Augustin Emil Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (26 January 1815 – 31 August 1881) was an Austrian

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

Early life

Hofmann was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

on 26 January 1815. He was a younger son of Therese ( Schefteles) von Hofmannsthal and

Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal (10 June 1759 in Prostiboř – 12 December 1849 in Vienna) was an Austrian merchant. Life During the famine in Ansbach in the middle of the 18th century, Hofmann's parents had emigrated from Pretzendo ...

. Among his siblings was Elise von Hofmannsthal (whose sister-in-law, Adelheid Herz, married

Carl Mayer von Rothschild Carl Mayer ''Freiherr'' von Rothschild (24 April 1788 – 10 March 1855) was a German-born banker in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the founder of the Rothschild banking family of Naples. Biography Born Kalman Mayer Rothschild in Frankfur ...

). His father was a Jewish tobacco farmer who was made a member of the hereditary nobility, as "

Edler Edler () was until 1919 the lowest rank of nobility in Austria-Hungary and Germany, just beneath a ''Ritter'' (hereditary knight), but above untitled nobles, who used only the nobiliary particle ''von'' before their surname. It was mostly given to ...

von Hofmannsthal," by the

Emperor of Austria The Emperor of Austria (german: Kaiser von Österreich) was the ruler of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A hereditary imperial title and office proclaimed in 1804 by Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, a member of the Ho ...

in 1835.

Career

He was a silk breeder, factory owner, and the head of his father's subsidiary business-house in Milan. He was a recipient of the Civil Cross of Merit of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

Personal life

He converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and, on 5 May 1839, married Petronilla Antonia Cäcilia ( von Rhò) Ordioni (1815–1898) in Milan. The marriage was later found to be invalid due to a legal defect when it was conducted, so they married again Vienna on 8 April 1850. Petronilla, a daughter of Anton Maria von Rhò and widow of Pietro Ordioni (who died in 1835), was from an

aristocratic Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word's ...

Italian family. Together, they were the parents of: * ''Hugo'' August Peter von Hofmannsthal (1841–1915), a director of the Boden-Credit-Anstalt who married Anna Maria Josefa Fohleutner, a daughter of Laurentz Fohleutner (whose family came to Vienna from the

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

via

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

). * Sylvius ''Silvio'' Arvinius Leo von Hofmannsthal (1852–1921), an engineer who married Emerica Albertina "Emma" Burián von Rajecz, a member of an ancient

Hungarian noble The Hungarian nobility consisted of a privileged group of individuals, most of whom owned landed property, in the Kingdom of Hungary. Initially, a diverse body of people were described as noblemen, but from the late 12th century only high- ...

family. * ''Guido'' von Hofmannsthal (1854-1925), an art collector and banker with

Wiener Bankverein The Wiener Bankverein or Bank-Verein (WBV, ) was a major bank in the Habsburg Monarchy and First Austrian Republic, founded in 1869. In 1888 it was the fourth-largest bank of Austria-Hungary by market capitalization, behind the Austro-Hungarian ...

who married Franziska "Fanny" Opatalek-Treis in

Bad Ischl Bad Ischl (Austrian German ) is a spa town in Austria. It lies in the southern part of Upper Austria, at the Traun River in the centre of the Salzkammergut region. The town consists of the Katastralgemeinden ''Ahorn'', ''Bad Ischl'', ''Haiden' ...

in 1885. Hofmannsthal died on 31 August 1881 at Krems in

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

Descendants

Through his son Hugo, he was a grandfather of

Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist. Early life Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, the son of an upper-class ...

(1874–1929), an Austrian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

librettist A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...

, and

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, and great-grandfather of writer

Raimund von Hofmannsthal Raimund von Hofmannsthal (26 May 1906 – 20 March 1974) was an Austrian-born author and representative of an American newsreel firm in London. Early life Hofmannsthal was born 26 May 1906 in Austria. He was the youngest child of Gertrud "Gerty" ...

(1906–1974).

Notes

References

External links

August Hofmann Edler von Hofmannsthal
portrait, 1850 (at the

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Goethe Museum). {{DEFAULTSORT:Hofmannsthal, Augustin Emil Hofmann Von 1815 births 1881 deaths Austrian industrialists Austrian Jews Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Augustin