Schwechat in the days of the NSDAP

The German invasion ushered in a very difficult time – not in business terms, as Schwechat’s sales skyrocketed to over one million hectolitres – but in personal terms.

In the summer of 1935, during the negotiations for the takeover of St. Georg into the Vereinigte Brauereien, Georg III had the general director of Brau AG, Julius Seiler, with whom he had very friendly relations and who was the most recognised authority in the Austrian brewing industry after Schneeberger’s death, give him an expert opinion on the value of the entire St. Georg facility. It was based on the valuation of fixed rates of brewhouse, storage cellar, fermentation cellar, etc. according to their size. After reducing St. Georg’s capital to ninety million schillings / EUR 6,540,555.00 by half, this valuation resulted in an amount of fifty-four million schillings / EUR 3,924,333.00 through a corresponding reduction of the uncollectible debtors. This expert opinion by Seiler on the value of the St. George’s facility subsequently saved Georg III’s life, but in any case saved him from years of imprisonment. In 1939, the NSDAP had initiated a preliminary investigation against him with two charges. The first was that he had bought the majority of Vereinigte Brauereien AG too cheaply and thus damaged the national wealth. His answer was that the banking institutions could at best be criticised for selling too cheaply, but not him for buying too cheaply. Van Hengel, the Dutch CEO of Creditanstalt, had died in an aeroplane accident in the meantime and the various bank directors had been blown to the winds. Georg’s lawyer, Dr Armin von Dittrich, was therefore able to eliminate this first point. The second charge was that the St. Georg brewery had been sold to Schwechat at too high a price and that this in turn had damaged the national wealth. As General Director Seiler was the only expert in the Ostmark on the valuation of brewery facilities, his expert opinion on St. Georg had to be taken into consideration. Dr von Dittrich finally succeeded in having the preliminary investigation discontinued before the actual investigation was opened.

Immediately after the Anschluss, it also emerged that there was a very active closed illegal cell of the NSDAP in Schwechat. It included not only the technical director Schreder, but also the majority of all prominent officials, such as the master brewer, the head of the malting plant, the secretary to the general manager, the heads of the customer protection office, the laboratory, the car, machine and electrical plant, etc. By way of comparison, it should be mentioned that there were only two illegals in Simmering, as it turned out in 1938: the secretary and the general manager’s chauffeur. Schreder, whom Georg III held in particularly high esteem and had even asked him to be his best man in 1937, was a particular shock and an enormous disappointment. As he later proved, although he was very intelligent and capable, his character was unparalleled. At the end of April 1938, the head of the German Labour Front, Dr Robert Ley, held a very special meeting in the car showroom in Schwechat. After his speech, it was announced over the loudspeaker that the now plant manager would respond. By the time Georg III had stood up to do so, Schreder had already come forward to address the meeting. After the meeting, Georg III made a sign and ‘shook him off like an annoying insect’. Some of the NSDAP conspirators were removed from the company in 1938 and some after the war. After the meeting with Schreder, the party demanded Georg III’s immediate resignation, but he did not comply and instead announced that he would dismiss Schreder without notice. This was followed by a highly embarrassing investigation, during which George III was forbidden to enter Schwechat for a week. Although, surprisingly, the party completely agreed with him after the investigation, it could not officially accept such a defeat under any circumstances. However, George III beat them to it with his voluntary declaration of resignation on 31 July 1938. On 1 August, German company law came into force, which provided for a supervisory board and management board rather than a board of directors. Karl Dittl von Wehrberg was then appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board, the Deputy Chairmen were Richard von Schoeller and Manfred I, Gerhard Mautner Markhof became a member, and Gustav I Mautner Markhof remained on the Board of Directors (Quadruplet). Georg III resigned from all representative bodies and retired to Simmering.

In the spring of 1939, Manfred I was arrested by the Gestapo at the Schwechat headquarters at the same time as Georg III in Simmering and taken to the police prison. Both were released after five days, but when Georg III was arrested again a week later, he was able to inform Manfred I before he was taken away so that he could escape in time. Staying in a different hotel night after night, he went into hiding in Germany, only to be arrested on his return to Vienna after being assured that everything was in perfect order. Georg’s imprisonment lasted nine weeks, Manfred’s six. Both were then taken to Gauleiter Bürckel, who agreed to make a pact with both of them. If they refused, they would be sent to a concentration camp. The pact stipulated that Georg III was to refrain from any business activities in Austria, but was permitted to pursue his foreign interests. It was also categorically demanded that the family would have to give up their dominant status in Schwechat and, to document this, would have to sell some of the shares immediately. In return, they should try to swap their influence over the Schwechat brewery for that of any other major brewery in Germany. Of course, both agreed, were released the next day and the day after that Georg III moved to Germany to avoid further arrest. He then sold 3 per cent of Schwechat (at the daily rate) to Leipnik-Lundenburger Zuckerfabriken, Manfred 1 per cent. This sale made no difference to the voting majority of 57 ½ per cent, but formally fulfilled the wishes of the NSDAP. In fact, the NSDAP allowed Georg III to travel to friendly and neutral foreign countries such as Italy, Switzerland and Spain until 1943. He himself could never explain why he was considered so hostile to the state that he was not allowed to work in the Ostmark, but at the same time was allowed to travel freely. An expert on National Socialist tricks later explained this to him: With the NSDAP, everything had to be done ‘legally’. He was therefore allowed to travel abroad in the certain hope that he would not return. In this case, the entire family assets would have been confiscated ‘legally’ in the sense of clan liability. To the despair of the Gestapo, however, he kept coming back. Until 1943 – from this point onwards, he was no longer authorised to leave the country.

 

Source: Lecture ‘Schwechat and the Mautner Markhof family’, held
by DDr. Georg Mautner Markhof on 5 June 1974