Karl Wittgenstein
| Karl Wittgenstein | |
|---|---|
Karl in his younger days
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| Born |
April 8, 1847 Gohlis, Saxony |
| Died | January 20, 1913 (aged 65) Vienna |
| Residence | Wittgenstein Palace (Alleegasse 16, now the Argentinierstrasse, near the Karlskirche) |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Occupation | Business Tycoon |
| Era |
Mid-Late 19th Century Early 20th Century |
| Known for | Wealth |
| Spouse(s) | Leopoldine Maria Josefa Kalmus (m. 1873) |
| Children | Hermine Wittgenstein (1874-1950) Dora Wittgenstein (1876, Stillborn) Johannes Wittgenstein (1877-1902) Konrad Wittgenstein (1878-1918) Helene Wittgenstein (1879-1956) Rudolf Wittgenstein (1871-1904) Margaret Wittgenstein (1882-1957) Paul Wittgenstein (1887-1961) Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) |
| Parents |
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Karl Wittgenstein (April 8, 1847, Gohlis, Saxony – January 20, 1913, Vienna) was a German-born Austrian steel tycoon of Jewish origin. A friend of Andrew Carnegie, with whom he was often compared, at the end of the 19th century he controlled an effective monopoly on steel and iron resources within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and had by the 1890s acquired one of the largest fortunes in the world. He was also the father of Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century.
The grandfather of Karl Wittgenstein was an estate manager named Moses Meyer, who came from Laasphe in the former kreis (county). He moved to Korbach before 1802, where he was a merchant. Around 1808, Moses Meyer named himself Wittgenstein, after his birthplace Siegen-Wittgenstein and thereafter was known as Moses Meyer Wittgenstein.
At first, Wittgenstein's business became the biggest and most successful enterprise in the city of Korbach, but also shortly thereafter began to decline. He had a son, Hermann Christian (b. September 12, 1802 in Korbach; d. 1878 in Vienna) who moved the business to Gohlis at the end of the 1830s. From there, the family continued to prosper financially. In 1938, to escape Nazi racial laws and to be reclassified as half Jewish, his descendants claimed that Herman Christian was not the son of Moses Meyer Wittgenstein but rather the illegitimate offspring of a prince of the House of Waldeck.
After Hermann Christian converted to Protestantism, he married Fanny Figdor in 1839. She came from one of the most important business families in Vienna.
Karl, born in 1847, was the sixth of eleven children of Hermann and Fanny. Three years later the family moved to Vösendorf (Mödling district) in Austria, where his four younger siblings were born. One of his brothers, Paul Wittgenstein (1842-1928), was the father of Dr Karl Paul Wittgenstein who married Hilde Köchert, daughter of renowned Viennese jeweller Heinrich Köchert: their son Paul Wittgenstein (1907-1979) was "Wittgenstein's Nephew", the central character of a book by his friend Thomas Bernhard.
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