his eldest grandson Anton (son of Bosch’s daughter Theresia and Johann Franz Dengler) had already taken over the brewery and modernized the facilities again.

Anton Dengler, married to the Munich brewery daughter Elisabeth Pschorr, led the company very successfully and turned it into a large industrial enterprise. In 1877, he built a storage cellar in Langenzersdorf, which was considered to be one of the largest in Europe.
In 1899, the brewery restaurant Gambrinus, named after the patron saint of beer brewers, opened next to the residential building in Prager Strasse 78 (houses number 80 and 82 were single-storey residential buildings for brewery employees). In 1900, his son Rudolf Dengler took over the brewery. Already in 1902, he had over 200 employees who produced 130,000 hl. In 1906, he bought the Magdalenenhof on Bisamberg and built a villa next to it in 1911, which his mother used as a retirement home.

In 1921 Jedlesee Brewery was converted into a stock corporation, which operated under the name Rudolf Dengler AG. In 1928/29, as a result of the global economic crisis, it finally merged with the United Breweries Schwechat, St. Marx, Simmering. After a share swap, it was shut down in 1930 and its main shareholder, Wolfgang Bosch, was given a seat on the board of the United Breweries in addition to a share package. He was the last descendant of another dynasty of brewers who had been, together with the related Dengler family, active in Jedlesee for more than 100 years.

In 1978 the old house at Prager Straße 84 and the houses number 82 and 80, which were formerly part of the brewery, were demolished; they were last owned by the Lutzky & Co. glass factory. In 1980 the beer storage cellar followed. House number 78 is the last remnant of the Jedleseer brewery.

Das Brauhaus Jedlesee um 1955

^*The first floor of the inn at the Spitz provided a shelter for the neighbours if the Danube overflowed its banks again. From 1887 the inn, which the locals simply called Spitz Inn, also served as local authority of the local area of Floridsdorf and, from 1894 to 1901, of the municipality of Floridsdorf, which – like the imperial capital Vienna – still belonged to Lower Austria. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, there were suddenly bigger plans for Floridsdorf. Should Vienna, as intended, achieve self-governing status, which means directly ruled by the emperor and thus be separated from Lower Austria, then Floridsdorf should become the new capital of Lower Austria (which was requested by the governor of the archduchy downstream from Enns, Erich von Kielmannsegg). Since a future provincial capital naturally also needs a representative town hall, the old inn was razed and today’s district office was built between 1901 and 1903 under Floridsdorf’s mayor Anton Anderer (1857 – 1936). The four-storey Floridsdorf town hall in the baroque-classical style based on the award-winning design by the architects Josef and Anton Drexler originally had a clock tower that was visible from afar, which was destroyed by bombs in the Second World War and was never rebuilt afterwards. Small shops and restaurants in the ground floor zone should remind the inn that once stood there.